Letters: ‘Cute, but Is It Really Worth Keeping?’
Throw Your Children’s Art Away
“The point of life isn’t to prolong youth, but to have grown up,” Mary Townsend wrote recently, advocating for parents to throw away their children’s art. “That requires discarding things along the way, and enjoying the appropriate relief.”
We have a framed picture of two sunflowers that my son, Sebastian, painted in elementary school. I would never discard that picture, or indeed any of the earlier scribblings from his infancy, later hand-drawn Father’s Day and birthday cards, or sketches made as he grew older. I can’t imagine finding any reason to do so.
Memories fade, become distorted, or retreat into a locked chamber of our minds. Those pictures, however simple or primitive, return to a parent not only the memories of periods of a child’s life but also the emotions of love, pride, and It is so much more than a memory.
