Ok. So I have something that I need to get off of my chest.
I hate crafting with my children.
It starts with such promise-- usually a beautifully photographed tutorial on pinterest, extolling the virtues of stimulating creativity with your children. Each time, I approach the project like an optimistic goldfish, if any previous negative memories remain, I brush them away with the simple "this time will be different".
It never is.
On average, it takes 25 minutes to set up, 35 minutes to clean up and about 2.3 minutes for my children to 'do' the activity, managing in that short time to fling the materials as far and wide as possible. There is usually swearing (me), often tears (me again) and sometimes tantrums (yep, me).
Of course, that is if they even do it. If paint is involved, Georgia just paints herself. If there are scissors involved, Ellis cuts his clothes/hair/(insert other inappropriate object here). Theo eats everything (as we sadly learned this morning...no story to follow) and the cats always have a way of getting involved in some complicated way that ends with glitter being traipsed throughout the house.
What makes the whole situation worse is that people just assume that I spend my days happily creating with my children. As local folks find out about my blog and know that Kevin works in the arts as well, I get more and more comments about how creative we are as a family and how much art we must do. It is like our deep dark secret, because the truth is, if I am bad at doing crafts with the kids, Kevin is worse. The most laid back man most of the time, art projects with our children turn him into the craft police. If a project even looks like it is going to change from the original intentions, Kev loses it, doing that thing he does with his hair when stressed.
What a fraud, right? All of that Christmas crafting was a blip in a long history of me freaking out about the mess. I love it when the kids just draw...anything beyond that sends me quivering in a corner. But then, one or two turns 'round the tank and I forget how much I despise it and out comes the paint and glitter once again.
And while I am off-loading. My children also hate wearing hats. Each and every one of them has done since birth.
Whew. I feel lighter already.