At daycare, they spend a lot of time doing artwork. Every week, I'm bringing home at LEAST six art projects of all shapes and sizes and made of all sorts of... things. And today, Ive got a confession to make. Just seeing most of these atrocities in Mason's cubby make me cringe.

I feel like, as a mother, I should be so excited to see each and every art project made by my little boy's fingers. I should be wowwed by his mad art skills and have his creations hanging all over my house.

Instead, it's just about exactly the opposite. I throw 90% of it straight into the garbage. Tinfoil with pudding rubbed on it? Garbage. Dead grass glued to a piece of paper? Garbage. Construction paper that was "colored" with ice cubes? Trash. A coloring book page with two lines scribbled on it? Garbage.

We're still at the stage where Mason shows no recognition to any "project" we bring home, so I don't feel TOO badly throwing them away, but I feel like I'm missing some sort of important gene that makes me incredibly excited about every crayon stroke he makes. Instead, I'm going "OMG, what do they expect me to do with a 10x14 paper with corn glued on it!?" I know from a clutter standpoint, we're suppose to either scan or take a picture of the artwork so then we will have a photo to treasure instead of a giant wad of paper triangles glued to a coffee filter, but I'm not even moved enough to find this stuff photo worthy.

But I mean, really? Look at yesterday's artwork....

(Yep, you're seeing that right - a full piece of paper with some orange scribbles)

Don't get me wrong, we keep a piece here and there and even have some stuff hanging on the fridge and we offer everything we possibly can to the grandparents. But most of it goes into the trash and some of it gives me the willies - I mean, can chunks of food glued to paper really be a good long term thing keepsake?!

So, is there a special place in Mommy hell for me? PLEASE tell me you guys don't keep every piece of art that your tiny "would rather eat the crayon than color a picture with it" toddler does....

This time last year - Motherhood has Taken Over My Brain

PS - the lovely leaf  "art" up top? He obviously had help with it because you can see his tiny light scribble marks in one portion of the leaf and then the dark marks are all way harder than anything he's ever done before and mysteriously well within the lines. Even the teachers must feel bad about the quality of one year old art LOL