Father Loses 2 Young Children In Tornado
Why It's Hard To Get Along With Your In-Laws
Cheating on coloring contests: impossible, right?
Filed under: Just For Moms, Toddlers Preschoolers, Preschoolers
I won a coloring contest when I was 7, and it's one of the few events from my childhood that I remember with vivid clarity. I think I persuaded the judges with the improvised sparkle I'd inserted on to the mouth featured in the picture (the coloring contest was sponsored by a Dentist's office), because it certainly wasn't my ability to color in the lines that won me third place. I received a 20 dollar gift certificate to a local drug store as a reward, plus a third place ribbon. I bought a plastic tea set I lost immediately and my green ribbon lived push-pinned proudly on my wall for months.Until last night, I'd kind of thought that strip-mall store coloring contests had gone the way of Garbage Pail Kids and Tubble Gum. But as we were exiting the drug store last night, a cashier smiled and looked at Nolan.
"Would you like to color for the Cadbury Easter contest? You could win a big chocolate gift set!"
Nolan looked suspicious. I looked suspicious. How big was big?
"Entries must be in by next Sunday,"said the clerk, handing Nolan a black-and-white picture of a bunny holding tulips and a mouse holding a decorated egg. He gave me the three crayons.
"Thanks,"I said, absently looking at the wall behind him, where dozens of other finished entries were already displayed.
"Come here Nolan, come look at these,"I said, and walked over to the wall to take a closer look.
Madison, 4, had apparently created a masterpiece using sparkle, felt, and circular stickers, all meticulously placed within the lines. A four year old did that? I thought.
Henry, 7, was apparently a budding artistic genius, with bold colors and added word bubbles, with impossibly neat handwriting.
Some of the others were messy, scribbly concoctions that I'd be more likely to define as actual drawings by kids still getting the hang of the crayon. It made me wonder if parents were helping their kids win coloring contests. That seems so wrong, and impossible -- but I think there's some parent cheating going in coloring contest suburbia. Surely a plastic tea set or a big old bag of chocolates is worth it?
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
3-09-2008 @ 10:27AM
Jen Henry said...Sadly I think you're probably right Kristin. :( I can remember trying and trying and trying to win coloring contests as a kid, spending hours coloring meticulously and asking my mother for help only to be turned down. I would get so frustrated seeing the winning picture every time, those clearly colored by an adult pictures done by a 2 year old.
Am I bitter much? ;)
Unfortunately I've found the same thing extended in life beyond coloring contests. Just ask Jason, the kid in my high school English class who had his mother do his 10 page senior paper. He had complained it was hard and she took pity on him.
Jen
http://furoreandfrenzy.com
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3-09-2008 @ 11:10AM
ninainindia said...I don't understand why parents do this but I am sure that they do. At the store I worked at we also had colouring contests and I was just amazed by the amount of parents that actually think we would fall for a perfectly coloured one by a 2 year old. I always picked the winners by first determining which could actually have been made by children.
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3-09-2008 @ 11:14AM
kelly jeanie said...I'm sure that parents do cheat, but I have to tell you about my friend's daughter. She's 5 now but since she was at least 4 she has been coloring pictures perfectly in the lines. The colors don't always make sense but seeing one of her colored pictures you would not believe they were done by a 4-year-old. Now the handwriting thing, that would tip me off that a parent had been involved.
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3-09-2008 @ 12:08PM
SKL said...Yes, for sure some involve cheating but others don't. I would avoid such "contests" because there are no controls to make sure the really good artists get their deserved rewards. Anyway, why do kids need to get tangible rewards for their talents anyway? The achievement should be its own reward. I would not enter my kids in such contests whether they were talented or not.
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3-09-2008 @ 3:08PM
LGirl said...ever hear of Marla Olmstead!? LOL!
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3-09-2008 @ 10:54PM
pbhj said...She can't draw or colour inside the lines ... http://www.marlaolmstead.com/availablework.html
I like the visual mix of colours she uses but I wouldn't consider her a great artist, unless I had an incite into her working process. Art, for me, is about thought.
J's mum sold some artwork recently based on an original work by him so Marla O doesn't seem too amazing to me. No more amazing than any other child. I think this is about opportunity and mimicry.
Still I'd hang some of those canvases (Marla O's) in my home.
3-10-2008 @ 8:49AM
LGirl said...I was referring to parents "helping" their children with their art. Which Is the suspicion in The Olmstead artworks.
3-10-2008 @ 8:51AM
LGirl said...I was referring to parents "helping" their children with their art. Which Is the suspicion in The Olmstead artworks shown in the movie My Kid Could Paint That.
3-09-2008 @ 11:50PM
SKL said...This reminds me of when I was little. My mom's friend who had 3 kids used to babysit us. She would criticize my younger sister (then, say, 5 years old) for not coloring "in the lines." Her kids didn't have that problem because they only colored way inside the lines and then gave the coloring pages to their mom to finish, lest they end up imperfect.
Unbelievable then, unbelievable now - yet true. This is what happens to moms who have no life of their own and must "succeed" vicariously through their kids. Needless to say, ultimately none had success; a kid who can't even complete a coloring page without his Mommy isn't going to go very far.
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