When the artist is your child, how can you say no to displaying their artwork?

Oh just admit it. Your little one's artwork - while spectacular in its own way - just doesn't "go" anywhere in your home. Here's a little advice passed down from my mama.

So your little angel has made you another squiggle, eh? But only this time, the squiggle is blue, and there's a line running through it! Fun fun! And this time instead of turning away after handing it to you, your precious Picasso stands there expectantly waiting with bated breath as to where you will choose to display the new squiggle piece. So you add it to the other squiggles on the fridge, hoping that he or she doesn't have every one of their squiggles categorically committed to memory so that you can start dropping those suckers little by little into the trash!

Sounds a bit harsh? Well okay, I'm a sucker for squiggles too. As a mom of two burgeoning artists myself, I was often faced with the same issue. My home was always designed in a way that gave little wiggle room for their daily drawings. Soooo, I decided that one room in the home had to become a designated art gallery.

The laundry room.

I got this idea from my mother, so I can't take credit. Growing up I remember that the walls in my moms laundry room were always covered floor to ceiling with me and my sisters art. Art we had made at school, or mothers day cards we had handcrafted, tchotchke's we'd create in pottery class, etc...My mothers pension for always hanging arts and crafts in the laundry room actually served two purposes. As kids when entering the house through the garage we would always see our art displayed proudly, and for my mother it was a way to avoid having to hang construction paper throughout her home.

Now that I'm a mother, I've discovered that there's a third purpose. One that I am sure my mother would agree with. The laundry room is to a home, what a tractor is to a farm. While a tractor can be quite nice, it is still there to serve a utilitarian purpose. No matter how much you love your tractor, a tractor means work. Doing laundry is not fun, but while I'm in my laundry room unloading clothes from the washer for what seems like the 50th time in a day, I look around at the art that surrounds me, and I can't help but smile at how much my children have grown artistically. What once were squiggles, have become butterflies! There are Mothers Day cards too, -two for every year- a physical reminder that I am appreciated. It makes doing laundry a little better when surrounded by such sweet reminders.

So the next time you get handed a paint print of your child's hand on a paper plate, don't panic. Laundry room is there for you!! And remember something else too. Remember that these years - like their art - are precious, and those squiggles won't stay squiggles very long.