Sometimes you just have to face the hard truths in life.  Like your toddler sucks at art.  Of course I don’t tell The Munch that.  I look at her scribbles and say “that looks exactly like a hedgehog! Its beautiful” like any normal parent.  But inside I know it’s just a bunch of lines.

So I was cleaning up the living room the other day where The Munch had been playing with her Play-Doh.  She had left a few blobs on the table, so I squished one to put it back into the container so the Play-Doh wouldn’t dry out.

Toni: Munch, help me clean u this Play-Doh.

Munch: NO MAMMA NO!!!!!! WAHHHHHHAAAAA NO DON’T DO THAT!!!!!!!!! DON’T SQUISH IT!!! YOU RUINED IT!!! WAAAHHHHAAAA!!

Toni: Whoa! Why are you crying? What’s the matter? I am just cleaning up the globes of Play-Doh?!

Munch: That was my lion!!!!!! You squished the lion that I made!!!! And you ruined my monster!!! WAAAHHHHAAAAAAHHHAAAA!!

I looked down and in my hand was an orange chunk of Play-Doh.  And next to it was a black mush that I had also started cleaning up.  So I am guessing the orange lump was the “lion” and the black one was the “monster.”

Toni: Munch I am so sorry! It was an accident.  I didn’t mean to ruin your lion or monster.  I didn’t know.

Munch: Yes you did know! You saw my lion and monster and you squished them!

Toni: Well, I was just trying to clean up.  I didn’t know it was a lion or monster.  I just didn’t want the Play-Doh to dry out.

Munch: You did know it was a lion and you squished him!!!

I was in kind of a bind.  I could have told The Munch that her lion just looked like a hunk of orange with some fingerprints, and shat all over her artistic integrity.  Or I could have said that I knowingly cleaned up her rather obvious sculpture of a lion because I cared more about saving Play-Doh than her artistic integrity.  It was a lose-lose situation!

Toni: You know Munch.  Not all art is meant for eternity.  Remember when we went to see those monks who were making a Mandala out of sand?  They spent hours working on this piece of art that was so full of detail and beauty.  And then they brought their effort outside, and poured the Mandala into the river as a metaphor for the ethereal nature of life and how nothing is permanent.  So you see? This is a lesson in non-attachment and accepting that the only constant in life is change itself.

Munch: WAAHHHAHAHAHHAAA MY LION AND MY MONSTER!!!!

I guess my words didn’t comfort her….

(Here is the totally realistic rendition of a monster made by The Munch, and her weeping because of my squishing her lion).