To HATE 'craft'?

[SlightlyJaded]

That's it really.

DD woke up poorly today. My kind friend took DS out for a couple of hours and lo and behold...

Me: what would you like to do this afternoon? Anything you like

Her: Craft

Me: (heart already sinking) OK what kind of craft? Shall we do the sewing dolly you got at Christmas?

Her: No. I want to do cutting and sticking

Me: Right...

Her: And glue and glitter

Me: Are you sure you're feeling well enough?

Me: Oh ok, so let's see what we need?

Her: I think we'll need everything

Me: ok what are we making?

Her: I don't know but anyway mummy, you're not making, you have to watch me. Because I am ill

cue 10 minutes of glue blobbage, glitter spillage, 4 million snippets of useless paper - all stuck to kitchen table

Me: so what are you making darling?

Her: I don't think i want to do craft anymore. Will you play a game with me?

watch in silence as cat pads through glitter glue blob and begins journey up stairs

x posts with thinneratforty

I absolutely bloody hate it. My OCD goes into overdrive at the mere mention of craft the word has a snide tone to it. It sounds so quiet and unassumming but in reality it means a right load of mess for pile of shit in return.

Ds1 (6) is never happier than with a a pile of a4, a pair of scissors and a roll of Sellotape. Oh and a big black marker pen and one of my propelling pencils if he can find them from where I have hidden them deep.

So far I have a large pile of paper DSs, iPhones, laptops and the like as I have not let him have any of these of his own, so he's made them. There's also a complete deadly 60 animal hunting kit equipped with everything a budding steve backshall needs to hunt and film dangerous animals from the arctic to the desert and everywhere in between, a space rocket (complete with washing machine and washing line) and so much more.

Current project this week is a 'post office system' for at least a larger town [heart sinking smiley] - so far we have the letters (a large tub full of bits of paper about an inch square), a number of pipe cleaner people (apparently we need to get several thousand more so there ate enough people in the town ), several trolleys for the postmen and two sorting machines each with lots of weeny trays... Lots of house to come next apparently. I have no idea where he gets his ideas from but he always seems to know what he wants to make and gets very frustrated when dh and I don't share the same vision for turning the house into a pile of chipped up paper bits.

I've point blank ignored the presence of glitter, goodly eyes and loads of other 'goodies' the craft shop could provide - a4 white paper Armageddon is already as much as I can cope with!

So no, yadnbu!

Oh and it bugs me when nursery sends home cards etc with stuff that is basically done by the helpers.

All cards etc at that age should be based on hand and/or foot prints so that you have a cute reminder of how teeny their hands are and how they get bigger as the move through the classes!

You are so not being unreasonable! DS1 (6) adores crafty shit an also regularly subjects me to white paper armageddon. My DM does not help by buying him crafty kits with glitter an shit in them! For Christmas she bought DS2 play dough.

He was one and three weeks! FFs!

I now make her do all the arts and craps ( stealing that ) at her house!

I absolutely adore baking but that is my hobby and no one else's. I have been know to scream politely ask my DS to get out of my kitchen.

Hi there is light at the end of the tunnel, I now have a 15 yr old who takes charge of all the christmas wrapping - and adds ribbons, bows and cards.
It is bliss - and I can make her clear up as well!

BTW, forgot to say YANBU.

I swear I will have breakdown soon. I'm looking at (yet another) empty Cheesy Dipper box with baby wipes sellotaped to it. I have to keep it in my bedroom as it's there to "protect me"

YANBU - I hate any type of craft/arty stuff. I have no imagination or originality so can't help DD in the least. Luckily DD is now 6 so therefore I tell her if she wants to cut/stick/glitter stuff, then she can wipe and hoover it up

God, I love craft. Craft means I don't have to go to the sodding wet cold park.

And zipzap, your DS would get on well with my DD, aged five. She has made today:

A cardboard LeapPad for her favourite toy in case it felt left out

A crown with ribbons trailing from it in order to be Rapunzel

A height measuring chart (which she measured me on and confidently informed me I weighed one million - thanks v much, child)

A Valentine for her favourite toy

A magazine including a feature on meerkats, which are apparently purple and glittery and like to eat slugs

A family of spiders

A pair of binoculars

and a box full of tiny bits of random coloured in paper which she says is a snow box. I haven't enquired further.

The really great thing is that I have had no input into any of this apart from being required to wield a stapler five or six times because she's too weedy. I have been reading my book while the hive of activity progressed.

Oh OP I feel your pain! YADNBU! I hate anything that involves glue, glitter, playdough, anything messy. I try my hand at jewellery making so I'm not totally against craft per se.

