Dirty Secret Saturday

My best friend, Megan, got together with a couple of other bloggers and decided to put together a link up called “Dirty Secret Saturday”. You can read about it here. It’s just an opportunity to share a hidden something in a place where judgment is checked at the door. The link up came at a perfect time for me. I have something I really need to get off my chest. My own demon of a dirty little secret…

I throw away most of the stuff my kid brings home from school.                                                                                   

There. I said it.

Not all of it. I swear I keep the important stuff. But this kid brings home an INSANE amount of “Busy Work”. Worksheets and graphs and things that I’m sure he’s worked really, really hard on. I feel guilty when I throw it away. You can tell by the fact that I pile things on top of the drawings and math sheets and word puzzles so he won’t find out I threw away his work. I don’t know what else to do with it. There’s no place for it. It takes over my entire house if I don’t throw it away. Packing it away would not fix the problem. The boxes would take over and my house would, honest to God, look like an episode of Hoarders.  

I know I’m not the only one. In fact, a friend of mine just confessed she was guilty of the same thing as she tossed a pile of it in the garbage while our kids played outside. Her pantry door, like my refrigerator door, is covered in various pieces of art created by her 5 year old. I’m sure you’ll find homemade projects in various forms of glue and glitter in her holiday boxes, tucked away so they will be joyfully removed and hung around the house once a year. They will be enjoyed. They will no doubt create nostalgia as she, like myself, looks back at years gone by and remembers the smell of kindergarten. Then, when the hearts are removed or the turkey is eaten or the tree is put away, those beautiful works of art go back in the box and they don’t get looked at again for 12 months.

I’m not a completely horrible mother. I do keep stuff. But, I throw more away.

It might not seem like much of a secret. If I got one mom to confess, I’m sure there are plenty more. It does, however, feel kind of dirty to me.  

Here’s why.

I’m a creator of printed things. I write. I write a lot of stuff that isn’t very good. I keep it anyway. It’s important to me. It’s my work. I honestly don’t believe Logan feels this way about most of the stuff he brings home, but even if he feels a little like that, I’m convinced I’m screwing him up.  

When I throw away Logan’s printed things, I feel like I’m robbing him of something. His creative process. His toil.

Is this insane?

Probably.

But I tell you what…It sure feels good to let it out!

Cheers to Dirty Secret Saturday. I really do feel so much better.