In the Eye of the Beholder
Zach holds a scrap of paper proudly aloft. “Look what I made!”
I examine it. “Ooo, a little black scribble. I bet it’s an airplane!” Because this is Zach, after all.
“Yeah! A airp’ane!” His smile stretches past his ears, then he hops down from the table.
“I can’t wanna draw any more, Mary.”
Because when you’ve hit perfection, there is no need to strive further.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
© 2006, Mary P
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It's Not All Mary Poppins 
I used to be able to recognize Rochelle’s drawings. They were always dinosaurs; occasionally with a shark poking its nose out of the water.
And a huge sun in the sky.
Easy to please! Gotta like that in a kid.
I’m a little hesitant to tell Ian what he drew, I always ask him to tell me. Then he looks at me blankly as if saying, “It’s lines, what else would it be?”
I have to be very careful about how I word things when talking to Quinn about drawing. If I say, “why don’t you draw a [insert anything here],” I get immediate objection: “No, YOU draw it!”
I have to act completely uninterested until after he’s started, and then wait for him to show me, otherwise I’m the one doing his drawing for him.
Typing this out, I just realized how weird this is.
I do the same thing Kristen does for fear that I will be sucked into a marathon session of, “Mommy, will you draw…”
Granny: The huge sun is such a happy thing! I love it when kids do that.
Angela: What’s not to like??
Mamacita Tina: My usual line is “what a lovely picture! Can you tell me about it?” Nice and open-ended. However, since it’s been at least six months since Zach has drawn (or playdough’ed, or chalked, or played) anything but airplanes, I figured it was a safe bet…
Kristen: Doesn’t sound weird to me, actually. Just sounds like a kid who really needs to be in control of his work, and when he fears that control is going to be taken away, he’d rather just give it away first. (Which keeps him in control, see?) Does that make sense to you, given the child you know?
Misfit Hausfrau: And those sessions, they can go on and on and on and on…
Some days I’m perfectly up for it, and other days? [she looks furtively around her, and says in a hissed whisper] “…Other days it’s” [lowers her voice still further]”… boring!”
Oh absolutely! With my little one it’s always just two or three slight scribbles and then, “there, Mommy. It my art!” In comparison to his classmates’ pieces you’d think he was conserving crayons!