Parents Surprise Students With An Uplifting DIY Bathroom Makeover

Sometimes all you need to brighten up your day is a little positivity. Parents of students at Mary Moore Elementary in Arlington, Texas decided to harness the power of positivity and gave the bathrooms at their children’s school a fresh coat of paint with inspiring messages and artwork.

In both the girls’ and boys’ bathrooms, students will now be greeted with motivational messages — like “Choose joy” and “Every day is a chance to be better” — on the walls and doors.

What a cool and simple way to make sure kids’ days are a little bit brighter! Check out the parents’ handiwork, which was posted to Facebook on Feb. 19:

“A group of 5th grade moms started this idea a few weeks ago, as a way to encourage more positivity around the campus,” school administrators told Scary Mommy. “These parents worked for 37 hours over the weekend! They sanded down the original surface, and painted everything black, to create a ‘canvas’ for the drawings.”

After Mary Moore Elementary posted photos on its Facebook page, the DIY bathroom makeover went viral. The post has been liked over 40,000 times and shared over 145,000 times:

School principal Tyson Jones explained to Babble that the projects fits within the school’s theme of happiness, which is encouraged by the book “The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles Of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success And Performance At Work” by Shawn Achor, a happiness researcher.

“We have a wonderful campus with a family feel, and our teachers work very hard for our students,” Jones continued. “With the stresses of state testing and the high workload, I wanted to incorporate ‘happiness’ as our theme, so we could take time to find joy in all that we do.”

The project was truly a community effort, as local businesses including Sherwin-Williams, Home Depot, Great Oak Dental and JC Nails donated all the necessary supplies along with financial donations from parents.

These children are lucky to have parents and administrators who are so dedicated. Here’s hoping other schools take on similar projects to help spread the power of positivity!