Recently in an online mommy group I am a part of, a
discussion about Pinterest came up. The original post was innocent enough, and
probably something lots of people have felt or thought- Does browsing Pinterest ever make you feel ~guilty~ for not being THAT
mom?
I mean, do those moms really exist? The ones who make
puppets out of toilet paper rolls and craft with their kids every day right
after feeding them a wholesome lunch cut into the shape of their favorite
animal?
The discussion evolved in (to me) an unexpected way, though.
It seemed that, in fear of being judged or looked down on by the “Pintemoms,”
some of the people commenting were doing the same thing to them. One comment, which
really stung me personally, referred to overachieving mothers screaming at
their children to make the “appropriate” faces and poses for the pictures of
their finished crafts before insisting that this is why “Pintemoms” should be
avoided.
Uhm, ouch.
Couple of things.
My parenting is not a commentary on yours.
If I want to make every damn peanut butter
and jelly sandwich my kid eats into a snowman or a dinosaur or a middle finger,
for that matter, it has less than zero to do with you. Or what I think of your
parenting.
Crafting does not a perfect parent make.
This is what I wore today.
I consider myself very, very, lucky when a
day pops up where I can convince my 3 year old to wear clothes. Seriously. But,
really, doing something creative and fun with my kid is important ~to me.~ Sure,
not every day. But Pinterest is full of ideas, and I think it is silly to write
off every single one of them because you assume that the ideas are only
suitable for *those* moms. YOU are that mom- if you want to be!
Crafting Can Be Easy
Crafting should be fun. Find something that
is easy so you don’t get stressed out over it, and try to approach it the way
your child would. It isn’t about being perfect or being able to pin something
that everyone will ooh and ahh over. Sometimes it is just about the 10 seconds
of joy and pride on your kid’s face when they stick their creation on the
fridge.
And with that, here is a craft Sarah Jane and I did
recently while my husband was at work. She told me that her Daddy was her “Valentime” and she wanted to make
him a card with her art kit. So we did. And this one is super easy. Check it
out.
First up, you'll need some white computer paper and a white crayon. Sarah Jane can't write her letters yet, so I did the first step by using the white crayon to write, "DAD" on the computer paper. Easy enough!
Then I put Sarah Jane in her little brother's high chair so she wouldn't make too much of a mess with her watercolor paints. I let her go to town and she had so much fun! She was very fascinated by the white letters showing through and we had a fun moment when I explained that the crayons were made of wax so the letters wouldn't absorb the water-based paint. It might have been a little over her head, but it was a sweet moment anyway.
While Sarah Jane worked on painting, I entertained the baby the way all perfect mothers do- with a metal pot and a wooden spoon, of course.
When Sarah Jane was satisfied with her work, we set it aside to dry and pulled out some safety scissors and construction paper. We cut the white paper in a heart and glued it to the red construction paper.
I happened to have a bag of scrabble letters laying around because, being such an imperfect parent, so many had gone missing that they game couldn't be played anymore. I thought this would be a cute addition to the card, and it was another sweet teaching moment to go over letters and their sounds with SJ.
The finished product went on the fridge for Daddy to see when he came home. He loved it, and Sarah Jane was quite proud of herself. And that, I think, is the good stuff. =)
