Should there be instructions for glue?

I thought, hmm, I bet my kids would love to do a craft.  How about some foam pirates and hula dancers, this should be easy enough.  I can help out in the beginning and get some stuff done in the kitchen.  I will be mom of the year!

Well, reality hit about an hour later with the glue bottle now empty.  My sweet, but almost always misunderstood 4 year old son took this project on, ambitiously!  My always initial reaction is why did you have the intent on destroying everything? But I just sent him in to clean up.  As I surveyed the damage and tried not to cry at the obvious misery I would have to work at to clean, I soon started seeing little people.?

 

If you look carefully, you can see a few of them on the table.  A since of relief hit me, that he was really trying here, I just had to be willing to look beyond the glue.  As the head house maid in the family, it is hard to look past the glue.

I did get it all cleaned up, relatively easily.  I put the people aside to dry and scraped all the extra foam pieces.  From there I left it alone for a few hours.  My wonderful husband came home to tell me “You didn’t want to clean that up before the table got ruined?” Ahh, men!  Well, that evening I just pealed the dried glue off the table and the table was fine.

 

I do have to say, having now 3 girls and 1 boy, my attitude and demeanor is often frustrated with the wild ways of a boy.  sometimes it feels like it is smooth sailing running through the day with the girls and the entire time I am fighting with my son to stop making waves.  ( My best analogy would be a day with girls is like a yoga class and the day with a boy is like hip hop aerobics, one relaxed and one high energy) Add on this being insanely tired from having a newborn that I am nursing, it is easy to say I can get snappy at the wave maker. 

I was so thankful, that I sent him inside initially when I was shocked at seeing the mess.  Having him in another room allowed me to completely take in the picture with out him continuing to make more wakes.  This allowed me to see his accomplishment and praise him for it.  I wish I had a stop button for time, so I can do more taking in the whole picture during all the ciaos, so I could easily see and praise the effort , instead of reacting to the mess.

~trish