If I had to hazard a guess, I’d estimate that by the time they’re about six years old, each child on Earth produces approximately 842 million metric tons of art. And that doesn’t even include the projects your kid brings home from Woodshop. For instance, check out this massive apparatus that Harlow brought home a few weeks ago.

Not only is it HUGE (hand is in picture for scale), it’s also super delicate because she hasn’t learned how to use a hammer and nails yet. Everything is GLUED. It is currently taking up every inch of space on the top of our credenza with no where else to go. We can’t even touch it, for fear it will fall apart. Poppy came over the other day and I suggested that she gift it to him. They both seemed to be on board but then Poppy forgot to take it when he left, which I have a sneaking suspicion was NOT AN ACCIDENT.

As far as all the other masterpieces, there is only so much room to hang things up on the fridge, so sometimes parents have to get creative about what to do with all those precious works of art.

You can try to incorporate the artwork into your decor…

 

If it’s the right season, maybe you can store it on the front porch for a few months?

 

And depending on the subject matter, you might hide it in a box in a dark corner of the basement to make sure your kid’s teacher never sees it.

Or, if you’re super creative and supportive, you can use your dinosaur-loving son’s drawings to create an animated movie, have your little artiste provide narration and then throw out a crapload of drawings in one fell swoop. True story.

“Nathan was very clear about the story he wanted to tell and how he wanted it to look,” Allen Mezquida, a totally above average dad, said of his 4-year-old son. “I did my best to stay true to his vision.”

Nathan’s vision includes some cool dinosaur facts, a little bit of dinosaur carnage, and a whole lot of awesome—while his dad’s vision includes fewer papers flapping around on the front of the fridge. (At least, that’s my guess.) Everybody wins!

I don’t know. It seems like a lot of work. I think I’ll just throw out Harlow’s woodshop project when she’s sleeping and then pretend a robber stole it in the middle of the night.

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