The Other Moms May Hate You, But Your Kids Will Love You

My son Cash and I sit down together every year to make our own Valentine's Day cards for his class. I'd like to say that we come up with the ideas on our own but we usually take them from one of the parenting magazines I get, like Family Fun or Parenting or Parents.

This year we made mini rockets.The ones that we saw in a magazine said something like "You Blast Me Away" but Cash didn't like that. It made him nervous, thinking that he would blast off into space, so we brainstormed and came up with "U Rock It!"

 

The craft called for wrapping colored paper around a roll of Lifesavers but Walgreens didn't have any rolls so I got little packages of candy bracelets. While they weren't exactly round, they worked fine. Cash cut out the paper to go around each one for the 19 kids in his class and his teachers. The rockets are supposed to have flames coming out the back, so Cash cut out little hearts with pointy peaks and we taped them to the bottom. I flattened out the top of each and we used a glue gun to fasten Hershey kisses for the rocket tip. They came out great and were fun to make. So if you need a last minute idea, we made these during one quarter of the Super Bowl!

I once blogged about doing this for my son's preschool class and attracted a ton of hateful comments from parents who said that I should just go out and buy Valentine's Day cardsbecause I was setting the bar too high for other parents. I don't fault parents who don't have the time or inclination to make Valentines with their kids but my son and I love to do crafts together. Although I do often come off as the uber mom, it isn't out of some competition, it is because I love doing stuff like this. Yes, my kid's birthday parties are over the top but I love the event planning side of it and the obsessive attention to details. So I'm not trying to make you look bad!

Comments

[Heather]

Wow! I guess I never thought of it that way (and am very glad I have only had nice comments on all our projects). We love to do craft projects too, so I can't imagine it any other way. But I certainly do not judge the parents when my kids bring home store-bought valentine's either! Yikes!!!

BTW, the rockets are super cute!!!

[Deborah]

I think parents who give you a hard time or judge you about the things you decide to do with your child have their own issues they are dealing with (inadequacy, guilt, low self-esteem,etc).

I think that it's great if you can spend the time (and enjoy) to craft with your son. I haven't got the time or the inclination (not at ALL crafty). Don't worry about what all the haters think, it's their problem, not yours.