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¯\_(ツ)_/¯ By the hilarious Grace Farris.
P.S. 11 ways to display family photos at home, and a funny bedtime ritual.
So Many Art Projects
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After amassing multiple plastic storage containers of art projects by me and my siblings, my parents started taking photos of us with our artwork and throwing the art away once the photo was snapped. There is an album full of us at various ages standing, mug shot style, holding up a piece of art. Makes me laugh every time I flip through it.
As the teacher I’m always thinking “please dear god take this home, my office is FULL”
This is perfect… funny because it’s true.
I love my twin kindergarteners’ art but I really dread the babyfood jars and plastic yogurt cups filled with blobs of glitter slime, mud “planted” with avocado pits, play doh, colored sand, and other things that I am going to find embedded in the carpets and couch cushions. I’m already exhausted and can never keep up with the mess—please, pre-K and K teachers, have mercy on us parents.
I can tell you from my own experience as the daughter of a mom who kept lots of artwork, school work, baby clothes etc, that you shouldn’t keep it thinking your kid will someday want it. I recently moved across the street from my mom and she thought this was her chance to unload all this stuff on me! I played along, and then snuck a few boxes under her guest bed when she was out of town. Get rid of most of it before it’s almost 40 years old and even harder to get rid of!
Ok I am laughing loudly
I am hallmark impaired and have savoring artwork guilt
This was a huge relief
I have three children with lots of artwork. We display them on one wall and at the end of the year I throw everything away. The only things I save are Christmas ornaments they hand made. I love those things.
Something to keep in mind as kids get older…
I’m an art teacher and I have many children who always give their artwork to me when they’ve finished a project. I ask if they’re sure they don’t want to take it home and most of them hesitate for a second and say “My mom will just throw it away.” Makes me sad…obviously, if it’s a little sketch or something it’s no big deal to throw out, but kids sometimes work on their art for weeks!
Hahaha! I loved this cartoon so much. I have been taking pictures of all the art that comes home from my two kids, and when they are done with daycare/preschool, I plan to make an art book using Snapfish or one of those other companies. I try to keep one or two nice items every once in a while for nostalgic reasons, but there is WAY TOO MUCH to hold onto. It is my very small attempt at being a minimalist.
I have boxes of own artwork lying around from when I was little. My parents aren’t attached to all the paintings and cardboard robots and clay figurines, but for whatever reason I can’t fathom tossing them out. It makes me so sad!
God, I can’t imagine what I’ll be like if I ever have kids. The rooms will be wallpapered with scribble drawings, and there I’d stand in the middle of it all, wearing 500 macaroni necklaces.
Love this image!
haha! Love this one so much. We have a wood stove in our house and I have been busted more than once throwing “retired” art into the fire. All that paper makes great fire starters! But if my daughter can’t find some creation on paper that’s been sitting around for awhile (in my defense!), she will often look at me with accusing eyes and ask “did you burn it?!” :)
Happy weekend!
In addition to these things, I’ve also used some of the drawings as “cards” for relatives. E.g. Every birthday present, holiday present gets a handwritten letter from my husband or I on the back of her drawing. This mainly works for family members and good friends, but they’ve all enjoyed it.
If my preschool students ask to show their art to Mommy and Daddy, it goes home with them (& I always recommend that parents throw away later). Otherwise I throw it away. And I do tell the children that I do. I tell them I hold onto the joy I saw when they were making it, and I know they’ll make more again today, and we need room to do our work. If they bring me art from home, it goes on the fridge for a week, and I offer a hug and deep gratitude that they think of me. I don’t give judgements about their art, no “it’s pretty!” Or “I love it!” “I love that you remembered I like blue!” Or “look at all those fun circles!” instead.
As a parent of grown kids my advice to my former self would be, at most, save one thing a year. I saved way too much, I’m not sure for what exactly, just seemed to precious to toss. But that I did, years and years later. Actually I made a big bonfire and burned it all (I had boxes and boxes, my kids had zero interest). It was way less fun going through it than one might imagine. I mostly just felt frustrated with myself for not being able to let go. So former me, see the picture, see the joy going into making it, hang on the fridge for a bit, then just let it go. Holding on won’t make those precious babies grow up any slower.
The super cool stuff they made, like a wood cut purple octopus, a lovely blue clouds abstract painting, loads of ceramic bowls, quilts, we use as art or use in every day life.
My mother in law gave me this amazing gift in the days leading up to our wedding, and it was this scrapbook that had a piece of art and a school wallet-sized photo of my husband-to-be at each year of school. I LOVE this little scrapbook. I intend to do the same: to create a scrapbook that can one day be given to my kids (or to their spouse if they choose to marry).
I’m pretty ruthless about only saving the ‘best’ artworks. I save 4-5 each school year, which includes a sample of their writing. The rest? Into the recycling bin. I have a big plastic rubbermaid storage bin in the storage room that houses each of their collections and that’s it.
That being said, my daughter (7) is a “keeper” and so I give her a standard gift bag and she’s allowed to put whatever kinds of paper goods she wants to salvage in said bag in her room. Once a season I force her to visit The Bag and sift the items. She makes the decisions, but I help talk her through the decision-making process.
Currently in my possession: two pint-sized sombreros made of party hats on paper plates and decorated in crepe paper that my toddler twins brought home the other day from daycare and I’m like, seriously what am I supposed to do with these. They take up like half of the counter space in our tiny kitchen.
Twins = two sombreros, two construction paper flags of Iceland, two cups of dirt. But the handprints-in-paint projects? LOVE.
Your awesome description of the twin toddler-sized paper plate sombreros taking up a huge part of the space in the kitchen just made my heart utterly melt, for some reason.
I feel inspired to be more present with my son, so thank you!
Love that, Stephanie!! <3
We have 2 Ikea Dignitet wires across one wall of our dining room (obviously it’s not a formal dining room) and hang the most current or “best” art there. It gets rotated and our favorite pieces are saved in a big artists portfolio. But *so much* gets thrown out.
My dad just sent me a scan of a picture that I drew when I was 5 of my sister in my mother’s belly and it is so funny to think of that little girl that I was then!
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