feeling crafty…

This weekend I suddenly met with the horrible realisation that it was ‘the christmas craft competition’ weekend. Fruitless attempts to close my eyes and wish it all away didn’t work and we were set with the task of ‘helping’ and ‘assisting’ our three school aged kids into making a christmas craft. They have set themes for each year group and it tends to be the same every year so i am coming up for my 6th year. Generally this experience reduces me to a quivering wreck and i need a large glass of wine to recover. 😉

Having been a blogger for quite a while and realised that other people blog too! yeah i know ‘duh’ 😉 I have read some very successful blogs and they are often very ‘craft’ orientated. The craft world is HUGE…and that is wonderful and fab and groovy but it is not for me. In life there are places for us all and in terms of craft I am most assuredly at the consumer end of the spectrum and not at the manufacturer end if you know what i mean…

and yes yes..i know some folk can look at a cute card or notepad or something in a shop and shake their heads, suck their breath over their teeth and go ‘ i could have made that for 2p’  Well i positively REJOICE for those people because if it wasnt for them I wouldnt be able to trot into a shop and pick up something pretty for a fiver in 30 seconds. If not for them i would have to give away hours of my life to sweeping up glitter (which is, of course, as we all know, impossible as glitter is apparently brush repellent!).

But when it comes to school projects you have to roll up your sleeves and get involved and when the craft is supposed to be being designed by a 4 year old. Guess what? That means that, generally,  the parent get to do it. Craft homework for mummy and daddy…..hmmmmm….

My theory on that..can be summed up here…dearest teacher, thanks so much for you hard work and commitment to instilling the great mystery of education and knowledge in the heart of my child. I appreciate all your efforts. Can i please bring to your attention that I personally have already attended school as a pupil. I did so for a number of years and whilst i will admit that it was somewhat long ago and the effects of two university degrees and 5 children may have had a profound effect on recall of knowledge that I once thought i had, I believe that there is little I can learn from having to make a christmas wreath every year. This activity, which im sure is meant to be one which unites child and parent as they smile at each other over a prittstick..in truth becomes a frantic throw it all together and try to make it look like a four year old did it 11pm activity the night before its due in. I quite like the thin shred of sanity i cling to and doing craft homework threatens its very existance! kind regards..parent J’ 

Of course, having said all that, we will all carry on doing the craft projects that the teachers set us from our kids primary schools…ooops sorry i meant to say ‘set THE kids..’

yes..yes thats right 😉