This Is Why Mom Should Just Do It

Last year I instituted a very good rule – thee who cannot decorate a Valentines box all by herself shall take a Target bag to school in lieu of a Valentine box. It’s not a rule that rolls off the tongue easily, but it’s definitely one that is easy to get behind.

Last year was a very good year.

This year, though, Mila was capable of decorating. Not just that, she had opinions. She started asking to decorate a box weeks ago and then went into intricate detail explaining exactly what needed to be done. I am weak and I am dumb, so I went for it.

She wanted an LOL Pet. Like, a cat. It was to be white and have pink and purple hair and a fancy tail and … I succeeded. I helped her put together exactly what she wanted.

BUT.

That pesky “decorate it yourself” thing turned out to be a problem. Mila wasn’t just capable of decorating her own box; she insisted. My minor league control issues played into the game, so I took care of all of the white paper, but there was no reason to stop Mila from helping with the kitty’s hair.

OMG. There were a million reasons I should have done it myself.

Mila wasn’t content to “help.” She wanted to do it all by herself, thankyouverymuch. Each and every little hair had to be applied by Mila or she would rip off my accomplishments and start over.

One.

Little.

Curly.

Hair.

At.

A.

Time.

That’s like 72 hours of my life I can never get back. Mila would apply glue, think about where the hair should go, realize the glue was dry, and go back to the beginning. It, no joke, took her 10 minutes per little hair.

Life was much simpler when Target bags were good enough.