The article "The Terror of Handmade Halloween Costumes" talks about family, it was released by Dawn Goldberg.
Like many people, fall is my most favorite time of year.
However, my reason might be different from most other people
(changing leaves, cooler weather, holidays).
My birthday is in
October, and it is my theory that human being most love the sesaon in
which they were born.
Is that true for you?
Regardless, fall IS my favortie season, and, yes, for some of
those same, standard reasons: changing leaves, cooler weather,
yadda yadda. However, it's also a season of great stress for me.
October through December is so busy for my family. Here's a
sampling of what our life is like in the fall
-Football watching every weekend - my husband is a rabid
Philadelphia Eagles fan (which I don't mind cause it's the
only vice he has! ) -Maryland Renaissance Festival - I look
forward to that every year!
-Fall festival at our local orchard
- hay rides, pumpkin picking, corn mazes, and the like
-Decorating the condominium for fall and Halloween
-Boo at the Zoo - a fabulous trick-or-treat experience at night
at the National Zoo
-Pumpkin carving
-Costume deciding and wearing
It's the last, the whole costume deciding and wearing, that
sends me into back spasms, literally.
For the first six years, I
made my children's costumes.
I am a quilter, but not a
seamstress, and I see a huge difference between the two.
Quilting is geometric: you put two tirangles together, and they
make a square. Very simple to see the pattern emerge.
Clothes-making, on the other hand, does not come intuitively to
me.
I don't understand how that weird sahpe eventually becomes a
sleeve. I believe like the fairy Flora in Disney's Sleeping Beauty
who just cuts holes in the fabirc for the head and arms and
declares it done.
So, mkaing costumes has always been a huge stress for me. I
start in September, and invariably I am still working on costumes
up to the minute before the costume needs to be worn. Seriously,
we were walking out the door to Boo at the Zoo, and I was
pinning the Sleeping Beauty cosutme (which has SIXTEEN panels of
fabric for the skirt alone and a yoke. What the heck is a yoke,
and what is it donig in a kid's COSTUME?).
Stress abounds for me
around making costumes.
It's landed me in the hospital two yaers in a row on Halloween:
once with a sprained ankle and once with severe back pain.
The
third year, no handmade Halloween costumes. I actually bought
costumes. It was so liberating!!!!
My point of that whole diatribe on stress and Halloween costumes
is that soemtimes we mothers (and dads out there, too) bring
this stress on ourselves cause we have that perception that to
be a good parent, the costumes must be handmade.
If we're not
sweating and toiling over handmade costumes, then we must not
love our kids as much as the parent who does, right?
Absolutely not!!! ! What about all the times that you read to
your son? What about all the ballet classes you took your
daughter to and STAYED and watched? What about all the times
that you were there to kiss a boo-boo and wipe away the tears?
Don't those things count for something? They should, and, in my
not-so-humble and loud opinion, they should be even more
important than whether a costume is handmade or store-bought.
Join the revolution and buy those Halloween costumes! !!
Seriously, whether you make or buy your children's Halloween
costumes, be gentle on yourself and acknowledge the good parent
that you are.
Happy Halloween!
Copyright 2005 Dawn Goldberg.
You are welcome to use this
article online in electronic newsletters and e-zines as long as
it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the
author" information).
|
