There’s nothing like a little art project to keep the kids out of your hair encourage children to express their creativity.

Trouble is, the resulting masterpieces can really pile up. And heaven forbid your kid finds one of her fingerpainted originals in the trash!

The way I see it, you have three options.

1. You can try to develop a system for determining what’s a keeper and what’s not.
2. You can just chuck it all and risk the wrath of your pint-sized Picasso.
3. Or, you can stash it all away, thus enhancing your eligibility for this reality tv show.

Three guesses which option I chose.

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Portrait of the Artist’s Mom

When daVinci sketched as a little lad,
did his mama save every vellum pad?

What did Picasso’s mother do
with his boyhood paintings and the things he drew?

Did the mothers of Van Gogh and Renoir and Monet
ever dare to throw their sons’ works away?

Or those moms of Cassatt and O’Keeffe and Wood –
did they keep their kids’ projects, as good moms should?

How we mothers of artistes so petite and prolific
dearly cherish each piece, in its own way terrific.

But collages and paintings collect in a heap…
and then: which do we toss, and which do we keep?

Oh! How I feel the ache tug at my heart
when forced to decide which is junk, which is art.

And what if our children grow up to be famous?
Museums all over might exclaim and blame us…

The ones who shortsightedly tossed in the trash
those crayoned creations worth millions in cash.

©2010 Carlotta Eike Stankiewicz