24 Oct It’s The Dreaded Time For Pumpkin Carving With Kids

“Mommy when are we going to get a pumpkin to carve?”

We are walking through the grocery store, past the massive display of pumpkins and the inevitable question comes.  Clark had been hounding me for weeks and I had put it off as long as I was able.  I was going to have to carve a pumpkin.  Now, I know that there are some folks who love this sort of thing (and to those people, I say: “Where on earth are you when I need you?!”), but I’m not one of them. In fact, there are few things in life that I hate more than carving pumpkins.

It’s the Dreaded Time

There is truly nothing enjoyable about pumpkin carving. There’s this romantic notion that we will all gather in the kitchen, and together we will carve the pumpkin, creating artistic designs, and cute faces. But it never actually happens like that, does it?

This is How it Goes Down in our Home

Everyone gathers in the kitchen, excited to get started.  The kids are practically climbing on top of the counter in an effort to get the better view or first dibs on the knife. Which triggers my safety alarm bells – and I have to make everyone back off.  When we are all positioned safely, I draw the initial lines to cut out the top (I do the side as well, since it gives much easier access for cleaning and lighting the candles.)  Clark begs to cut, so against my better judgement, I allow him to take the knife, I review safety guidelines and he stabs the pumpkin. Everything stops at this point because, healthy as he may be, he cannot cut through 2 inches of pumpkin.  In fact, I can barely do that!

When Clark reluctantly admits defeat, Luci begs to try.  Sorry, I’m not that crazy, so Luci is now mad. Now I am forced to do exactly what I hate: Carving the pumpkin.  Pumpkin carving is HARD!  The kids are required to stand at a distance because I’m nervous that my knife-wielding abilities will result in it being unintentionally flung from my cramped or limp hand, which is very quickly exhausted from the work.

It’s the Kids’ Turn

Then, I bring the kids back in, closer, to remove the top of the pumpkin and to participate in removing the innards.  “I never knew it looked like that,” exclaims Clark with disgust.  Luci joins in, making gagging noises, “YUCK!  I’m not touching that!”  I explain to them that if they want to make a Jack-O’-Lantern, this is what it takes.  They agree to try, their faces twisted with revulsion.

Their participation lasted for about 2 minutes, before Luci declared it “wasn’t working” and Clark informed me that it was “just too slimy” to continue.  As I finished the gutting of the pumpkin (another of my favorite things to do!), Clark decided he should create a blueprint of the Jack-O’-Lantern’s face. As I finished my undesirable task, he returned with a stencil of the pumpkin’s face.  It looked really good.

I had Clark draw the face onto the Pumpkin.  He did a great job (well, honestly, it didn’t quite look like his blueprint), then quickly took off, pretending he was a vampire in pursuit of Luci, who was apparently a ghost with a blanket on her head.

That was fine, though, because I apparently had more cutting to do.  I don’t know what I expected, but each time we carve a pumpkin, I end up in the kitchen, alone.  So much for the romantic vision…

Once I had finished the carving, I called the children back to see the final results.  We put a couple of little candles inside, lit them and replaced the top.  Clark and Luci just wanted to sit and enjoy “their” handiwork.  I had to wash some slime out from under my fingernails.

Does their excitement make it all worth it?  Maybe…