babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
Your Kid’s Art Sucks & Other Examples of Children’s Art Gone Wrong
The Rhinoduck!
The old adage is very true. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Take children’s art. Let’s say your four-year-old creates a smudged painting using a clashing array of colors, shapes and textures and as a proud parent you deem it a masterpiece. You post it on the fridge for all to see. You show it off to friends, family, acquaintances and the UPS man when they come to your home. You are convinced that your child could very well be the next Picasso. But others? They may just see it as a mess or worse. Your child’s art could end up accidently being seen as offensive, odd or just plain awkward.
And now there is a collection to celebrate the flipside of parent’s pride. The site is simply called Your Kid’s Art Sucks. (check out their hilarious explanation of the site below)
Source
They say of their site:
“Too long have we allowed sweet innocent children to think that their artwork is good and let it ruin our refrigerators and classrooms! Let me start by telling you about my artistic skills….I have none. Absolutely none. My childhood art was awful and it still is. I have trouble drawing stick figures, however I’m about 50 – 60% sure I’m somewhat better than the “art” you will find on here. I only wish someone was there early on in my life to crush my foolish dreams!
While I won’t claim that I’m not a dick, I will say that NONE of the kids whose artwork makes the site will be identified in any way whatsoever. Is this site mean and potentially hurtful to little kids? Absolutely. But this isn’t for them, so keep your kids away or else you’ll have some explaining to do to them. The purpose of this site isn’t to hurt little kids, it’s to allow the grown-ups to laugh. So for those of you who realize this is in good fun, instead of keeping all your true feelings about kid’s art boiled up inside, send it on over to us and let us be the ones who say what your thinking. For those of you that are pissed off, simmer down, there is a reason you mom kept all your childhood art in a drawer rather than up on the walls all these years!”
Go Back To Strollerderby
4 Comments
Gemma commented on Sep 23 11 at 6:49 pmThe first one is actually drawn by a child. The mother had to write a letter to the child’s teacher explaining that she was not a stripper. The picture is supposed to be her working at home depot during winter, they only had one shovel left and everyone wanted it. Pretty funny though.
Brittany commented on Sep 24 11 at 9:31 pmI was going to post that too Gemma! It is such a funny story :)
Sheryl McDaniel commented on Sep 25 11 at 5:44 pmThe unfortunate practice of praising a child for any effort made stems from the erroneous notion that praise is required for the child to build self-esteem. We have extensive research that proves children need to master tasks on their own to build self-esteem. Parents rhapsodize about their child’s work because they think they have to. Or maybe they appreciate something you don’t. Grown-ups cannot use adult standards to evaluate children’s work–it’s apples and oranges. Little kids are thrilled to see the color on the paper and concentrated on the process of creating. Expecting precise realism limits one’s ability to appreciate the depiction of a child’s truth. Drawing stick figures is a normal developmental stage where the purpose is almost always to tell a story not reflect an adult’s perspective. I love the picture of the daddy being hit by a car. It’s lyrical with a balanced composition and good use of color. How can you say it is ugly? I know these pictures are supposed to illustrate the hilarity of children’s failure to reflect adult values, but the criticism is unnecessarily mean and perpetuates an undeveloped aesthetic that contends children’s art is inferior and worth nothing but a laugh.
As an aside, If you are interested in a very funny, non-cynical collection of children’s views on the world, I recommend an old book written by Art Linkletter (a comedian) called Kids Say the Darndest Things.
Melissa commented on Sep 27 11 at 1:33 pmThe pictures are so funny but the “When I Grow Up..” one is definitely a fraud. Here’s a link to it on Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/embarrass/mistaken/shovel.asp
I also think I once read that it started as a bit on Conan. Anyway, it still cracks me up, regardless.
Add your take:
Note: Babble is a supportive, diverse community. We encourage a range of opinions,
but any unduly hostile comments will be removed.
Comments are delayed up to 15 minutes
Lori Garcia 
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
4