I am sneaking like a quiet little mouse into the kitchen.
In my hand I have a piece of artwork the Princess made at school.
I fold it gently, lift the lid off the kitchen trash can, shove the piece of art way down into the kitchen trash, put the lid back on the can ... and walk away. Shhhhew ... another piece of 1st grade art ... gone.
(Oh ... you think you will never do this!! You do!! But ... YOU WILL!!!)
Ten minutes later ... (*loud 6 year old girl screaming like her leg has been chopped off*)"WHY DID YOU THROW AWAY MY ART???"
She found it.
And ... this is not the first time this has happened.
I just can not keep all of this art (*sigh*). I have four kids and I have kept so much art, I could start my own museum. I have to be choosy about the art I feel needs to be stored for the next 20 years. I pick and choose the pieces I really like and the rest ... I sneak into the trash.
These kids believe and think I should be keeping ALL of their art. And, I have kept a lot. I did not want to keep this:
Now ... there is nothing wrong with this lovely piece (except now it has some sort of trash can fluid stain on it - lovely). It's beautiful, in a six-year-old-abstract-kind-of-way ... it is! I just don't LOVE it. Now, this picture she drew recently - I did keep:
I don't know why exactly. I'm not really even sure who/what it is (an elf I think) - but I LOVED it! The yellow face and all. The nice round red lips. The really skinny neck. The groovy hat. The blood-shot eyes (she gives all her people blood-shot eyes lately) - with actual yellow eye-lids. The "I Love You Mom" all over it.
I can't keep ALL the art. I know they want me too. I know they think I do. But, I can't (*groan*) and I don't.
And ... I don't keep all those d*** McDonald toys scattered around my house either. I used to keep them ... find the child they belonged to and give the toy back to be put in a toy box somewhere. I don't do that anymore. When I see one of those toys (in a wrapper or not) on a chair or on the floor ... I grab the thing and toss it in the trash. When The Princess comes to me looking for her recent McDonald's toy that I know I have probably thrown away, I say, "I don't know where it is, Hon. We'll just have to get you another one when we go back to McDonald's (TOMORROW)!"
Yep ... I throw away some of the art and I will continue to throw away that toy I find on the ground that has no monetary or sentimental value to anyone ... into the trash. And ... as each of these worthless toys and not-so-really-special pieces of art, are carted away to the landfill ... I have to admit that I do experience a small amount of guilt ... but more often ... gratitude that a few more moments of sanity are granted to me.
On the upside ... I have thrown away about as much art as I have kept. If they had pulled every piece of art I have actually thrown away, out of the trash - we'd have had to of built another house just to store it all in. She can save this piece of abstract-roller-coaster-on-a-big-grassy-field masterpiece ... I'll keep it (*note to self: buy yet another Rubbermaid storage box ... start new box for Princess' art).