It begins with the tiny ink footprints you bring home from the hospital, and gains speed as your child enters day care or preschool: macaroni mosaics, toothpick bridges, beaded necklaces, paper plate tambourines, tree ornaments, ceramic sculptures, tissue paper flowers with pipe cleaner stems. Self-portraits in six different mediums. Every holiday, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Friday, last day of school.
Each piece of paper or lump of clay that your child leaves their mark on is a precious memento of their all-to-transient youth.
On the other hand? It is mostly trash — sometimes literally trash ― when recycled materials have been incorporated. Most of us don’t have the physical space to keep it all, even if we wanted to. And who wants a house full of piles of papers and paper-mache sculptures and other junk-y looking stuff?
Here, some of Twitter’s funniest parents reflect on the eternal question of what to do with the deluge of kid art.
3yo: are you throwing away my art?
— Marcy G (@BunAndLeggings) October 9, 2020
Me, throwing her art: no, I was taking it out of the trash because someone put it there
3yo: that's not nice!
Me: I know right!
I hold onto my kid’s art projects so that one day, many years from now, they can look at them briefly before tossing them in the garbage.
— Mommy Owl (@Lhlodder) October 10, 2019
When I ask my kids to help with the recycling but forgot that I recycled their precious art
— Jason (@JasonCoward2) February 6, 2019
GARBOFLAGE (GARR-bo-flaj) v.:
— VeryClever (@VeryCleverTees) February 6, 2019
To hide your kids’ art projects under other trash in the waste basket so they don’t find it.#TheKidDictionary
My 4 yr old at the time, found a wrapper with a few lines he drew on the back, in the trash. He cried for 40 minutes and lectured me on why I don’t value his work or love him.
— Desiré (@drearyfeminist) February 7, 2019
Luckily my kids don’t actually know how to throw anything into the trash can, so my secret is safe for years to come!
— 𝔸𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕒 (@manda_tee1) February 6, 2019
GOOD IDEA: A service that stages a burglary but only steals your kids art. Makes kids think their drawings are valuable and gets that garbage out of the house.
— Dude-Bro Dad (@thedadvocate01) November 5, 2021
I’d love to have another kid but where would we put their art
— Molly Erdman (@erdmanmolly) July 26, 2018
I’d have a lot more appreciation for arts and crafts if the first thing kids crafted was somewhere to put all this fuckin art.
— The Dad (@thedad) June 12, 2022
You’ll hear parents say that the one blessing that has come out of virtual school is that our kids haven’t brought home any viruses this year, but we all know deep down that the real blessing is that they haven’t brought home any macaroni art.
— Lurkin' Mom (@LurkAtHomeMom) March 1, 2021
Ooh 5yo is a savage! Time to throw out some kid art as payback 🤣
— Some Boys' Mother (@someboysmother) November 12, 2019
Being a mom is basically 93% hiding your kid’s art under other trash when you throw it away.
— Toulouse and Tonic (@toulouseNtonic) June 21, 2018
My deepest fear:
— Mommy Owl (@Lhlodder) February 5, 2019
5.
4.
3.
2.
1. My kids open the lid of our trashcan and discover what I’ve been doing with all of their art projects.
8yo: the baby put my art in the trash again!
— Marcy G (@BunAndLeggings) September 12, 2019
Me: *looks at camera like Jim Halpert*
In the midst of a nasty tantrum my 3yo ripped apart one of his art projects and threw it in the trash. I would have been upset but tbh it wasn’t his best work and ended up where it belonged.
— WTFDAD (@daddydoubts) April 4, 2020
Toddler finding his art in the trash: MY LIFE’S WORK!
— Dude-Bro Dad (@thedadvocate01) May 22, 2021
4 Year Old asked for her drawing to be kept with her other art work.
— Vinod Chhaproo (@Chhapiness) January 30, 2018
Didn’t want to be a bad parent and throw it in garbage, so I neatly folded it and threw in the recycle bin
I used to complain this place looked like a dump. Then my kindergartner brought home art made from recycled materials and now my house is filled with actual garbage I'm forbidden to throw away.
— Unremarkable Files (@ThatEvansLady) November 11, 2018
Awake to angry small faces, yesterday's scribble art found in garbage. Teethgnashing, rage. At what age to grasp economics of selectivity?
— Nichole Bernier (@NicholeBernier) October 15, 2008
I'm the mom who throws my child's construction-paper-glued-to-construction-paper-with-bingo-dotter-stamps-and- gobs-of-god-forsaken-glitter art in the garbage. At school. I'm so hardcore. #parenting #howdidigetglitterinmyeye
— Doc McMuffins (@Cynical_Parent) July 23, 2018
I am dumbstruck. My wife and children’s gift to me. A collage of my children’s art going back 40 years. I love every square inch of it pic.twitter.com/Vf8IRQfI4k
— Marc Garneau (@MarcGarneau) February 22, 2022
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Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.
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