★★★★★
Just one more mold
"My son keeps asking for just one more mold, he loves it."
Advertorial
5 Reasons This Worked For A Dad Who Is Not The Craft Parent
My son asked my wife if I was coming. I was on the sofa. Ten feet away.
I am not an absent father. I am home most weekends, I do the school run twice a week, I know his teacher's name. I am just not much use to him, and it took a five-year-old walking past me to say it out loud.
What fixed it was not becoming a more patient or more creative person. It was one thing sitting on the kitchen table. Here are the five reasons it worked, from someone who has failed at every craft he has ever attempted.
1
You Do Not Have To Run It
Every time I have tried to organize an activity for my son it has gone the same way. I get impatient, he gets frustrated, we both quietly give up and put the TV on.
My brother is the one who reframed it for me. He said I kept trying to organize things, when what I needed was to have a thing going on the table and let the kid turn up.
So that Saturday I did not announce anything. I filled the bowl, put it on the table and sat down with my coffee. He came in about ten minutes later, asked what I was doing, and pulled out a chair.
That is the whole maneuver. I did not have to be entertaining. I had to be occupied.
2
You Can Do It Badly
I ordered this mostly because it looked like the least crafty craft thing I had seen. No glue. No scissors. No instructions with twelve steps.
Warm water in a bowl. Tip the powder in — you do not knead it or work it or get it right. Dip one of the molds, squeeze the gel in, wait about half a minute. A small translucent creature comes out in your hand.
My son was better at it than me inside twenty minutes, which he pointed out repeatedly. That turned out to be part of why it worked.
★★★★★
"This actually works and was so fun! Great activity that an 8 year old was able to do on her own after some help in the beginning."
I opened it on a Friday night after he had gone to bed, because I was not going to fail at this in front of him. I made four before I went upstairs.
3
It Lasts Longer Than Fifteen Minutes
Here is the specific thing I am bad at, and I suspect I am not the only one. I am fine with a five-year-old for about eleven minutes. I can do a ball in the yard. I can do a wrestle on the rug. I can do bath time.
What I have never been able to do is the long unstructured stretch — the two hours on a wet Saturday when nothing is scheduled and he wants something and I do not have it.
That first Saturday went an hour and a bit. He made nine or ten. He wanted to know whether you could do two colors in one, and we found out you can.
★★★★★
"Our 8 and 10 year olds did not want to stop. After the parents were done, they played and made many more."
No TV. Me sitting in a chair the whole time, not performing, not organizing, just there with my hands doing the same thing his were.
4
It Does Not End Up In The Rug
My wife came in near the end and picked one up and asked what the stuff was. Fair question, given whose rug it was going to be.
It is water and food-grade powder — calcium lactate, the same thing used in cheese. The gels are sodium alginate, which comes from seaweed. Non-toxic, biodegradable, ages 3 and up. The molds rinse and go back in the box.
It is not zero mess. It is water and colored gel, so a towel under the bowl is a good idea. But it wipes up, and the whole thing packs back into the container it arrived in.
Then she said you did this? — which is a small thing to be pleased about at 38. I was pleased about it anyway.
5
He Comes To You First
This is the part that actually mattered, and it is not about the kit.
He got one out of the mold that first morning and shouted WHOA loudly enough that his mother came in to see what had happened.
Since June we have done it maybe fifteen times. It became a Saturday thing without anyone deciding it would be.
★★★★★
"I absolutely LOVE this!! My kids and I had fun making them. It's a fun project while bonding with my kids."
Two weeks ago he brought me a drawing first, before her, and I put it on the fridge myself. And last Sunday he came into our room early and asked me if we could do the jellies. To me. First.
What I checked before I ordered it
No glue, no scissors, no twelve-step instructions, which ruled out about everything else I had failed at
Ages 3 and up, and my five-year-old took it over from me within twenty minutes
Under $40, and the molds are reusable — you refill the powder and gels
Everything packs back into one box, so there is no craft drawer situation building up in the kitchen
30-day money-back guarantee— fewer than 1% of buyers have ever claimed it
None of that is why it worked. It worked because it gave me something to be doing when he walked into the room. But those five things are why I was willing to try one more thing after everything else had gone badly.
It is not just me sitting there
I went and read what other people had written about it afterwards, mostly to check whether the adult-enjoying-it part was a me problem.
It is not. The line that comes up over and over is that the parents end up doing it too.
★★★★★
"He was so into it!! And so were my husband and I. Super fun, satisfying and creative activity for the whole family."
★★★★★
"Our family of 4 spent hours making these little squishies. 10/10 would recommend as a family project."
★★★★★
"Great for all ages. I think I had just as much fun."
Other families filmed their own kitchen tables.
★★★★★
His face lit up
"My son's face LIT UP when the shapes came to life."
★★★★★
They are obsessed with it
"Perfect gift! My daughters are obsessed with it."
What I actually took from it
I thought the problem was that I was not good with kids. That is not it.
The problem was that I was available instead of occupied, and children do not join in with availability. They join in with an activity that is already happening. My wife has always had a thing on the go when he walks into the kitchen. I had a sofa and a phone.
I did not need to become more patient or more creative. I needed one thing on the table that I could do badly, in a chair, without instructions, that he could walk up to and take over.
Some fathers are home every weekend and still get walked past. Some of them have decided they are just not the activity parent and have quietly accepted it. Most of the time it is not a personality problem. There is just nothing on the table.
Paint and Bloom is currently running 60% off
The 20-piece kit is the one we have. Molds, gels, powder, net, gloves and the storage box are all in there, so there is nothing else to buy to get started.
30-day money-back guarantee. If it does not get used, you send it back. Fewer than 1% of buyers ever have.
See the kit
He has a shoebox now. There are about thirty in it. Most of them are mine, which he will tell you are the bad ones.