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14 replies
  1. Sarah M
    Sarah M says:

    I just shared this on facebook yesterday! I was wondering how much of the actual construction was the daughter’s, and how much the parents were involved. Very fun to see the answers here! The creativity and actual production are beautiful!! Keep it up, Mayhem.
    Sarah M

  2. Kim
    Kim says:

    These are really neat ideas. Sadly, my daughter has a two year old brother who would love nothing more than to destroy and possibly eat all of these.

    • Melissa
      Melissa says:

      Ugh, little brothers are the worst.

      Just kidding! I think it’s okay if none of the dresses survive. Baby brother seems like a good lesson in how to kill your darlings (darling ideas, that is).

    • Penelope Trunk
      Penelope Trunk says:

      The thing that most impressed me about the adult involvement is that it didn’t seem like this is anything the mom ever aspired to do. She’s not crafty. She can’t use a sewing machine. So I really respect that she pushed herself to get involved in something just because her daughter is interested.

      So often I think we parents have ideas of what a good childhood is, what we would have wanted, what we like now, and we push kids toward that. This mom did something else. It’s harder and I like that.

      Penelope

      • Kim
        Kim says:

        This is such a great point, Penelope. How often I’ve wanted to push my kids into being math geniuses because I wanted to be good at it, myself. I used to think that homeschooling was the more organic way of pushing your kids into a hole. It’s great that she’s able to follow and support her child’s interests even if she doesn’t have the skill herself.

  3. mh
    mh says:

    I love this.

    I have only boys, and they are happy to create their own stuff without much Mom involved… but the youngest one wants me to help him make a good theater for puppet shows.

    I’m very excited to see his shows.

  4. Lisa
    Lisa says:

    Yes the designs are utterly delicious, but what is most exciting and marvellous to me is this little girl’s air of creative confidence. You can just see how excited and satisfied she is about each creation realised. Wonderful wonderful.

  5. Paxton
    Paxton says:

    The pic of her dressed like jennifer lawrence is so cute. 4 is such a fun age. Oh how I miss when my daughter was that age. At that time she was learning to play and getting really good at video games and it was amazing to see her little hands and fingers use a big xbox controller very efficiently.

  6. Liz
    Liz says:

    this is amazing. thank you Penelope and Ilana Wiles for sharing. brings so much hope for what parenting can be and how kids can grow. love this.

  7. Lara
    Lara says:

    This is amazing! Thanks for posting. I have a 3 year old and it is fun to watch her grow and develop interests. It is so important to me that I observer who she is not who I think she should be. This is a great example of that. Thanks!

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