fingerpaint is evil..or at least mildly annoying

"When I was a kid, a book I read advised young artist to be themselves. That decided it for me. I was a corny kind of guy, so I went in for corn." ~ Walt Disney

I pulled out the fingerpaint tonight. I could not understand why it was so hard to find, hidden deep in the darkest recesses of a closet. I guess the last time I put it there I should have attached a note to it to remind myself why I had hidden it so well...or maybe just my face with X's for eyes...surely that would have reminded me of what I was about to get myself into...

The most important thing that I had forgotten about fingerpaint is the fact that boy loves to play with it, but hates the feel of it...and the two forces pushing against eachother (the love/hate relationship of it) lead to meltdowns of astronomical proportions...

Thus began my night.

So, the kids start to play with the fingerpaint. Here is how it went...

Girls:
1) hands in paint, oh neat
2) swirl swirl swirl
3) mix some colors, oh neat
4) swirl swirl swirl

Boy:
1) hand in paint, ick blah ick wash hands
2) hand in paint and try to quickly swirl, ick blah ick wash hands
3) hand in paint, great now the colors are mixed together, ick blah ick wash hands
4) hand in paint, now Ive made the color of poop, ick blah ick wash hands and chant "poop" over and over again with a little squawking on the side.

It went over and over again until he was too frustrated and started to meltdown. Into the shower he went, but not before he smeared his last remaining bit of messy fingerpaint hands down the hallway, through the bathroom.

The mess doesn't bother me because it cleans up easily. But here's the question...should I have "forced" him to continue while hoping the eventually he would get used to the feel of the fingerpaint and wouldn't need to wash his hands and could then go on with the "loving it" part that he was trying to do? Or does the fact that a horrible meltdown was approaching mean that it is right to stop?

Things that make you go, hmmmm......