When imagination is bigger than the child
It’s important to teach children that when you reach a dead end, it’s okay to set the project aside. Sometimes the solution comes when you’re not even looking for it. Dead ends aren’t failures—they are pauses. Step back, breathe, return later. The process matters more than instant answers.
The other day, my seven-year old granddaughter and I made critters out of sea shells. She did the designing and I handled the hot glue gun. I tried to do my best to interpret her visions but I learned she’s particular. She didn’t want anything too crazy or make believe. No putting eyes on any old shell. I’d show her something and she would laugh and say, “Oh, Nana,” as you would say to a silly child, “Not like that.”
A complicated paper peacock
After we ran out of sea shells, she wanted make a three dimensional paper peacock and asked if we could scroll Pinterest for ideas. Lots of pretty peacocks, but they were either too sophisticated (quilling and origami) or too crude (painted paper plate tails and toilet paper tube bodies). Finally I came up with an idea for the tail that she liked.
We got stuck on how to make the body. She had a vision, apparently a realistic one, too: “I want it to be round, with a long neck and round head and a beak.” Everything I suggested, she rejected. Even Dziadzia (her grandpa) got involved in the brainstorming, but we fell flat… no pun intended
The struggle got real
Most of the ideas we came up with were more complicated than I wanted to attempt. I didn’t want to spend hours helping her make something she wasn’t happy with.
When tears of frustration filled her eyes, I suggested we set the peacock tail aside. “Sometimes we don’t get the answers the first time. Maybe we’ll think of something tomorrow, or the next day. You never know. An idea could come to you in a dream,” I said.
She was disappointed, but luckily she’s easy to reason with.
Her struggle reminded me of my middle son, who is a visual artist. When he was young, he’d come up with some crazy contraption that he wanted to build, like a miniature roller coaster, but I was useless in the execution of his projects. I’d drag out the PlayDoh, or clay, paper, scissors, popsicle sticks, toothpicks, whatever, but he’d end up in tears, saying “No, no, that’s not it!”
He clearly had a vision, but I couldn’t see it.
Striking a balance with creativity
I was thinking, for future craft sessions with my granddaughter, I might stick to patterns or ideas with scripted how-to steps, but I hate to quash her creativity. The fact is, everyone fails sometimes. It’s okay to reach a dead end and set things aside.
The process itself is what’s important, not immediate results, don’t you think?
Thank you for visiting.
Linda K. Sienkiewicz is a writer, poet, and artist
Books: In the Context of Love | Gordy and the Ghost Crab | Sleepwalker
New novel, Love and Other Incurable Ailments, coming fall 2026 from Regal House Publishing
Connect with Linda on social media: LinkTree