My son drew all over his body in black permanent ink! At the time of the incident I was super busy. There were two hurricanes in the central Pacific and I had my “meteorology hat” on trying to get updates out as quickly as possible so people were informed about the tropical systems headed our way. Needless to say, I wasn’t the most attentive mom during those few days.

I was writing an update in the living room and Jackson climbed into his timeout spot (the pack n’ play)… it’s right there in the living room – literally 10 feet away from me – so I thought “Awesome, hang out in there for a little bit! Great idea.”

I should have known better.

I looked over and he was climbing up from the pack n’ play to the top of the entertainment center – nothing out of the ordinary, my son is a monkey and climbs EVERYTHING. I said “Jackson, get down please.” And he did. Awesome. What a great kid. He totally listens to mommy.

What I didn’t see was that he had grabbed a black permanent marker out of a little bin – where we put our remote controls, knick-knacks and some pens. I went back to typing and after 30 seconds thought “He is WAY too quiet. I should go see…” Uh, huh… you guessed it – black permanent marker on the mattress of the pack n’ play and all over his legs and arms! That’s exactly what I needed right now! *hint of sarcasm*

I instantly googled it for a home remedy. Out of all the solutions, the only thing I had at home and that I was willing to use on him was SUNSCREEN. Hey, it’s worth a try. Otherwise, my husband might be just a *little* upset at the sight of our son. lol

I slathered it on and rubbed – something about the ingredients in sunscreen work to dissolve the permanent marker! You just rub in a circular motion then rinse with soap and water to remove the diluted ink from your skin. Wish I had known about this in my high school / college days! I could have helped out a friend or two! #lifesswell

NOTE: There are actually a bunch of different ways to remove permanent marker from the skin. You can Google it, or here is some advice from friends of “Life’s Swell” …

Brenda Char says “A Mr. Clean Magic Eraser works too! We had a bunch of teenage girls here, one fell asleep and the others decided to write & draw on her. It came off! A night to remember…”

Tesse Nases says “rubbing alcohol works too:)”

Candi Henderson says “I used mineral oil and baby oil before.”

Kai Coloma says “Hand sanitizer!”