The rest? They mostly end up in the recycling.
I used to keep it all. I had a folder, which turned into a box, which turned into a bigger box, which became a bag-for-life. I stuck rockets on the fridge and rainbows, monsters and dinosaurs on all the kitchen cupboards, like the devoted parent I am, rotating them with reverence – until I ran out of Blue Tack, cupboard doors and fridge.
It’s not heartless, it’s necessary. Modern parenting is full of emotional landmines and throwing away your children’s artwork is one of them. What if they notice? What if they ask for it months down the line? What if 20 years from now they are sitting on a therapist’s couch sobbing, “It all started when Mum threw away my pasta spaceship?”
I feel that we are parenting in an age of guilt-hoarding. Every scribble, every pasta necklace, every vaguely horrifying portrait of Mummy with no clothes on (which spent a term on the classroom wall first) is kept, just in case. But just in case what, exactly?
square KIRSTY KETLEY
I've had to 'blacklist' kids from my house - it's all down to bad parentingRead More
I love my children dearly. I admire their creativity, and of course, I would much rather they are being creative with pen and paper than glued to a screen, but I can’t pretend that every single squiggle is a masterpiece. Some have just been lines. Some have been entirely blank, apart from a tiny bit of crayon in one corner.
Parenting is cluttered enough, so we don’t need the guilt of a growing archive of children’s artwork on top. We feel we have to be sentimental, to preserve their childhoods, but sometimes I choose to preserve my own sanity instead.
I don’t need 14 identical versions of “Mummy with eyes like lopsided dinner plates”, to know how much I’m loved. One is enough. Maybe two, if the second one actually looks like me.
Kirsty Ketley is a parenting consultant and freelance writer
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