Stay-At-Home-Mom Confession: I Hate Doing Crafts

I am a stay-at-home mom.  I have come to terms with the fact I will do the cooking, cleaning and laundry.  I also understand that my responsibilities include feeding the kids, changing diapers, potty training, playing with toys and reading books.  What I did not realize is that “crafts” now seem to be part of my job requirements.

I tried to like doing crafts.   I went to the store and bought all the required puff balls, paints, glue, pipe cleaners, foam things and stickers.  We went on blogs and web sites for ideas.  We even tried the dreaded fingerprint/footprint crafts which involve me spending a ½ hour getting the "scene" ready, then Andrew taking 3 seconds to put his handprint on a piece of paper and then taking then next ½ hour cleaning his hands and putting things away.  Finally I decided to throw in the towel and admit the obvious, I hate doing crafts.

That does not mean we don’t do art projects.  I have no problem with getting out the paint and letting him paint pictures or finger paint.  He can use stickers and cut and glue until his heart is content.  I just gave up on organized crafts or really my involvement in the craft process, until yesterday.

Against my better judgment I saw something on Pinterest that I wanted to try.  You take Ivory soap, put it in the microwave and then you can use it kind of like clay.  The first part worked fine it blew up and looked awesome.  Then as Andrew began to play with it (Wes played with it for 2 seconds and then ate a piece so he was banned from the room), the clay like substance quickly became a flour like substance and it was everywhere.

I decide what the hell it’s already a mess he can just keep playing.  Then he started sneezing and sneezing and sneezing.  I walk over and his eyes are red and he is covered in a thin layer of dust and so is the entire dining room.  So then I told him he had to take a shower to which he begged to take a bath and then of course Wes wanted to take a bath too. 

So, a craft to keep them busy and away from the television ultimately ended up with them watching TV while I cleaned the kitchen the dining room.  Ivory soap craft goes right into the Pinterest Fail board.   I will now stick with using Pinterest as it should be used-putting things in boards knowing I will never do them.