My creativity is all about the written word and movement as far as I can tell.
Crafts or certain things I have to do that require me to have some inherent sensibility and perfectionism, frankly, fill me with fear.
So you can imagine how pleased I was on learning that my son would be a mouse for his upcoming assembly.
I whipped out the phone and started googling mouse costumes. I showed him the ones I thought would ship it the fastest and thought we were done.
Julian: No. I want you to make it.
Me: Oh no.
Julian: Please. Everyone else’s Mums do it.
Me: But it won’t look any good.
Julian: I want you to make it.
Damn it, I just can’t resist those big pleading eyes. So we scheduled in a visit to Spotlight for “crafty items” I didn’t have,including glue and sticky tape.
Julian: I don’t want Elijah and Leo to come.
Me: Hmmmm….ok we can see if Nanna can look after them.
At this point I realised that he was vying for some of my time. We don’t often get time without the other two kids as Julian is at school full time, so it made me realise that this was less about the costume and more about my time.
Now I’m not guaranteeing he still won’t burst into tears when he’s ear falls off at assembly but what I’m saying is that we don’t need to be perfect for others. I don’t need to hide my faults and my failures. What I need to do is step up and be a good role model for my son.
Because even my dodgy craft skills are part of me and we shouldn’t shy away in shame from the world over anything, it’s not worth it.
