I take issue with the author's seeming disgust at her son's preschool art projects both in their description and value as momentos. Firstly, my child attends the same preschool and is, in fact, in the same age group as our dear author's son. No such projects, sombrero or otherwise have been done. The author's examples are a work of pure fiction. Neither is the author "in charge" of any crafts in the classroom. Gratefully, this aspect is developed, prepared and managed by the teacher. If our author were in charge, she would no doubt parade a litany of cliched, insensitive stereotypes into the classroom. Preschool projects are developed for the children to exercise gross and fine motor skills, teamwork, patterning, color experimentation, letter and word building, exposure to new and different mediums and textures. You'll notice that conspicuously absent from this list is the ability for Mommy Dearest to store items prettily. Here's a clue, your child's education is NOT all about you and your desire to catagorize things into neat little boxes. Further, many of the oversize projects are made by recycling materials or nature objects (i.e. driftwood sculptures) and teach teamwork and cooperative learning. Thereby quashing the author's argument for diminutive, "green" projects. If the author is unwilling to make such allowances for her young child's artwork, maybe a cat would have been a better idea.
Perhaps the author should re-enroll in school since the pure fabrications, stereotypes and narcisscism preset in this piece seem to reveal that her own "perfectly scaled-in-size" education has been a failure.
Wow, you should really get a sense of humor!! This is a humorous column, you shouldn't read it if you're going to take it so seriously!! If a stand up comedienne gave the same monologue, the entire audience would be hysterical! We can all relate to the oversize art projects our children bring home & where and how are we going to store them! Just to be clear, I save and LOVE them all!! I laughed out loud when I read this weeks column! In a world filled with negative headlines, it's fun to find a little humor in our everyday!!
I'm 62 years old and long ago discovered that my kids once-loved art projects are now still once-loved art projects that belong in the trash can. When my kids were little we didn't have cell phones, no one texted, we didn't worry about exercising "gross and fine motor skills, teamwork, patterning, color experimentation, etc." We pulled out the glue, paper, scissors, crayons and let the kids do what they do best - create. My friends and I read Erma Bombeck in the newspaper and laughed at her stories of her frustration with her washer repair man and no one from Sears & Roebuck wrote the paper or tried to sue Erma for slander. All of us laughed at the daily pleasures and annoyances of life that come with being a Mother and housewife. None of the mothers would have written an anonymous unkind letter to the newspaper about another mother (that's the problem with this technology). There are way too many things that deserve serious attention on the front page of the newspaper - rather than an article that clearly states in the first line that it is a humorous column.
Congratulations, Jellybean12 - you have a child. Everyone should now pay attention to you, and how you act as a parent. Or should I say, watch you play parent. Because anyone who anonymously attacks someone they clearly know, with such vitriol is neither compassionate, or pragmatic. In fact, it's indicative of a shrill and hateful power tripping suburbanite mother with too much time on her hands and not enough fulfillment in her life. Let's be quite clear - this story is not about you and your wonderful little demon spawn. If it were, you would be the author, or might have a fraction of the original author's talent to apply here - but sadly, that is simply not the case. The manner in which you inject personal attacks, sideways sarcasm and just plain meanness is unbecoming of an adult, let alone a parent that is supposed to be a role model for other children. But then again, based upon your writing, you don't care about the other kids - it's all about you, your overinflated ego, and your precious darling who is completely oblivious to it all. Any parent of a child over 4 years old knows how quickly clutter accumulates. You want to keep all the paintings, the drawings, the clippings, the Jackson Pollack looking splatters of pre-school flotsam and jetsam - but there simply is no room to keep it all. The fridge is already decorated. It all gets thrown in a box somewhere and forgotten. So why keep these fractional memories outside of a photograph album? It IS wasteful. Do you truly think that even the Goodwill is interested in reselling your darling child's size 3 matching lederhosen and plastic beer stein that you just had to have for Austrian Awareness Day? They're pre-schoolers! Anything and everything they own or make will either be outgrown or simply thrown out in a matter of months. Face it, Jellybean - the toddlers aren't the ones making the outfits, the costumes, the accessories or any of the other minutia that goes into making mommy's little angel into the perfect photo opportunity. It's grown adults playing dolly dress-up tea party with their children - and it's vain. If you truly believe that your pre-schooler cares, will care in the future, or will even remember these "precious moments", you're delusional, or just thinking about yourself. There will be no green with envy looks at your works. There will be no praise heaped upon your child or by extension, you for the fantastic little outfit that they put together all by themselves (wink wink). There will be you, a daydream never realized, and that stupid over sized sombrero sitting in your car, just taking up space. Thanks for taking a perfectly innocent piece about something we as parents all understand, and turning into a clinic about self righteousness and over analyzing by someone who craves attention that they're probably not getting at home, or never got as a child. We're all looking forward to not seeing you at any of the parent activities.
