When I was four years old I made my dad a Fathers Day Present at preschool, which he loved and despised simultaneously. It was a glass-jar-penholder. I’d lavishly coated it in glue and rolled it in rice for a textured finish and then painted it red and blue. It was to take prize place on his desk at work and remind him of me….and remind him it DID, many times daily, as it shed copious amounts of rice all over his important documents. One day, rather sadly, he confided to my mother that it accidentally fell into the bin. I was none the wiser about this for a good three decades, until he finally ‘fessed up about how bad he felt. By then some of my own children’s artworks had accidentally fallen into the bin and I was able to be quite forgiving about it.
I believe the disposal of lovingly made arts and crafts from our adoring offspring is a universal guilt issue for parents all over the planet.
Having two little ones under the age of ten put me squarely in the ‘Rudimentary Arts and Crafts Collector’ demographic. Each day, new and precious creations came through the door, each being declared too wondrous to ever be recycled. The fridge became plastered in paintings of handprints and trees and carefully drawn family portraits where peoples’ hair mysteriously floated above their heads. If I even suggested removal of one item I was met with large, weepy toddler eyes looking up at me,
“But I made it for YOU Mummy, I thought you lubbed it?”
“Ok OK!! I do. I totally DO love it. I’ll need to go and buy more magnets. Stronger magnets. We’ll get a bigger fridge!”
The house had become a fire hazard of art & craft filling up every room. I was engaging in the risky behaviour of sneaking things out to the wheely bin, which I wasn’t proud of. Eventually, after getting caught (“It must have fallen in the bin by accident!! THAT’S WEIRD!”), I devised an ‘Artwork Preservation and Appreciation and also Save the Planet Strategy’, which I will outline for you below:
- For EXTRA good drawings and paintings: Frame it. Frame the best stuff in really nice picture frames with proper matting board and everything, all around the house. Each time a new and better drawing comes along, update it in the frame putting the older drawing to the back, record age/date in the corner. You’d be surprised how great it can look! Move over Picasso.
- For LESSER drawings and paintings: Fridge. For fridge displays, have a set amount of magnets per child and each time a fridge-worthy piece of artwork comes home, the artist, can attach with a magnet, if all magnets are occupied, the artist gets to choose which existing artwork goes into the recycling (go on and on about how good recycling is for the planet).
- For large and bulky pieces: Display it for a week. After a week, layout the creations on the floor or bed and photograph for posterity, then recycle (again with the recycling talk and the opportunity to save the planet).
- Extra tip: Let children assist in taking the photos. Write the details on a piece of paper next to the creation i.e.: “Made by Claire 3/5/2014”. When children are involved in this process they’re surprisingly more cooperative about recycling their art and craft.