I wrote this long post detailing the process of the 50+ valentines I was going to make with the 5 year old and involving 200 paper hearts, lolipops, hole punching, and the killer, writing his seven-letter name way more times than he was willing. So yes, the prototypes were pretty, but when I let him just be creative instead of following *my* plans, we opted instead for the box of Hot Wheels valentines my mom had sent, but then turned the box into a puzzle, which lead to turning a cereal box and a piece of his artwork into another puzzle, and a whole DIY afternoon unfolded for us, just not how I expected.

So then this post “When it’s OK not to DIY” from ohdeeoh (of course) caught my attention today, and I tagged it simply in delicious as “mantra”:

…a few guidelines and questions that we ask ourselves when we’re thinking about adding a new project to our already long to-do list.

• Will we end up spending just as much or more money if we make it ourselves? Very often, we start out a project ourselves to save money, but by the time we’ve purchased all of the materials we need- we’ve spent more.

• If we try to make it ourselves, will we actually ever get around to it? Especially if it’s a project for our daughter, we realize that it might be time-sensitive. She may outgrow the stage the project’s for before we get around to making it! In that case, we’d much rather buy it so she can use it right away. We find having pieces of another 1/2 finished project laying around drains us of our energy.

• Is it going to be fun to do or just add stress to my life? If it’s not going to be fun, why do it?

• Will I sacrifice quality time with my child to make this for her?

• Can we find something already made that’s just what we’re envisioning?

• Are our skills up to the task? Sometimes someone else could just do it a lot better than we can.

I am **way** to quick to beat myself up for not making things more often. I would have spent hours on homemade valentines rather than follow my kids’ bliss. Maybe I can cut myself some slack for awhile if I just keep repeating the mantra…