This is the tree I crafted with my toddler today: Now, I COULD tell you it was a joyous experience. Mother and child bonding over toilet rolls and brown parcel paper, deep in a shared vision of paint and garden design for the doll's house.
It's turning your head for a moment, only to find the clothes have been stripped off and your child is using her bare legs and feet as a canvas.
It's wiping sticky, paint-covered fingers before your walls are redecorated with red poster paint.
It's negotiating a tantrum because PVA glue isn't best licked off a paintbrush or stuffed up a toddler nostril.
It's singing The Wheels On The Bus loudly and out of tune to distract your child from the fact she no longer wants to paint – despite only spending two minutes doing an activity she's been screaming to do since 6am that morning.
It's forgetting to wipe the paint from your two year old's face and then spending the rest of the day explaining to people that the red smears across her cheek aren't the result of a horrific, bloody accident, but the aftermath of an unsuccessful crafting session.
This is what crafting with a toddler is REALLY like. Isn't it.....?
Molly Forbes is a journalist, writer, editor and broadcaster who can be found blogging about her experiences as an exhausted mum to a diva toddler. Molly lives with her daughter and (equally exhausted) teacher husband, regularly subjecting them to her love of Take That and rubbish TV.
Blogs at: Mothers Always Right
Twitter: @mollyjforbes