Gardening was a stupid idea.
I'm so very frustrated and disappointed. If you have any "my kid and I have an awesome time gardening together while we wear matching little gloves" stories, shut yer yap...
The garden itself is pretty awesome. We got the Resolution Gardens thing from Groupon and aside from being a little late, I'm pleased. Including Abby and Emily in the process was an EPIC FAIL. At first Abby was excited because she thought we were planting flowers. She started crying when I told her they were not.
I had wanted to take pictures but was busy running interference so none got taken. Emily killed a kale. I turned around and Abby had a mouthful of something and when I asked her what she mouthed (and it was obvious) "Dirt". HELLO. You're 4. Almost 5. I guess one would say I snapped at her and of course she started crying again. Trying to prevent a call to CPS on the part of the guy installing the garden, I tried to calm her. I asked her nicely why she wanted to put dirt in her mouth and she said "I wanted to know what it tasted like". Arrrrgh.
Emily restirred at least half the areas where we had just planted seeds. She also kept insisting on standing where the one monster fire ant pile in our yard is. She didn't get any bites thank God. Both of them did get completely coated in mud, shoes included and it took a solid hour once inside to get everyone undressed, washed, redressed and then clean up all the mud that got tracked around anyway.
Basically, I had imagined a blog worthy memorable afternoon with my kids. Instead I'm embarrased and feel like a horrible mom. Abby and Emily are probably scarred for life. I guess the best I can hope for now is that I can keep the damn garden alive.
Re: Gardening was a stupid idea.
I'm not laughing AT you, I'm laughing WITH you (b/c one day it'll be funny, right?).
I garden w/ Jack and Tommy "helps." I imagine it was probably more difficult b/c you had someone from RG there so you couldn't pull a, "Listen, kid, sit your bottom down, chill the eff out and when you're ready, we'll plant this stuff."
What did you end up planting? Some fruits and veg have beautiful flowers that come along (eggplant flowers are beautiful), so maybe Abby will get excited when she sees those.
Setting up is definitely the hardest part. Once things start growing, though, it's more fun for the kids to go out and check on the plants!
That WAS a blog-worthy event right there.
FWIW, my mom is a preschool director and says that 4 year olds have a tendency to shock you by doing something really stupid... like eating dirt. I drank dishwashing liquid at 4 too, and I turned out more or less okay, so there's hope for Abby. LOL.
I bet they'll enjoy the garden more as it grows in and you start actually harvesting edible things from it. You know, more edible than dirt.
I had great hopes for happy pretty Martha Stewart-esque gardening moments too, but a lot mine involved a naked or nearly naked Meredith picking green cherry tomatoes off the vine and eating them while using the watering can to make mudpies in between the pepper plants.
Meredith, 6-1-06 and Alex, 11-5-09
OMG! This is all totally blog worthy, because it is so funny
And I'm with MC. I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing with you. I totally see this same thing going down with us.