“Mom, Look at Me!”
Now before you all think I am a terrible mom for allowing him to do this, I need to explain how this picture went down.
I had one of those classic “this will be a sweet, wholesome mom moment” ideas—an easy little art project with my son, Everett. You know, the kind where you imagine bonding, maybe a cute finished craft, and at the very least… minimal chaos.
So there we were, sitting at the table with all the supplies: paper, pom-poms, googly eyes, and—my first mistake—a bottle of glue.
Everything started off exactly how you’d hope. Everett was focused, carefully picking out his materials, chatting away, completely in his creative zone. I remember thinking, wow, this is going really well.
And that’s when I made my second mistake.
I turned my head. For maybe—maybe—two seconds. When I turned back around, I was not prepared for what I saw.
Instead of decorating his paper, Everett had apparently decided that he was the art project.
He had glued googly eyes directly onto his eyelids (or at least impressively close), and proudly stuck a bright yellow pom-pom right on his nose like some kind of tiny, chaotic clown masterpiece. Glue was… generously applied. Everywhere.
He looked up at me, completely pleased with himself, as if to say, “Nailed it.”
And honestly? I couldn’t even be mad.
Because this is motherhood in its purest form: you plan a calm, creative moment… and end up with a child who has glued his face into a full craft exhibit in under three seconds.
Needless to say, we spent the next few minutes gently (very gently) deconstructing his “look,” followed by a quick reminder that glue is for paper—not eyeballs.