But this junk modelling crap that is so popular now - why? And why - because DS is not interested in taking hours over drawing, painting, or crafting, preferring instead to do something useful - does the school think that's strange?

And why oh why oh why do we have for half term homework, make a sodding bloody effing sea-life themed puppet out of said junk?! How about doing something radical with them like, oh I don't know, teaching them to read and add up?

I lurve craft.

However kid craft as in my dd who is 3 and dd2 who is 20 months means Play for 10 minutes then they want to do something else whilst I clear the crap mess up

And where the hell are you meant to put all the "master pieces"??

Dd1 goes mad if she catches me throwing it away...

TOTU Am weeping at the cheesy dipper box with wipes having to be kept in the bedroom to 'protect you'. DD does this - brings home some shit creation but then ensures an extended 'display lifespan' by allocating some significance to its purpose.

We had a fucking huge large box with bits of tin foil stuck to it and a washing up liquid nozzle protruding from it, in the kitchen for about 4 months because it was a 'fairy computer' and the tooth fairy (should she have cause to visit) needed it to google map her way home.

The imagination is genius even if the art is not

Still fucking hate craft though.

I love kid craft, we do lots of it always have. Bit of music on, bit of cutting, sticking or painting, bit of chat.

my husbands cousin is an avid card maker and makes truly horrible decoupage cards. Layers and layers of pictures of teddy bears, men playing football, Christmas trees etc. They are awful but the rest of the family buy them off her in bulk so we get loads of the bloody things.

I have lived through "craft" and its abominable consequences.

So I was not impressed by the friend who looked admiringly at my gluey, glittery and blobby free sitting room the other week and said "I bet you can't wait for dgd to come round and do craft".

As it happens, I am in no hurry at all. In fact I don't mind how long I wait.

I am crying with laughter at TOTO and the protective baby wipe

As for the cancerous glitter gem DH has ended up with those in his beard and thou it looks pretty they do sting on the way out. Much sniggering.

I haven't really experienced child craft yet, but nursery is certainly for messy play!

Also crying at the baby wipe protector thing. Are you me? I have had more shite like that than I can remember.

I have all this to come with ds2.

Zipzap there are the makings of a computer programmer... perhaps it would work out less annoying to let him have the PC and a copy of The Sims

I can't wait until DS is old enough to do proper craft. I used to make endless tiny things with my sister. Great fun.

I did actually make tiny letters for his happyland town and was probably a bit too pleased when they fit nicely into the postbox and the letter basket in the post office. He, being 3, managed to crumple them swiftly with his baby fingers while attempting to post them and they ended up as hoover food too.

OP, I actually don't mind the craft stuff, and love the baking, which is useful because DD loves both!

DD (5) has written a list of things she wants to do over half term. It comprises "craft, painting, baking, making {bread specifically} and making pudding". We've done the bread and the painting. 'Baking' a chocolate valentine's day cake is today. That just leaves craft and pudding!

At Christmas she received a new box full of new craft supplies. Packed to the rafters. DH and I dozed off on the sofa after Christmas dinner. DD didn't...

The dining room has almost recovered!

BertieBotts when I was 9 I made my Sindy a blanket out of knitted squares of different coloured wool - you know the sort. I knitted the squares on cocktail sticks.

I used to spend hours making things for Sindy...

I love glitter and all kids craft bits and DS will soon be too old. Its fab and all cleans up unless you buy paint/felts that are not washable.

I hate craft with a passion, but I do love baking except that I am a control freak but I have to make sure my DS stirs properly, and make sure he puts the right amounts in!

I am always so glad that my DS goes to nursery ft and they do crafty crap with them there because then I don't have to get my house covered in glue and glitter, and then end up cleaning it up because he gets bored in ten minutes!

I do wonder about some of the stuff he brings home, they call it junk modelling cereal box with yoghurt tubs stuck to it but maybe I am not artistic enough to appreciate it.

Whoever mentioned moon sand, that is truly the work of the devil. Bloody stuff took me over a month to get out of my carpet!!!! Give me playdoh any day inhales the lovely scent, it's much less stressful, except that my DS mixes the colours

Slightlyjaded no offence, but yours sounds worse than mine.

At least my sons' creation was small and is hidden behind a vase in my bedroom

It's half term so he's pounced on the fact he's allowed access to the craft box on a weekday. Damn! He's currently constructing something as a surprise for me for Valentine's Day. I can hear lots of sellotape being used but I'm not allowed to look. God knows how big/fugly it's going to be

TOTU what was your valentines present? And thank god for Sellotape. Within the arena of craft, I would have to say Sellotape is fairly innocuous (when compared to glitter glue for example)