Guilty of insensitivity in the first degree

As a parent, there are few things I'd like to avoid more than hurting my kids' feelings, but yesterday I managed to do just that. It all started after a trip to the doctor's office. Ben no longer cares much about the stickers the office hands out to kids, but this time, he happily chose a Garfield one, and as soon as we got home, he announced that he knew just where he would put it.

Apparently, Ben has a favorite coloring picture, nay the best coloring picture he's ever done. On that coloring picture, he likes to affix the stickers he procures. It is that coloring picture, I realized with a sinking feeling, I had thrown in the recycling bin a few weeks earlier.  Crap, crap, crap! Ben searched for the picture on the "Look What I Made" clipboard that hangs on our kitchen wall. "Maybe I put it in your artwork box downstairs," I said feebly, hoping that maybe I'd forgotten that I'd thought better of my callous decision to recycle his pièce de résistance. "You threw it away?" he asked me tearfully. Ben's hurt feelings blew over fairly quickly, but I was left feeling terrible.

This all comes back to my lack of organizational skills. I am unendingly flummoxed by the problem of what to do with all the boys' creations. In my closet sits a paper bag filled to the brim with Paul's preschool projects from last year. If I still haven't figured out what to do with those, what hope do I have? Each day, Paul's folder comes home from school containing new paintings and drawings. Seriously, what's the right thing to do? I don't want to cross over into hoarding territory and keep everything the boys make.

I thought I had a system. I try to keep a sampling of what the boys make. For a while I had been taking a picture of the boys with their art projects and then throwing out the projects. Ugh! Even writing that sounds heartless, somehow. Besides, that doesn't take into account that I rarely manage to follow through on my best-laid plans. I have friends who display their kids' works in adorable and creative ways. I aspire to be able to do that, but then my complete lack of design and aesthetic skills kicks in.

Honestly, I don't know where this leaves me. I think all I can do is keep doing what I've been doing. I can't ask the boys: "Hey, do you mind if I throw this away?" I can see where that would go. I'll just have to use my clearly flawed judgment and hope for the best. But those tears, those sad, sad tears. I won't soon forget the sorrow I inflicted.