What the parenting books don't tell you

I've read a few parenting books. We've adopted some ideas, and modified others to fit our needs. Overall, we are lucky to have fairly good kids. So, on most days the rules of be respectful, be responsible, tell the truth, be kind to your brother work. That is not to say we don't have days we have to make impromptu rules: the crackers aren't dancers, no toys in your ears, no toys in the bathroom, only "this much" toilet paper, don't sit on your brother. In the long run, these impromptu rules have caused little harm for their last minute imposing. Today, all that changed.
Jared went upstairs to get his snow pants. I suppose we should have noticed how quiet he was, or how long it was taking. We did not. When he came downstairs he didn't want the snow pants to cover his pockets. Why? What is in his pockets? A marker. What did yo do with the marker? That's right, he drew on the walls, the door, the toilet, and the furniture in Colton's room. We were in shock. So, what do you do?
First reaction is to go crazy, but that proves to be a waste of energy. So, we did phase 1 punishment. Go play, mommy and daddy are going to talk about your punishment. For 20 minutes Mark scrubbed, and Jared fretted. He asked 4 times, "what is my mushment?" The thing is, parenting books can't possibly prepare you for every scenario. There was marker on the toilet! The anticipation, continued to agonize Jared and allowed us the time to think of an appropriate consequence instead of some knee jerk reaction that wouldn't have made a difference.
In the end, since he didn't use the paper he had, he lost his Santa paper (many tears), all writing tools are gone for a week, and we didn't go to the park (not that we were going to, but he didn't know that).
You read what you can from the "experts," but before long you become the expert on your child. You learn what works and what doesn't and you realize the marker on the crib will be a childhood memory. Make it a learning opportunity, so it doesn't happen again, but understand thoughtful punishment is better than instant punishment.