Everyone has habits. Idiosyncrasies that develop over time. Just the way things are done according to you. You really dont know you have these habits really....until...you become a parent. And then every single one of your habits, idiosyncrasies becomes glaringly obvious. Something will happen, your kids will do or say something and you see it. you never noticed it before, but then BANG there it is. In glaring neon lights.
For me, its the way you play with play dough. YOU DONT MIX THE COLORS! Its so simple. The red playdough goes in the red playdough jar, the green in the green jar, the purple in the purple and so on and so forth. You play gently with small amounts from the jars, making adorable little shapes, fruits, trays..... an array of colors perfectly crafted to show creativity and an afternoon well spent as mama and munchkin time. Or so I imagined it would be as I stood in Walmart convincing myself to buy the set of 12 playdough jars for $8.49 when I could easily get the four small jars of basic colors from the dollarstore. This one had more colors, it would give Munchkin options. The wonders we would create together with all those colors... or so I told myself as I envisioned the perfect adult use of play dough.
The thing I forgot to consider as I placed the $8.49 tray of playdough in my cart was this...Munchkin is 2 1/2, she isnt interested in my ideas of how to play with the playdough. No siree. This kiddo has tons of ideas for the playdough. And none of them involved not mixing the playdough. In fact, Munchkin took the most pleasure in stacking small pancakes of different colors and using a small rolling pin to make a large multi colored pancake.
"look what I made for you Mama, PANCAKE!"
I tried showing her, tried explaining to her, tried getting upset, tried making rules about no mixing colors. I tried so hard. So very hard to save my colors and all the creativity that was to be inspired from the purity of the playdough colors. But she mixed and mixed the play dough.....pancake after pancake was created.
and now..
we have twelve perfect small jars of this gray/blue mish mashed colored play dough..... It broke my heart. Because of course, for me these jars were now useless,,,,,how could we make bananas when the yellow was more puke colored, how could we created watermelons when the red was actually black.....I didnt even realize it mattered to me, this no mixing of the playdough, until I watched munchkin press together with her hands a small ball of white and purple playdough. The glaring neon lights went off.
but for the Munchkin, it didnt matter that the colors were all messed up. She still loves playing with the twelve jars of grey/blue playdough and making those bananas and watermelons. The issues with the playdough were mine. Not hers.
I had missed the point. I was so busy maintaining the integrity of the playdough colors that I forgot to enjoy playing with my girl. I missed the main point of the playdough. It was to have fun, to enjoy the play dough however she wanted to. To give her the tools to be creative and to sit back and let that creativity take place. So goddamn hard for a control freak like myself. So damn hard.
So today, Munchkin and I spent a good part of the afternoon making grey/blue bananas and watermelons, cherries, sandwiches and so many other shapes and things. It was fun. We had fun. and honestly it was the first time I walked away from playdough having had fun and without getting upset at the Munchkin.
Of course, in true Munchkin fashion just as I was accepting the grey blue playdough, she turned and says Mama dont mix the colours. No mix playdough. Didnt know quite how to tell her that she missed the boat on the playdough color purity.
For me, its the way you play with play dough. YOU DONT MIX THE COLORS! Its so simple. The red playdough goes in the red playdough jar, the green in the green jar, the purple in the purple and so on and so forth. You play gently with small amounts from the jars, making adorable little shapes, fruits, trays..... an array of colors perfectly crafted to show creativity and an afternoon well spent as mama and munchkin time. Or so I imagined it would be as I stood in Walmart convincing myself to buy the set of 12 playdough jars for $8.49 when I could easily get the four small jars of basic colors from the dollarstore. This one had more colors, it would give Munchkin options. The wonders we would create together with all those colors... or so I told myself as I envisioned the perfect adult use of play dough.
The thing I forgot to consider as I placed the $8.49 tray of playdough in my cart was this...Munchkin is 2 1/2, she isnt interested in my ideas of how to play with the playdough. No siree. This kiddo has tons of ideas for the playdough. And none of them involved not mixing the playdough. In fact, Munchkin took the most pleasure in stacking small pancakes of different colors and using a small rolling pin to make a large multi colored pancake.
"look what I made for you Mama, PANCAKE!"
I tried showing her, tried explaining to her, tried getting upset, tried making rules about no mixing colors. I tried so hard. So very hard to save my colors and all the creativity that was to be inspired from the purity of the playdough colors. But she mixed and mixed the play dough.....pancake after pancake was created.
and now..
we have twelve perfect small jars of this gray/blue mish mashed colored play dough..... It broke my heart. Because of course, for me these jars were now useless,,,,,how could we make bananas when the yellow was more puke colored, how could we created watermelons when the red was actually black.....I didnt even realize it mattered to me, this no mixing of the playdough, until I watched munchkin press together with her hands a small ball of white and purple playdough. The glaring neon lights went off.
but for the Munchkin, it didnt matter that the colors were all messed up. She still loves playing with the twelve jars of grey/blue playdough and making those bananas and watermelons. The issues with the playdough were mine. Not hers.
I had missed the point. I was so busy maintaining the integrity of the playdough colors that I forgot to enjoy playing with my girl. I missed the main point of the playdough. It was to have fun, to enjoy the play dough however she wanted to. To give her the tools to be creative and to sit back and let that creativity take place. So goddamn hard for a control freak like myself. So damn hard.
So today, Munchkin and I spent a good part of the afternoon making grey/blue bananas and watermelons, cherries, sandwiches and so many other shapes and things. It was fun. We had fun. and honestly it was the first time I walked away from playdough having had fun and without getting upset at the Munchkin.
Of course, in true Munchkin fashion just as I was accepting the grey blue playdough, she turned and says Mama dont mix the colours. No mix playdough. Didnt know quite how to tell her that she missed the boat on the playdough color purity.
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