Parent Complained About All My Crafts

[SunshineMama]

We do a LOT of crafts/projects. That is how I teach. I send something home every day. Sometimes something as little as a white piece of paper that we drew shapes on and traced our hands. Sometimes a craft project. But something every day. Yesterday, a dcb handed his project to his mom, and she exhaled and said, "Another one?" She then turned to me and said, "Do you mind slowing down on the stuff sent home? It is kind of overwhelming." DCB was kind of crushed, and I just felt hurt as well. I put so much time and thought into what we do. And to find out it isn't being appreciated is very disheartening. My other parents GUSH about the projects and papers. SOOO many times I see that they have posted pics on their facebook pages the kids holding their days project. So I know that for the most part they are very well received. And the kids LOVE doing them. So do I! And they are all learning so much! Most of my 2 year olds know all the basic shapes and colors! They are recognizing some letters too. So I know I am doing a good job. So what do you do with this one parent? Not send their stuff home? That doesn't seem fair to dcb. I thought about asking dcb if I can hang his stuff up here. Not sure what else to do. What would you do?

Um wow dcm!

My kids have way too much arts and crafts. They know that I cant keep it all, so I take a picture of all of their artwork, upload it to shutterfly, and make photobooks out of it, when we have enough pics uploaded. It cuts down on the mess. I share this tip with all of my dcp's and they have never complained about too many crafts.

I am shocked at dcm... really.... "You're investing way too much time and money into my child and teaching them way too much. It's way to inconvenient for me to be bothered to have to look at all of the work my child does." geeze

[MarinaVanessa]

Personally I would just stop sending stuff home. Everything. I'd tell the child that their stuff is so awesome that I want to keep it at DC.

[country girl]

I do sympathize with the amount of crafts that go home. With my own kids I keep everything and then wittle it down from time to time. But for the mom to voice that in front of her child is just plain ignorant to me.
I love the idea of the folder though that someone had. The kids could even make their art into a scrapbook and it could be sent home that way.

[daycare]

I feel for this kid....my son is a hoarder of his art work, or any paper work he makes of any kind.

Well one day I thought he was napping and I went through the massive mile high of his papers/art, kept the really cool ones and threw out a ton.

Well he went out to help big brother take out the trash and guess what he saw. Yup I had to dig it all back out and tell him how sorry I was.

He cried so hard and was so upset with me. He did get over it and in the end we did throw some away, but I felt like dog poo..

I should have gone to him first and talked it over with him and asked him to decide which he wanted to let go of.

I would just love to have an electric shocker that zapped the parents every time they did something stupid...... JK, ok no I am not

[allsmiles]

she shouldnt have made that comment in front of her son..thats the part i dont like.. she could have come to you in private so her son wouldnt have been so disappointed???
i also did not like alot of stuff coming home everyday and i incorporate that in my day care.. we send SELECT items once a week and we have a space by the door with things hung up on the wall for them to show off to their parents

[SilverSabre25]

That's totally poopy of her to say such a thing, and in front of her child! I have WAY too much paper clutter and my DD is a prolific little artist, but I don't even bat an eye when art work comes home from school or other places. I also routinely go through it and toss the ones that don't make me smile or I don't remember the story, or I have 15 that are virtually identical.

BUT

I hesitate to send much home with my dcks because I know how parents can be sometimes (from reading on here). I'm trying to make an art gallery on our walls in our playroom...if only I could find my bulletin board letters...then I'll put up cork strips and use push pins (hush) to put up most of our work.

[LK5kids]

Oh, my!!!!
I have a friend who lives in another city and her provider doesn't do any projects, not even story time and she'd LOVE for her do something with her child even once with her child.

[crazydaycarelady]

That is disheartening. Maybe for ungrateful dcm you could just send the projects home on Fridays.

[Soccermom]

I feel for this kid....my son is a hoarder of his art work, or any paper work he makes of any kind.

Well one day I thought he was napping and I went through the massive mile high of his papers/art, kept the really cool ones and threw out a ton.

Well he went out to help big brother take out the trash and guess what he saw. Yup I had to dig it all back out and tell him how sorry I was.

He cried so hard and was so upset with me. He did get over it and in the end we did throw some away, but I felt like dog poo..

I should have gone to him first and talked it over with him and asked him to decide which he wanted to let go of.

I would just love to have an electric shocker that zapped the parents every time they did something stupid...... JK, ok no I am not

I got caught doing this same thing one time Daycare so I know how awful you feel. I find it very hard to get rid of my children's artwork and crafts which made it even harder. Now each of my children has a bin with their name on it and we put important things in it but my DD would keep EVERYTHiNG so I started hiding the ones I don't want to keep inside a cereal box, then I close it up and throw it in the trash

[seebachers]

stop "making" crafts and let them be creative. They don't have to take home everything they make - finger paint with pudding......cool whip on the table.......mixing colored ice cubes.....textures.......etc. We only "take home" approximately one craft a week. That way parents aren't overwhelmed and both parent and child are excited about their project.

Also, if you are interested, there is a site called Artsonia that you can upload artwork to. The parents then can log onto the website and see their child's artwork and send it to relatives and loved ones around the world. They do try to get you to buy stuff every so often (key chains featuring your child's creative genius) which is a great for Christmas gifts etc.


I do understand where the OP daycare mom is coming from. I refused to throw away everything that my son made in the beginning - it broke my heart to get rid of anything he made and overwhelmed my storage space. I got over it pretty quickly when school started, LOLOLOL.

[countrymom]

I got caught doing this same thing one time Daycare so I know how awful you feel. I find it very hard to get rid of my children's artwork and crafts which made it even harder. Now each of my children has a bin with their name on it and we put important things in it but my DD would keep EVERYTHiNG so I started hiding the ones I don't want to keep inside a cereal box, then I close it up and throw it in the trash

we have a bin too and only keep the special ones, the rest, well they magically go inside a black garbage bag when the kids arent' home. I can't do the cereal box because my kids go in the recycle bin all the time to take the cardboard out

[Mommy2One]

My provider does a lot of crafts, papers, worksheets, etc. She regularly sends home 3 sheets/day. I love that she's doing them - my daughter's learning her numbers/letters/shapes, she's getting to develop her fine motor skills, my daughter enjoys them and it's good practice for school. It sounds like the mother was rude in her wording and hurtful to her son in her timing - not cool - But I can understand that it gets to be too much, especially because at first I felt like I had to save EVERY paper. Now the letter of the week collages go in a notebook, the holiday items get displayed until the holiday is over then boxed up with the other decorations for next year, the best art goes on the fridge for a while then in a keepsake bin and the rest goes quietly into the trash. It seems to work well for clutter control and my daughter has never seemed to notice the missing sheets - maybe because there's enough that gets displayed and praised.

Maybe you could speak to this mom when her son's not around and say something like "Sue, I'm sorry you find the amount of paperwork we send home so overwhelming but it's really important for the kids to do it. It's helping them learn their colors/shapes/numbers/letters, they're developing motor skills like coloring, writing and cutting that will be important in kindergarten and most importantly they enjoy it. I would just keep it here or throw it away but little Billy is so excited to show it to you and I know you wouldn't want to hurt his feelings. If it's getting to be too much to store, maybe you could sneak a few pieces into the trash after he goes to bed. You could also take a picture of him with it, store the best pieces in a scrapbook or upload them to this cool sounding website I heard about called Artsonia (etc.)"