Sticks

I started looking at things on Pinterest. Ugh. What a time suck and also what a marvelous way to make yourself feel like a lousy parent. So many cute little things on there that good mommies do for their children. Snacks that look like the Eric Carle caterpillar, interesting animals figures made from paper tubes, toddler comfy pants made from an old t-shirt, and of course lovely decorated kids' rooms that are cleaned and photographed daily.

My kids seem to be missing out on an entire world of homemade crafts and snacks resembling cute woodland creatures.I am sure this will drop their SAT scores by ten or twenty points. It makes me wonder how these parents have time to do anything else. Do their kids actually do these crafts or is this something the parent is doing while the kid stands there and watches? How do you get a toddler to sit still long enough to make a melted crayon shaving parchment paper butterfly suncatcher?

I have tried some of these little crafty things with my kids and they are always uninterested. They like to paint, color, and use play-dough, but they do not like to be informed what the end product should be. My kids lack an interest in these types of creative pursuits and I usually end up doing the craft for them. If I am the one doing it than I might as well do a craft that I enjoy rather than a snowman made from popsicle sticks.

Today I gave my kids a box full of sticks from the forest. I also handed them some yarn, a pair of scissors, and some masking tape. They were busy for nearly two hours and it involved practically no planning or participation on my part. Now that is what I call crafty. Maybe I can sell their creations on Etsy?