Imagine if you will, I'm sure it won't be too hard, that your toddler is bugging you all afternoon to color with her. She doesn't want to color by herself she wants you to stop cleaning the kitchen/cooking dinner/cleaning kitchen again to color in her book with her. Independent play is just not in the cards today.
Finally you get some time to sit down and participate. She hands you a crayon, then she takes that one from you after one swipe to the page and hands you another. Then she shakes her head and takes that one and hands you yet another crayon. Now that young Davinci is happy you're both content and coloring away on your own side of the book.
After a few minutes she looks over at the brightly colored fish you're just finishing. You spent some time on this fish, grabbing extra colors when she's not looking, making the fish orange, purple and green. You're proud of this fish. You're thinking of naming this fish Fred.
When all of a sudden she takes her blue crayon and dramatically colors all over Fred the fish.
"Dude, that was my picture," you tell her.
She looks at you with a face that says Suck it up, Sunshine and declares with all the authority of a young autocrat, "The fish is blue now."
With that she takes the book and all the crayons she can hold and trots away, leaving you holding an orange crayon.
And funny enough, you were really enjoying coloring. The togetherness was nice too but the creative juices were just starting to bubble when they were unceremoniously yanked off the stove. But now she's happily, and quietly, coloring away in another room and all you can do is mutter to the crayon, "Now, ain't that a bitch."
I'm sooo glad to know that I'm not the only one with the juvenile reaction to a toddler coloring over your picture.
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one who gets all zen-like and nostalgic about the smell of the crayons and the way the feel in your hand....only to be interrupted by a 'Mama, I do it now'
ReplyDeleteThis is a great story.
ReplyDeleteI've felt similarly.
Coloring was the one activity that i could do with my daughter that wouldn't cause me to die of boredom (Candyland, i'm looking at you!) But she did get all militant about me using colors other than the norm.
ReplyDeletegiggles
ReplyDeleteWow, been there! But not quite so hilariously. :) I enjoyed every second of that short story, even though I kinda knew how it would end. ;) I got to color an ENTIRE picture at a restaurant yesterday! I guess my 3 year old liked MY coloring better than his own, yay me!! And no, as tempted as I was, I did NOT put his name & age on it and turn it in as his artwork... The thought didn't even cross my mind... okay, fine it did. (But I didn't.)
ReplyDeleteGreat story, told pitch-perfectly. Love this one, Mrs. C.
ReplyDeleteVery funny. I can't wait to see what color she uses on the new baby...snerk. :D
ReplyDeleteLOL!
ReplyDeleteThat happens, what seems like, daily over here...
I know exactly what you are talking about. I love coloring. It is like therapy to me, so I was all excited that my daughter loved coloring too. But I soon found out she was the crayon nazi..or she wanted whatever color I had....or whatever picture I was coloring....or, she for some reason took offense to my color choices and took it upon her self to correct it. Not so much therapy anymore. Now I have my own box of crayons. I never did play well with others. :)
ReplyDeletei gotta say, that's one of the little things that i've tried really hard to get over in the last few years as a nanny. but it still bugs me when they color my page, or destroy my tinkertoy car, or tumble my lego building. i'm always all, "hey, that was mine!" inside my head. :-P
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love it! All that work and the little takes all the fun out of it! Just kind of ruins the moment .... ahhhh!
ReplyDeleteMine are so into .... "do it myself" right now, and I'm not allowed to touch the crayons, or the toys, or the books, or the underwear, or wipe the butts, wash the hands ... but geesh, they let me clean up the mess!
Gotta love them littles!
Tanya
Uhhhhhhh, hellllloooooo. One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue...........
ReplyDeleteShe was right.
I love colouring, LIKE LOVE IT, as much as the play clay thing but holy dang do I have lil' dictator over here. It's crazy how bossy they can be. There has been some crying (on my part) on the destruction of my creations. Okay, not some but lots.
ReplyDeleteThat happens here all the time. Dude, they are dictators. They choose our colors, tell us what to color, and then just to screw with us, they destroy our masterpieces. LOL.
ReplyDeleteI'll tell ya. I hate when that happens. She does it so often, that now I refuse to color with her anymore.
ReplyDelete(I have my own coloring book....I whip it out some nights after her bedtime)
A good friend of mine asked for and received a coloring book and crayons for her 40th birthday. It's totally zen. And fun! I don't mind coloring inside the lines at all. I just being told how to do it.
ReplyDeleteThe other day, when I was off on a similar rant about The Mayor, my friend Michael said,
ReplyDelete"You know, it's unreasonable of you to expect him to use adult interpersonal skills with you since he's just a child."
So, I'm asking you... is it ok if I slap Michael?
Heh.
Kids. Been there.
ReplyDeleteChicky, play nice. Fer chrissake.
ReplyDeleteLike a few others here, I had to buy my own crayons. And colouring books. Because colouring with Isaac always turns out the same way.
ReplyDeleteTurns out colouring is very therapeutic, and zen. But not when a tiny dictator is giving you all the crappy colours and then "adding" to your picture just as you're finishing.
oh, toddlers. god love 'em.
ReplyDeleteColoring, especially in a coloring book is one of my favorite activities with the boys. I like the artisticness of choosing the colors but the rigidness of the preordained picture. I agree with the many who called it Zen.
ReplyDeleteI do hate it when they ruin a perfectly good picture.
Oh my gawd, my 2 1/2 year old does the.same.thing. Colors all over my much thought about picture!
ReplyDeleteHeh. The girl likes to be in charge. I know a 9 year old boy who is very, very similar. When he was younger, he used to "direct" our pretend play by telling me what to say. If I didn't stick to the dialogue, he became very perturbed with me.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, I did it just to watch him get irate. I couldn't help it. It was so funny. "No Mommy! You no say THAT. You say.... RIGHT NOW."
Just remember what DO's therapist told me..."Strong willed children are the leaders of tomorrow."
i've come to adopt a relaxing chant which i implement during these crises during activities:
ReplyDeletenone of this shit matters
none of this shit matters
and so on. and such.
LOL!!!!!
ReplyDeleteOmg, that's hilarious!
And yes, you just reminded me of a time I was ordered to draw a princess, and was then tortured for a half hour with a screaming tantrum because I drew my princess too well. Well, jeez, I already let them win at checkers. I have to draw the line somewhere! (No pun intended.)
My youngest used to do the same thing...I had forgotten about that little quirk until now.
ReplyDeleteOh and I totally love to color. Sometimes I even do it when *gasp* the kids are in school! Heheh...
Absolutely beautifully told. One of my challenges as a mother is to realize that Thalia fucks up my shit and there's nothing I can do about it.
ReplyDeleteI love it! We have similar experience every time coloring comes up - I enjoy coloring, but really do loathe when my picture gets destroyed. It must be my inner-kindergartener kicking in!
ReplyDeleteOrange you glad that fish is blue?
ReplyDeleteIt makes me wonder how they muster up all that toddler gusto.
It doesn't get any better when they're older either and you're trying to help them with an art project only to realize that your "helping" is unappreciated and they secretly paint over all your hard work when they think you're not watching.
ReplyDeleteBrats.
I thought I was the only one to pout when my artwork was colored over. Glad I'm not alone!
ReplyDeleteI have so BTDT - many times. Once, I was particularly proud of the Zoe I'd colored - even using two tones of orange in her hair and fur when WHAM! Same thing. Man was I pissed.
ReplyDelete