Photo by Olivia James at flickr.com
I have a house full of children who are all apparently in the “creative” phase of life. They love to generate stuff, and lots of it. If it involves markers, crayons, paintbrushes, beads, fabric or wood, my children (minus my way-too-busy-for-crafts three-year-old) are all over it like the mustard to the ham. Oh, and glue too. Let’s not forget the glue.
I’m not gonna lie. I won’t be winning any mother-of-the-year awards any time soon. I don’t love craft projects so much. When my oldest daughter screeched the words, “Mommy! I found the craft box in the garage!” the other day, I felt the acid churning in my stomach. I thought I had stacked an adequate number of empty boxes on top of it when we moved 10 months ago. Guess not. Drat.
Our beloved, dreaded craft box contains all of the above mentioned items and then some, plus a bonus: GLITTER. (I was going to use an exclamation point there, but that would indicate some excitement or enthusiasm on my part.) I don’t like glitter. To quote a flair button on a friend’s Facebook page, “Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies.” I don’t feel the need to elaborate on that. It stands on its own.
In a world where I have approximately four to five hours every night at home to cook, do laundry, pick up toys, clean up messes, post to my blog (uh huh, that’s a have-to), exercise, do dishes, give baths, help with homework, run errands, cuddle my kids, change diapers, and perform countless other not-so-trivial tasks, the sight of glitter tubes and paint containers emerging from the craft box is enough to send me straight to my room with an Ambien-laced cup of chamomile.
But…
I reeeeeally want that mother-of-the-year award. This is my year. I can feel it.
So I fake the glitter love, for their sakes. I watch them work their sparkly magic, my countertops and floors acting as the unwilling canvas for their masterpieces. Some of it even ends up on the hundreds of sheets of plain white paper that they swipe from my printer.
Ever tried to extract glitter from linoleum? Or a five-year-old’s scalp? Don’t bother. I fake the glitter love, for their sakes.
Question: What is your “glitter love”?
Challenge: To find a way to work in some “glitter love” this summer.
“I fake the glitter love, for their sakes” I relate so much to this. There is a lot I “fake” as a mother. It’s how I learn to put others first before myself. I have to remember that everything is not all about me. When I’ve put my kids to bed and go downstairs to finish cleaning everything up and one comes down for who knows what (usually, “I’m scared”), many-a-times I have sighed and rolled my eyes and made a frustrated reply telling them to get back up to bed “OR ELSE!” I’ve decided that I need to “fake the glitter love, for their sakes,” lovingly walk them back to bed and have set boundaries…I may not feel lovey while doing this, but they need to sense love and guidance from me, not frustration and harshness.
GLITTER GLUE! It adds the sparkle w/o the mess…get some STAT!! 🙂 I too am not a fan of the crafts. My 6 yr old LOVES it and yesterday I looked at my kitchen table (AND floor) covered with craft sticks, pom poms, GLUE, friendship bracelet thread, playdoh and about lost it. But then I realized it had allowed me to do laundry, BLOG and cook dinner. Probably worth it for the day!
This is really cute, Jacey. Dying Easter eggs is something I dread so I’m more apt to let my children decorate their eggs with markers, crayons, and stickers instead. They know they are missing out, however, on the fun of dipping their eggs into cups of dye. Good for you for saying, “yes” to something that was hard for you and still getting in on the fun. I think I just might need to go dye some “summer eggs” (but maybe we will go outside).