Over the 11 years of my parenting experience, I have learned that it is important to let go of our need to keep everything clean and tidy.
Just completely and totally dispense that need when your kids are young.
Our children need to create, explore, get messy, and be loud. Too many restrictions yield a muzzle on their creativity, and that is not a good thing.
Bam Bam, my five year old, came home last week and was over the moon excited to show me what he had learned in school that day…….how to make snowflakes out of plain old paper.
Now, if you can recall from your elementary school days, making snowflakes involves quite a bit of scrap paper. You fold the paper several times, then cut the corners of the original paper, and then you cut some more, and a little more to create that perfectly unique snowflake.
The kind of snowflake that you will want to prance around all day and show your family and friends. You wanted them to know that you were responsible for creating something extra spectacular.
The gleam in Bam Bam’s eyes as he folded the paper, then cut the corners a few times, and then a few times more, and then told me to “wait until I open the paper”.
When he opened the paper and waited to see my reaction, his eyes were just shining and his face glowing with anticipation to hear what I thought of his incredible creation.
Of course, I was amazed and in awe and overflowing with compliments.
And, of course, I just thought he was the cutest thing ever. The delight in his eyes was just priceless.
Since that day, a few days ago now, about 50 more snowflakes have shown up around my house. They are now gracing most of the walls in my home. They are hanging from the ceiling in the living room. They are all over my Christmas tree. They are all over my refrigerator.
It looks like there was a wild snow storm of tiny little paper bits on my living room floor. The floor is fully covered with the scrap paper that was created as the snowflakes went through the trimming process.
Time to embrace the messy and celebrate creativity and the joy of kids just being kids. Gotta love it. 🙂
Merry Christmas Eve Everyone. Enjoy your holiday.
0
Hooray for paper snow and hooray for Bam Bam who made it ! I had completely forgotten about the good ol’ childhood days of making snow. Thanks for this pleasant reminder of fun and creative times ! 🙂
Messy? This is art! My family still has a handprint outline from when my sister was four years old hanging on our wall. I’m glad you treat these childhood treasures as exactly that. Your kids will have a lot of fun growing up, and a lot of great memories to look back on as well. 🙂