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Because I'm rubbish at all that stuff. I'm rubbish at the ideas, and, more importantly, I'm rubbish at the execution.
Because is it just me or does it always take significantly longer to get the stuff out and put it away than the time they're actually entertained doing it? And does it not always end up with you turning your back to help one with a particularly intricate bit of gluing, and turn back to find the other two fighting over the scissors, or the blue paint or the sequins, or putting hand prints on the newly-painted walls.
I could claim it's more difficult because I'm trying to entertain three. Or that they're still very little. Or that they've got different abilities. Or that I don't have the right tissue paper, or glitter, or glue.
Because I try. I really do. We made these hats (now gathering dust on the table) on Monday. But it's never quite what I want it to be. I have visions of happy hours spent, chatting merrily, little heads bent in concentration over some masterpiece, while the clock ticks on unnoticed and we look up astonished that an entire afternoon has passed.
And somehow, it never quite works out like that. Maybe it's me.
It's me too - I have the same vision but there's always a lot of stress involved.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally rubbish at craft stuff too. I love that they do it at school, feel that it exempts me a bit from doing it at home. After all if they've been glueing and sticking all day, surely they need a bit of a break (and a chance to climb a tree and build a den instead?)
ReplyDeletethere's a few of us non-crafters around. I'd love to be a crafter but totally know my limits!
No, I think you're just normal. My 2 are only normally occupied by something for 30 minutes at most, and often a lot less, and yes, sometimes the results are 'a bit rubbish' - but as they always say, it's the process rather than the finished result that counts, and they're so pleased with their own results.
ReplyDeleteCrafting with kids is unavoidably messy, and often it can be more an exercise in damage limitation. It must be especially difficult with 3 to keep control of! At the end of the day though, if I wasn't driven to do it myself, I probably wouldn't do it so much!
Oh what a relief--someone else like me! I love looking at craft blogs and Pinterest and all the lovely ideas but I am simly rubbish at crafting with my kids. I think they still love me though ;)
ReplyDeleteI had such low expectations that I was always amazed that I could produce anything at all my pre-schooler. So I have to confess I enjoyed it. Still do, with my rather artsy-crafty 7 year old.
ReplyDeleteI'd always thought of myself as "not creative, hopeless at art, not good with my hands", so to find that I enjoyed getting my hands all messy with finger paints, or dolloping glue everywhere, or winding pipe-cleaners into odd shapes, or whatever it was, that was all quite liberating.
But I didn't have the dizzy heights that you do from which to fall (I've seen the picture of that personalized baby towel that you made).
I think we could have written the exact same post :-)
ReplyDeleteMe & The Girls.
I think maybe Iota's hit the nail on the head (as usual)... My expectations are too high. If I do something I want to do it well, or (generally) I won't do it at all (which is why I won't play backgammon against B, or tennis at all, or paint...) and the difficulty with the children is that they don't care and I do.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I need to be a bit more like them and a bit less like me. Or maybe it will, like so much else, get easier (I hope!).
Glad I'm not the only one though!
And I do cook with them, so that's one thing...
And in good news I now have a washing line pinned to the kitchen wall with some small pegs on which to pin all the masterpieces. So the recycling trips can be scheduled for after bed time and three months later when I'm less likely to be caught....
ReplyDelete