Jellybean12: I encourage you to save all your child/children’s art projects. The Sombrero is only the beginning. By the end of elementary school you will have accumulated: -several more “hat” shaped projects that only get bigger in size -a Paper Mache globe the size of a basketball ( and its delicate so find somewhere to hang it where it won’t get broken or burned up by the chandeliers) -a life-size cutout of your child that will require wall space. It’s made out of a giant piece of paper so tell your kid to try to not rip it on the way home from school. -at least 3 or 4 dioramas- so save your shoe boxes. You may actually have to get rid of some shoes to make room for these. Some will have saran wrap around them so you can’t stack them because saran wrap isn’t that sturdy. -there will be all different kinds of masks made out of giant paper plates. Some will contain Paper Mache- so again, delicate, and you’ll need more wall space. -mobiles with yarn and paper figures flowing in all directions. Don’t place this outside or the wind will tangle it all up and you might have to throw it away after that. -when the kids learn about the Pilgrims and Indians, there will be some “outfits” depicting the characters. The children will make them out of paper so be sure to remind your kids to be really careful while wearing their designs and try not to rip anything. Your probably going to have to frame these because they’re definitely going to get destroyed once they're home because, after all, they are just pieces of paper. -elementary school science classes love art projects. You'll be seeing a lot of Styrofoam balls attached to coat hangers, plastic 2-liter bottles that have some nasty concoction inside, and lots of things with dirt. I don’t have any display suggestions for you here. But I do suggest between now and then, that you get a grip (and a sense of humor) or your house is going to look like a circus… if it doesn’t already.
I was surprised to read Jellybean13’s comment. I’m not sure how or why such a light-hearted poke of fun at a mother’s common-place conundrum drew such an over-reaction and personal attack. This is obviously a humorous column; if you lack a sense of humor, it might be best to refrain from reading it. While I find Ms. Russell's column funny, I find Ms. Jellybean's response to it laughable.
My kids are sick....not really sure if I should give them Benadryl but I need some quiet time to respond. And I'm joking, so good Lord, jellybean, seriously relax. What a gross overreaction to what is supposed to be a funny article! The first sentence states it's supposed to be humorous. If you didn't find it funny you're certainly entitled to your opinion but what gives you the right to be rude? The anonymity of the internet is sickening. As a parent of 3 girls I can certainly relate to the mess in the car and the neverending school projects, and I complain about it (easy now...goodnaturedly) with my friends. Should I go back to school too? But I guess not all of us can be as perfect as you and have a giant house large enough to accommodate all the dioramas, science fair projects and yes, hula-hoop sized sombreros. I just don't have that many "neat little boxes". Get a sense of humor and save your anger and comments for an issue that's actually worth getting upset about, like poverty, child abuse or any news article with the word "Obama" in it.
Perhaps the author should re-enroll in school since the pure fabrications, stereotypes and narcisscism preset in this piece seem to reveal that her own "perfectly scaled-in-size" education has been a failure.
OUCH! In response
butterflygirl writes:
LadyMarmalade writes:
When my kids were little we didn't have cell phones, no one texted, we didn't worry about exercising "gross and fine motor skills, teamwork, patterning, color experimentation, etc." We pulled out the glue, paper, scissors, crayons and let the kids do what they do best - create. My friends and I read Erma Bombeck in the newspaper and laughed at her stories of her frustration with her washer repair man and no one from Sears & Roebuck wrote the paper or tried to sue Erma for slander. All of us laughed at the daily pleasures and annoyances of life that come with being a Mother and housewife. None of the mothers would have written an anonymous unkind letter to the newspaper about another mother (that's the problem with this technology).
There are way too many things that deserve serious attention on the front page of the newspaper - rather than an article that clearly states in the first line that it is a humorous column.
WhiteDevil writes:
Let's be quite clear - this story is not about you and your wonderful little demon spawn. If it were, you would be the author, or might have a fraction of the original author's talent to apply here - but sadly, that is simply not the case. The manner in which you inject personal attacks, sideways sarcasm and just plain meanness is unbecoming of an adult, let alone a parent that is supposed to be a role model for other children. But then again, based upon your writing, you don't care about the other kids - it's all about you, your overinflated ego, and your precious darling who is completely oblivious to it all.
Any parent of a child over 4 years old knows how quickly clutter accumulates. You want to keep all the paintings, the drawings, the clippings, the Jackson Pollack looking splatters of pre-school flotsam and jetsam - but there simply is no room to keep it all. The fridge is already decorated. It all gets thrown in a box somewhere and forgotten. So why keep these fractional memories outside of a photograph album? It IS wasteful. Do you truly think that even the Goodwill is interested in reselling your darling child's size 3 matching lederhosen and plastic beer stein that you just had to have for Austrian Awareness Day? They're pre-schoolers! Anything and everything they own or make will either be outgrown or simply thrown out in a matter of months.
Face it, Jellybean - the toddlers aren't the ones making the outfits, the costumes, the accessories or any of the other minutia that goes into making mommy's little angel into the perfect photo opportunity. It's grown adults playing dolly dress-up tea party with their children - and it's vain. If you truly believe that your pre-schooler cares, will care in the future, or will even remember these "precious moments", you're delusional, or just thinking about yourself. There will be no green with envy looks at your works. There will be no praise heaped upon your child or by extension, you for the fantastic little outfit that they put together all by themselves (wink wink).
There will be you, a daydream never realized, and that stupid over sized sombrero sitting in your car, just taking up space.
Thanks for taking a perfectly innocent piece about something we as parents all understand, and turning into a clinic about self righteousness and over analyzing by someone who craves attention that they're probably not getting at home, or never got as a child. We're all looking forward to not seeing you at any of the parent activities.
MAP223 writes:
goldfinger writes:
PressleyJ writes: