As a child, I regularly asked my mother if we could do arts and crafts together. She was never that keen on transforming old loo rolls into fairies with cotton wool heads, covered in gluey glitter and now I know why. My five-year-old daughter adores sitting at the kitchen table, losing herself in crepe paper, coloured sequins, glue and a mass of felt tips. She also regularly asks me to join in. I am quite partial to a bit of sticking but I admit I am also a perfectionist. Put it simply, I am not much of a team player when it comes to art. Last week, we were sticking together a wooden car which we then began to paint. At first, my daughter was thrilled at my enthusiasm but it ended with us squabbling over which colour to paint the bonnet. I almost marched out of the kitchen in a toddler-type strop. Perhaps I am better taking the role of the parent who supervises from a distance and tries to remain calm when the small pot of glitter spills across the kitchen floor.
Thankfully, school provides the perfect forum for arts and crafts. On a daily basis, the children arrive home laden down with artwork. Some of these masterpieces are put in a drawer and treasured forever. However, I must confess that many do not make it. These include the painted cereal boxes and paper covered in glitter and glue that has not yet dried. I am sorry to say, that these are mysteriously taken by the fairies. On one occasion, the fairies were caught out. My son was putting his apple core into the kitchen bin and suddenly shrieked, “Mummy, my space ship is in the bin. The fairies must have put it there by accident.” Head bent down, I mumbled, “How dreadful.” The space ship, in the form of a Cornflake box painted black, was then promoted to the kitchen dresser on display for the rest of the week.
