Wherefore Art Thou?

I came home again from nursery this week laden with another pile of crayon scribbles and junk art – my 3 year old’s morning’s work. As I tipped it all into the recycle bin, I was slightly ashamed of my disregard for my youngest’s artwork.  

When your first child comes home from pre-school bringing a drawing or sticking they have done there, it is usually blue tacked up on the wall, and if it is particularly good, it may even be framed. It is certainly kept. The second child’s creations might be stuck under a magnet on the fridge, where it stays until it falls off. It might even then be put in a memory box of their work.

The third child’s art will hang around the kitchen for a couple of months before it is recycled.

The fourth’s pieces of artwork do not even make it into the house, they get surreptitiously put in the green bin at the bottom of the steps before we’ve even reached the front door.

By the look of Rachel’s offering today, she clearly knows where it is headed. Two straws and some tiny pasta stars are stuck on a piece of blue paper, but the whole thing has been ripped in half and she presents to me in two bits.

I am starting to think I may have given her a complex.

In our old house we had a superb system based on the fact our children’s art was stuck on the side of the fridge next to the rubbish bin. It was a pedal bin and the updraft as the lid opened and shut created enough wind to ‘accidentally’ waft the drawing inside, thereby sparing everyone’s feelings. We didn’t have the guilt of throwing it away and they didn’t notice it was gone.

Brilliant. We may have to re-introduce that one.