Janis P.
My house is covered in gold sparkles and a fine layer of glitter glue. In fact, my 5 year old also seems to always be covered in a fine layer of glitter glue. Before having kids, the very thought of some glue-covered child skipping around the house (leaving a trail of little glittery fingerprints about 3 feet up the wall) would have filled me with dread. But now… well, it makes me smile. A lot.
There he is, scrunched down on the floor underneath the table, one leg sticking into our craft cupboard, concentrating hard on painting a whole lot of black paint onto the world’s thinnest piece of paper, which is now soaked through and stuck to my oak floorboards.
Like most boys I know, his entire painting started out colourful and was then completely covered over in black… but he’s not finished yet, oh no. He’s surrounded by bottles of silver, purple and blue glitter glue, jumbo size paint bottles, and an enormous shaker of gold sparkles, so I know the best and the worst bits are yet to come.
Sure enough, he tries to squeeze the silver glitter glue but it’s sealed shut… so he unscrews the lid and pours a lake of the stuff onto his page. Sits back. Grins. Reaches for the gold sparkles, and… well, you know what it’s like – you can never have too many sparkles.
Before having kids, I always imagined doing crafts with them would be a little like it was at school, or when I used to help out at the local Cubs group. Organised and tidy, with huge plastic sheets across the table and every child wearing a cute little plastic smock.
Nope.
The boy was apparently so excited about getting his painting right that after carefully laying out his plastic sheet across the table, he went off to get the paints and glue and never quite made it out of the cupboard.
And would you believe it, this makes me the happiest mum ever. Sounds cheesy, I know, but so much of their lives are scripted and scheduled and planned to the tiniest detail, especially since starting school. It’s really hard for the kids to really just lose themselves, and when you witness it happening, it’s absolutely magical.
“Look, mummy! I made a pirate ship!“, he says, pointing to a shimmering blue and black glob that will never, ever dry.
His hair is stuck up straight at the front and shimmering too, and there are 8 million gold sparkles on my floor. Instinctively, he reaches out for my hand as he gets up, sticking me to him with tacky glitter glue. He is so happy, so sweet, that I secretly hope it will never come unstuck.
McCain makes Britain’s favourite chips, and takes pride in the quality and care that goes into every mouthful. At the heart is the food McCain prepares and the people around it, from the network of hundreds of potato growers to families looking forward to enjoying the food at home.
Disclosure: Compensation was provided by McCain via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of McCain.
