Starving Artists

There has been a landslide of arts and crafts coming home from school these days. Bekka has brought home one gaudy hand made/painted object every day this week, and I'll tell you, there are no signs of it stopping. I have a mental rule, one that I keep to myself, and that is to only display one crappy piece of kid art at a time. In order to do this, I've developed a complicated process of getting rid of the superfluous art garbage. Here are the steps:

1 - Make a big deal about the piece. Talk specifically about the things you like (great color, neat shape, interesting finger marks, etc.).

2 - Display the piece, show dad and brother, have them each say something nice about it.

3 - Put the piece in the garbage while your child is sleeping.

4 - If it's brought up the next day, quickly change the subject.

Remember, if you are having a hard time throwing their piece away, it took them less than an hour to make and children are amazingly resilient when it comes to loss.