Am I a bad mother for not wanting to save every scrap of paper my child scribbles on? We have a file (a pile in a file) that we keep of artwork Kellan has made. Even though he's just shy of three years old, he has quite a body of work already. For a while, we had a temporary gallery in his room of his best drawings. We also have a Post-It note on our refrigerator of a "face" that Kellan drew months ago that we thought looked like Cubist art.
So I thought we were showing proper support of his burgeoning talent until last week, when Kellan caught me tossing one of his drawings. "Mama, why are you throwing that away?" he asked.
Oops! "I'm not throwing it away. I'm recycling." Before you judge me, know that he only covered a small section of the paper, so it didn't really look like a fully realized work of art.
Funny enough, I am reading author Michael Chabon's book of essays Manhood for Amateurs and this very subject comes up. Like the author, my own parents did not save much evidence of my childhood creativity and I turned out all right. At least, I think I turned out all right. Seriously though, I try to be attentive in other ways so not wanting to get buried in a mountain of paper can't be that bad.
Should I feel guilty for throwing away - um, I mean recycling - my kid's art work?
Hi,
My son comes home everyday from Preshcool with a pile of arts and crafts, pictures and cut outs...I too have been caught trying to "recycle" his artwork, but just last week someone told me I could save space by keeping just one or two items a month that can be put in a scrapbook and the remainder of the items, with the help of my son, could be scanned and placed on a CD or DVD for him to review at anytime...Great idea, and since he likes going on the computer... he agreed and wants to start scanning as soon as possible. Hope this helps!! :)