I'm Not A Perfect Mom, But At Least I Have a Craft Closet

Yesterday started out well. Son got off to school on time and was in a great mood. We were happy because his newly tailored pants were staying firmly up -- a huge victory since he's a rather slim kid and his pants tend to slide down lower than a homeboy’s. I was productive with my writing. Baby was her squishy, crawling, clapping, happy self. My husband and I were looking forward to a relaxing evening. We have some friends in from out of town who are staying with us. My husband was all set to make a fantastic steak dinner. Wine, steak, sleeping children, catching up with old friends – who could ask for more? We also were looking forward to a visit from another dear, old friend and her husband who were also in from out of town and wanted to pop by for a quick meet and greet with the baby. All that we needed to accomplish beforehand was homework with our son, a fast pick up of the house and a bit of last minute grocery shopping. 

And then it hit. Like a Tsunami. Without warning. Deadly. My husband was pulling out the homework from our son’s backpack when he found a suspicious pink handout titled, Valentine News!!!!, with a note at the top from the teacher written in bright red marker that said, “2^nd note. H says you didn’t get this. SK”

Apparently, there was a Valentine’s Day project due the next day, the 14^th. The class was having a special “Pink & Red” Valentine breakfast (which we did know about and had contributed 26 water bottles toward), followed by the exchanging of Valentine's Day cards (which we did not know about), then after recess the children were going to put their Valentines in their Valentine mailboxes (which was the class’ monthly project and something we most certainly had no knowledge whatsoever about).  Terror struck. Tensions rose. It was already past 3 o’clock.

My husband and I scrutinized the handout trying to ascertain how much work this mailbox project would actually take. We asked our son had he known about the project and if so, why hadn’t he told us? We couldn't get a clear answer out of him. Over the weekend I vaguely remember asking him if his class was exchanging Valentine's Day cards this year. He said, and I quote, "No." I should have known better. This is grade school. Kids exchange Valentines. 

After a flurry of emails with our son’s teacher, the mystery was solved. Turns out, since our son had been out of school all last week due to an illness and he also had missed a day at the beginning of the month, he didn't receive the handout. And because his teacher had been sick herself last week, she didn't realize he hadn't made a mailbox until yesterday. Finally, our son confessed that he had seen the other children’s finished mailboxes piling up in the classroom and knew he was supposed to make one too, but for some unexplained reason he didn't want to tell us. We never did get to the bottom of why that was. It probably had something to do with the fact that he would rather come home after school and play Star Wars than do an obligatory craft project. Or maybe he just didn't want to do it, which is understandable. Neither did we.

My husband and I knew we were f***ed, but we slapped on smiles and gallantly told ourselves (and him in what seemed like an episode of Parenthood) that team Smith could do it all –  help our son do the Valentine’s mailbox project, as well as write out 26 cards that we hadn’t even bought yet, then coach him through his homework, all the while chasing after a crawling baby, then feeding both son and baby, bathing them and putting them to bed. Finally, we would pick up the house and make a perfect dinner for our friends – oh and also, at some point, we would give a quick hug to our dear friend who wanted to meet the baby.
 

While my husband made H a snack, I ran to the family craft closet to gather supplies for the project. Yes, I’m proud to say we have a craft closet. It’s one of my small victories as a mom. If you don’t have one, I suggest you try to make one if you want to save tons of time and aggravation when unexpected craft projects fall out of the sky.  Truth is, you don’t need a closet, or even a lot of space really. All you need is some vessel to hold all your crafty junk: construction paper, yarn, paint, buttons, scraps of ribbon, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, markers, stickers, a glue gun, etc. You probably could even use a brown paper shopping bag and shove it under your bed.

My point is that having craft supplies on hand is a huge help. In this case, it saved the day. I’m happy to report we got the project finished, along with all the other parental responsibilities for the evening. We still had our dinner with friends, although we did have to table the homemade steak, opting for a less stressful meal of Thai take-out instead.