Crawford writes that she and her husband were unsure what punishment approach to take when her toddler Daphne took a crayon and drew on the walls of their hallway. "Time-out? Stern warning?" she wrote. "Daph was just shy of three years old, so taking away privileges or toys wouldn't really register much with her. When I asked [her friend] Lucie what they might do in France with this type of toddler misdemeanor, she didn't hesitate: 'You go to the kitchen and get a sponge with soap and water. Sit her on a stool and have her scrub.' I was incredulous. Scrub it all off? My husband had tried and couldn't erase so much as a single scrawl. Then Lucie assured me that I only needed to make Daphne wash the wall for a minute so that she had a chance to understand the consequences of her action – and to see how ... hard it is to get crayon off a wall. It seemed so obvious. Yet somehow, in the hyperattentive, must-do-the-right-thing parenting environment in which I'd been marinating, nothing was obvious anymore."
