S is an avid artist; she goes through phases where she can go through books and books of paper every day. She loves to draw pictures for people – but she also often draws them for me. That’s lovely – but it also means we have stacks of pictures all over the house which I am not allowed to throw out! And that’s not even counting the piles of creations she brings home from school every week.
BIC has produced statistics lately which show that two-thirds of parents in London end up throwing away their kids’ artwork to cope with the sheer volume of it. I must admit, I am one of those.
When S was small, I would keep all of her beautiful creations. But soon enough I had piles and piles of it and now I go through and save only the best ones – the ones where she’s drawn a picture of us having a cuddle or something. I might take photos of some of it too, but I’m afraid a lot of it is consigned to the recycling box – underneath a few newspapers of course, so that she doesn’t spot it!
This one is definitely a keeper!
Does that make me a bad parent? Do you keep all of your children’s artwork? Do you display it around the house?
According to the survey by BIC, 80% of us display our children’s artwork in the kitchen or on the fridge door – we have lots of pictures on our fridge door. I’ve a friend who has “washing lines” set up in the corner of her kitchen where she hangs her children’s creations. We also display some bits and bobs on the dining room door, but I’m not sure how long they’ll stay there as the flapping pieces of paper just look messy! Gosh, I’m so grumpy aren’t I.
I once listened to a podcast where a man said that when his grandchildren draw pictures for him, he takes a photo and stores it in his Evernote before throwing away the original. The children know he does this, and don’t mind because he explains he will always have the picture “in the cloud” for him to look at wherever he is.
Apparently 7% of parents refuse to display any of their children’s artwork in the home… perhaps they misunderstood the question though as surely all parents would at least put a picture on the fridge? Then again, every time I open the fridge at least 3 loose pieces of paper fall of so perhaps we’d be better off if I were more strict on these things!
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