St. Patricks Day

 I've read a few posts and a bunch of comments about mixed feelings from parents with the whole St. Patrick's Day holiday.  Asking for people to simplify, and lower expectations among kiddos out there.  To completely ignore the holiday that never was anything in the past.  And, I couldn't agree more that so many kids are expecting so much more because they are constantly presented with - more.

At the same time, I have a builder (see pics below).  And this kid can create.  On a different occasion (I didn't get pics of this one), I had some time to sit with this guy when all he wanted to do was build with mom.  Then he had an idea that we should make dinosaurs out of legos.  Easy enough right?  As I began constructing my triceratops, I quickly realized this was a bit more complicated than I had originally pictured in my mind.  Minutes had barely ticked by, when Max says, "I'm done with my t-rex!  Now I'm doing the brachiosaurus!"  He then glances at my creation and says, "mom, what is that?  I thought we were going to build dinosaurs!"  Sigh.  I tell myself.  But still holding a bit of pride, I respond, "yep.  we are, I was just getting these together for Alexis really quick, and them I'm on it."  Three creations later, I was still stuck on my first triceratops, and finally let him take over.  Which he then fixed mine completely to resemble what I wanted it to be.

Back to the holiday.  I see nothing wrong with handing your kids a bunch of stuff from the recycle bin to have fun creating a trap.  I don't see that as overwhelming.  Nor is it for the set up of a little leprechaun mess and some gold coins on the table for the morning.   Allowing direction for them to create something is just fantastic in my book.  Max loves it so much, St. Patrick's Day has made the top 3 of his favorite holidays - and it's not because of what he's receiving!  This comes in slightly higher than Halloween in his book.  He can't think of anything better than the excuse to create something.

I think the real point of all these holidays is that they are reminders for families to create and establish traditions.  And, it's our jobs as parents to figure out which traditions work for our families.  It's not about the presentation, or the perfection, but instead the simplicity and the feeling of love.

While I'd love to say that we build random traps out of recycled materials throughout the year, we don't.  We most often catch ourselves in the routine of life.  If a holiday can remind me that it's pretty dang fun to pull out some serious creativity from the recycle bin, then I'm all for it.