Daughter's Drawing Just Isn't Fridge Material

Sometimes, kids drawings just aren't good enough for the fridge.

"I'm afraid this just isn't fridge material," she finally had to say, point-blank, to Suzie after her daughter's third attempt to bypass the selection process and post Smoking Chimney on the fridge herself using two ladybug and one Pokemon magnets.

"We can't put everything up on the fridge, dear," she said, already feeling guilty but now it was too late. She'd started rejection procedures. Suzie's lower lip quivered a bit but she held in her tears.

Her tiny five-year-old arms crossed defiantly across her chest.

Marion had earlier tried to redirect Smoking Chimney to a scrap book, to the inside of a little-read history of porcelain in 17th Century France, and finally under a coffee table book of Bauhaus industrial design, but each time Suzie managed to find it, exclaim loudly (too loudly? Marion was no longer sure) "What's my painting doing here?" and start walking towards the fridge with her treasure.

Now it had come to a direct confrontation with her own daughter. Marion, an accomplished critic of modern, post-modern and neo-modern art for a respected art criticism journal, cringed at the angst boiling up in her.

"Look, Suzie dear." Marion crouched down so she was level with her daughter, and put an arm on Suzie's shoulder. "You know we can't put everything on the fridge, right?" Marion nodded her own head and raised her eyebrows. Was she looking for approval from her own offspring? Marion suddenly felt that perhaps she was too condescending.