Somethings I Will Not Understand...And That's Okay

Earlier in the summer, the boys were sent in to work on the mess in their room.  Since last December, there has been a piece of artwork that Ryan brought home from his old school laying on his dresser.  During the past months it had been crushed by books, toys and I even found a piece of ABC gum that someone had spit out onto the construction paper base.

Before

I had a plan and I was in there to shovel through the mess and move on with our lives.  As it turned out, not everyone agreed.  I asked Ryan at the time if it would be okay if we threw the artwork away since it had seen better days.  He wasn't thrilled about it because it was a piece he had worked on with his friend from the old school.  Suggesting that I take a picture of it and THEN throw it away, Ryan was okay.  I brought the 3D construction paper piece of art to the kitchen table to dispose of later, not wanting to break the cleaning rhythm that I had begun.

Skip forward to bedtime and a teary eyed Zachary.  "What is wrong Honey?" I asked.  "I am kinda sad about Ryan's village" was Zach's reply. "Oh?  What about the village?"  I replied.  He answered with an "I don't really know, I am just sad".  Well, this isn't uncommon.  Zach gets a feeling and can't really express what it is that is bothering him.

"What happens to the village when it gets thrown away?" Zach asked me.  I didn't really know what happened to our garbage other than it gets picked up by the garbage man and goes to the dump.  So I told him I didn't really know.  "Does it get burned up?" he asked. "I don't think so" I answered trying to help put his mind at ease, although I really didn't know for sure.  "I think it just goes to the dump and disintegrates into the ground". That was my best guess.  He didn't not like that answer and it made him get a bit more agitated.  Not a place I like for him to be, especially after he has been tucked into bed for the night.

After

Finally I was able to get out of him that thinking about the village going to the dump made him feel a lot like when he knows a ball or toy if left in the yard after it gets dark.  I told him that I wanted him to write about how the village made him feel and that is what we came up with.  Thinking that he would forget about it, a couple days later I tried to throw it away but he remembered and I had to fish it out of the trash, straighten it out and come up with a better idea that we could both agree on.

I found a shadow box frame and was able to reconfigure the village to fit into the frame and we hung it on the wall up by Zach's bed.  I am not sure how long it will be displayed in his room.  It could be there til he moves out and brings it with him, but for some reason he is very concerned about what happens to this artwork that Ryan made.  When all is said and done, it turned out to be a pretty good compromise.