by 5 Parenting Styles Psychology:
How you save your kids’ artwork, keepsakes, and memorabilia may reveal a lot about your parenting styles
The Ultimate List of Parenting Styles
Below we’ve put together a humorous list of 5 parenting styles and what they say about the connection between parenting styles and saving your kids’ artwork. Which one describes you?
What you do with your child’s artwork might say a lot about your parenting style. Unlike other parenting styles articles, we won’t be delving into the depths of developmental psychology or mentioning Diana Baumrind. However, we’ll discuss how your attitudes about your kids’ artwork may reveal your parenting style psychology. It’s not a comprehensive list of parent styles, but we hope it’ll make you laugh.
Check out the comments in response to this Tweet to see how parents sort their kids’ “masterpieces.”
What do you do when your child comes home from nursery every day with this many ‘masterpieces’? pic.twitter.com/740W9mamWC
— Katie Popple (@Katie_Popple) July 16, 2019
#1 of Parenting Styles
The take-your-child’s-artwork-to-work mom/dad
Last but not least, you believe that throwing away art does everyone a favor. You know that your child’s identity is developing. At age 2 they’re making scribbles; at age 10 they’re drawing replicas. In the end, you believe your child’s true artistic potential will come later.
#2 of Parenting Styles
The sentimental-but-practical-organizer mom/dad
(Source: Girl in the Garage)
Your artwork-handling abilities say a lot about your parenting style. You believe in keeping memories, but not all of them. You see value in the unique artwork your child creates, and perhaps you see the possibility of sharing that artwork with your child when they’re older. You’re sentimental but simultaneously practical.
Last but not least, your parenting behavior shows that you value the small things, particularly the development of your child. Their macaroni noodle art captures the true essence of 2nd grade, while the paper mache art captures 5th grade.
#3 of Parenting Styles
The Artistic-and-creative-DIY mom/dad
(Source: Cierra Lynn Collection)
Your artistic sensibilities are advanced. Not only do you preserve artwork, you also find a way to reduce clutter while building memories. Your parenting style reflects your wisdom and your commitment to your child’s needs.
Let’s hope DIY activities don’t turn into the above scenario, where a child drew all over his father’s passport, resulting in the father unable to leave the country. This is of course a worst case scenario, but disasters aside, DIY activities hold lots of potential.
Authoritative parenting does not apply to you. You are a sage and artistic guru! Declutter and organization leaders can take some notes from you to learn your ways. In fact, take a look at some cool kids artwork ideas we recently wrote about on our blog for inspiration.
#4 of Parenting Styles
The Praise-and-Recycle Mom/Dad
There are many parenting styles but attachment parenting or authoritative parenting do not apply to you. Your parenting style demonstrates your ability to see into the future, knowing that with so many years of school, artwork and schoolwork is bound to add up.
Yet your parenting behavior shows that you know what counts most in the process of your child growing up: praising their skills and building their self esteem. Your parenting style shows that you know what counts.
Perhaps (maybe) the day will come when your kids catch you throwing away their artwork. If that does happen, you’ll probably have the same reaction as the adorable Siberian husky in the above image.
#5 of Parenting Styles
The save-it-all mom/dad
We’ve used these GIFs in a previous blog article about garage organization, but they very much apply to our #5 of 5 parenting styles.
Maybe you practice authoritative parenting, maybe you don’t. But you do believe in saving all of your kids’ artwork. Parenting styles vary and so do parenting practices, but your style of preserving your kids’ artwork gives you some options.
If your garage (or fridge) is anything like The Goldbergs’, then you can spend some quality time teaching your kids about organization and decluttering.
Your parenting style reflects your sentimentality, and perhaps your children will appreciate the effort you devoted to displaying their artwork on the fridge––and saving ALL of their artwork and schoolwork from their grade school years.
The Conclusion About Parenting Styles and Artwork
In a poetic essay written by Mary Townsend in The Atlantic, she discusses how “young children leave their art everywhere.” She goes on to say that “most children’s art exists to be destroyed.” Perhaps some artwork by your child can be destroyed, but there are other solutions––digital solutions that can augment parenting practices.
In 2013, Keepy CEO Offir Gutelzon started Keepy to help parents organize, save, and share their kids artwork. Today, Keepy is one of the only apps that allow parents to upload videos, photos, and artwork, save those memories, and then share those keepsakes with many family members.
Keepy’s app allows you to store precious memories while keeping your home organized. As you go through your child’s artwork, make a pile of what to throw away and what to save. The memories in the throw-away pile can be uploaded to Keepy and stored securely.
