ABC’s of Parenting – F – Fingerprints

Today’s word: Fingerprints.

I know I’m not the only one who cringes when I look at the fingerprints that cover the walls of my home. Where we live, we actually have annual house inspections to evaluate how we’re maintaining our homes – and these prints are the bane of my pre-inspections cleaning craze. I spend hours scrubbing them off the walls as I prep.

Here’s the truth though. One day, I’ll miss these little hands. Before I know it, the fingerprints won’t cover my walls. I’ll be eagerly waiting my adult children to visit. My walls will be clean but my children will be gone.

I remember a poem that my Kindergarten teacher used with an art project. We put our hands into paint and pressed one of each onto a big piece of paper. In the middle was this poem:

Sometimes you get discouraged,
because I am so small
And leave my little fingerprints
On furniture and walls.
But everyday I’m growing
And soon will be so tall
That all these little fingerprints
Will be difficult to recall.
So here’s a little handprint
That you can put away
So you will know how my fingers looked
On this special day.

Today, while looking around your house – take a moment to appreciate your walls. They might have fingerprints. But they also mean you have a house full of love.

Do you have fingerprints on your walls? Have you ever stopped to think about how they will be gone one day and that maybe you’d miss them?

Comments (6)

  • Lisa Marie, this is going to sound super crazy, but I LOVE having fingerprints on my walls and windows. I know this must annoy my Mom because she’s a super neat freak. Part of me wants to leave my windows with the little imprints of Little One’s hands for that very reason you mentioned. She won’t be little forever. I know that sounds like a lame reason to not want to wash my windows (in fact, my husband just cleaned the windows because he got annoyed). I just want to keep her little for a while longer. LOL! There, I said it.

  • Sounds like a very valid reason to me! 😀 (Maybe you should make a frameable set of prints instead of keeping the ones on the windows! hehe) 😀

  • Hahaha! Good idea! 😉 That would work too!

  • I do have fingerprints on my walls, but I rarely wash them off!

  • Growing up, we weren’t allowed to touch the walls for fear of the dreaded fingerprint! LOL My kids will definitely never hear “don’t touch the wall” from me! But then again, I do love the idea of framing a hand print with that poem – it’s so sweet!

    Janine
  • I loved doing my children’s hand prints a few times a year so I could see how much they have grown. I have kept them all. 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Start typing and press Enter to search

Shopping Cart