Why crafts with a 12 month old are a challenge

I’m a serial ‘Pinterest’ pinner mummy.  I love to scroll for hours pinning ideas of things to do with the kids.  Looks I like, clothes, hairstyles, interior design etc.  I pin lots of activities I plan on doing with Penny for example. Below are some examples I thought would be easy enough to do with my (only just) 12 month old, so off I went to find some black paint.

http://mamapapabubba.com/2014/04/23/iphoneography-spider-activities/

Now I know that I said I love Pinterest, but I am by no means a ‘Pinterest Mummy’.  I’m pretty rubbish when it comes to re-creating the fantastically gorgeous things you see on there created by what to me seem like super mums. I thought I’d give it a go for the memories at least, and in a way put pressure on myself to take part because that’s what you are supposed to do. Right?

Well today we gave it a go. And I realised a few things while doing this activity and I thought that I would share them with you so that if you too decide to do a craft activity with your child, that you are doing it for the right reasons, because the younger they are, you need to think, who is benefiting from you doing it? Because unless the answer is your child, I would perhaps think again.

So, my reasons that any crafts with a 12 month old are hard.

1. They don’t really care about the outcome.  As parents, we see the perfect outcomes of craft activities which let’s be fair, make us ALL look bad. But they really shouldn’t. These were more than likely either a) created by a much older child b) created with a LOT of adult participation or c) created by an incredibly gifted child who needs to be signed up to some sort of art university for toddlers. So don’t lose heart that your child’s masterpiece isn’t deemed as Pinterest worthy as you’d like.  Chances are, your 12 month old couldn’t care less.
2. Mess.  If you have ever tried to stop a toddler from touching anything with dirty hands, then you will understand this one.  They run! And when dealing with black paint, you had better be able to run faster than they can!
3. They don’t particularly like following directions.  Most of the craft ideas you see online are aimed at older children. Even though I chose one that to me looked like it was simple enough, I hadn’t factored in Penny not actually WANTING to do it properly.

4.  They just want to get MESSY! Don’t get me wrong, this is a good enough reason to do the activity anyway, as getting messy is fun! But if you are after a carbon copy of the one you found online… I’d think again. Oh and as a rule of thumb a bath ready to plunge your grotty pup into straight after is my pro-tip :)

Penny loved doing this activity thankfully. Do we have a fantastic looking 8 legged spider hand print with googly eyes ready to display in a gallery? Erm not quite,  but we love our fridge gallery more anyway.

Not quite a spider, but Mummy loves it anyway

Do you have any craft ‘disaster’ stories? Are you a pinterest mummy ready to prove that it’s possible? I’d love to hear from you.