to totally hate arts and craft type activities?

[OutOutLetItAllOut]

kids want to make cards for fathers day. so ive set them at the table with various bit of paper, card, cuttings, glue, scissors, and all the other shite they need.
and im on here, attempting to distract myself from the mess they are making, and to stop myself butting in and making the cards look semi decent!!!
i hate craft stuff.
i looks shite when its finished!

No YANBU. I hate them with a passion and DD1 loves all things arts and crafts with a passion. I always let her do it but hate all the cleaning it invokes!

I did, till i found a son who actually LIKES it. and watching him liking it is nice

I buy a box of these and get kids to draw or paint on them.

Ticks 'creative' box, people like thought that has gone into something home made, cheap and not messy.

ooh I love it - I could spend all day doing it - pity I can't be SATM for a year or 2, but do enjoy it at weekend. DD came home with THREE different cards from various drop-ins with CM this week - fantastic!

But I dont think YABU - horses for coarses etc. (I know that's the wrong corse/coarse but I can't recall how to spell the correct one - doh!)

I think YABU but then I spend all day surrounded by this sort of mess as a nursery nurse.

Downdog: course

thanks BBH - I think I lost a bit of my brain in the pool earlier.

YANBU - DS's do have pens/pencils, and a rarely brought out paint set at home. I don't own glue or "crafty" stuff. I'm just not one of those people that do that stuff.

Thankfully toddler groups/playgroups, nursery, and schools round here seem to provide a level of artistry which keeps my DS's happy,

They have plenty of access to paper and pencils at home so do do lots of drawing

YANBU.

I have spent the last five odd years avoiding them like the plague. I soften a bit at Christmas, but other than that - NO. They can do all that cutting and sticking and faffing with glitter at school.

have to say it's obviously not done them any harm so far - DS1 is quite arty now .

I've rarely done any baking stuff with them either, although I do let DS1 and 2 help with dinner (And DS3 "helps" sometimes as welll fetching and carrying things)

DD is making one in her room right now. But that is mainly 'cos in town she spent all her pocket money on two bottles of beer (for her dad!) and forgot to save some for the card. I reminded her when we got in so she has shut herself away with cardboard and stuff to sort something out.

I think DH will prefer 2 bottles of beer and a hand made card to one bottle and a bought card!

No I don't hate them, I like them if I know what I am doing and am pretty sure of getting satisfactory results. I am no good at drawing and painting, and so DD goes to an art class for those; I am much better at designing dressing up costumes than my mother, who is better than me at sewing, so we combine forces; I am quite good at doing fun things with cakes and can make mean cards, if I try.

There is nothing worse, IMO, than making a frightful mess of your house at quite a bit of expense for a disappointing result.

"There is nothing worse, IMO, than making a frightful mess of your house at quite a bit of expense for a disappointing result."

I don't think I often agree with you Bonsoir - but I heartely agree with you on that one. I am NOT the arty/sewing/bakery/creative person that many of my friends are. My creations look nothing short of crap

Er, isn't the point to let the kids do it?

No, the point is to develop your children's skills by guiding them.

yes - but they always want you to help - somehow thinking you can help them create their perfect creation........when in actual fact I usually end up ruining it

I malways used to let dd just get on with it. She's pretty nifty at that kind of thing now.

bu, bu, but the mess, oh I just can't abide the mess.

I struggle to keep normal everyday stuff in the house looking something near respectable (in the slatterns spectrum of respectability ) - mess from arts and crafts - oh lord

Don't want mess? Don't have kids! Simples.

oh I have mess - and I accept mess - but I have no desire to create extra mess from crafty stuff just to create some "pefect mother" status for myself.

I don't "do" stuff like that - my kids live with it. You don't like it - that's fine - you're not my children

oh i love arts and crafts stuff
yanbu if you don't like it as you're entitled to your opinion but when they are too old to want to do crafts with you anymore, do you not think you might look back and wish you had done it with them and enjoyed that kind of time more? i have heard some mums of older children start to say that..

well DS1 is 9 1/2 now............I have no regrets yet

YANBU i'm not into it at all, its not the mess (we love baking together - messville) it just bores the pants off me. DS1 occassionally has a flurry of gluing, cutting etc but has no real interest. He does bits here and there at pre-school too but his interests lie elsewhere. I did push the painting/crafts a lot when he was smaller as I though it was something that you MUST do . Much more confident in my parenting now and ds2 has yet to discover the joys of glitter and i feel no guilt whatsoever.

I hate them too but the trouble is, you miss out on this sort of stuff.