Getting a Lesson in Abstract Painting from My Daughter. (Can you guess which bunny is hers and which is mine?)

It may sound cliche, but not a day goes by that my little girl doesn’t teach me something about motherhood, childhood, myself or just life in general. One moment that’s been on my mind just occurred this past Friday. My daughter and I were doing an Easter painting  project with large plastic bunnies I purchased at Target. Since I’m a big kid at heart, I purchased one for her and one for me so that we could both have a little fun.

As we got started with the project, I labored over what colors to use and if I should use some painter’s tape to ensure that my lines were straight. I even thought of drawing a little sketch of how I wanted my bunny to look so that it would be perfect. My soon-to-be three year old, on the other hand, was just excited to be creative with the paint and wanted to use all of the colors. She was eager to mix the yellow and blue together to make green while I tried to keep the colors separate on my little painting plate and warned her not to dip the brush in the different color paints because it would change the color. I even found myself making commentary on her bunny, in a cheerful yet judging way. “Your bunny sure does have a lot of paint everywhere, Quinine!”

At that moment, I stopped and briefly thought about what I was doing. I was stifling her fun and making a great activity into work and projected my a perfectionist ways onto my daughter. Though she did not appear to be bothered by what I realized I was doing, it bothered me because I want her to enjoy being a kid and to explore her creativity. She actually taught me to relax and to not worry so much about everything being perfect. Sometimes it’s nice to just have a little fun without following all of the so-called rules and expectations.  In the end, we both enjoyed painting our bunnies, and I am looking forward to more teachable moments courtesy of my daughter.

All the best,

Tanya