Parenting in the age of social media can be a bit overwhelming. On Facebook I am of the age where many of my Facebook friends have kids. Besides the funny things kids do, most posts are saying how great their child is. Not many parents are posting about the horrible things their child has done. In addition, you get pushed the views of some parents. So scrolling through you can feel like people have a perfect life and a perfect child (because of what they post) and also feel judged (or judge others) by what gets posted. It can be a lot to take in.
Then there is Pinterest. Here you see all of these wonderful things; recipes, crafts, decorating, DIY. While scrolling through I feel excited and motivated to be this amazing person and mom doing all of these things. The percentage of things I have “pinned” to what I have actually completed it pretty small.
A few weeks ago I saw a suggested link on Facebook called “Easter Egg Potato Stamping Craft for Kids”. I saved the link thinking it would be something fun to do with my 2 year old daughter. Realistically, I was thinking this is another thing to save that I wouldn’t actually do because who has time for this stuff. This post is our journey through this project, I made the time for my daughter.
All you need to complete this project is:
- Potatoes (could be those ones sitting on your counter growing eyes)
- Washable paints
- Paper
- Paint brush (not required but can be helpful)
The first steps will most likely be the adult only (don’t worry the kids will have some fun). The first thing I did was cut the potatoes in half. Note these will not be all a perfect egg shape, at least it wasn’t for me. Then take a pairing knife to cut some shapes. I am not a very creative/artistic person so mine were pretty simple. For most I cut the lines and dug the inside out between the lines.
Next pour the paints out onto paper plates. I chose to keep our paint selection to five colors, not to go too crazy. Get the paper in place and you are ready to go!
There are a couple ways you can do this. Either put the potato directly in the paint and stamp or if you are more 
precise you can paint the potato with a paint brush. If you use a paint brush your design may be a bit sharper than ours came out.
After the initial potato egg stamps we did, they certainly didn’t look like eggs anymore and we got a bit messy. In the end to see the smile on her face throughout was worth it. She played with the potatoes and paint for over an hour and a half straight (long time in toddler world).
As I try to balance family and work, it’s moments like this where I can disconnect from social media and appreciate what I have that makes it all worth it