Art therapy?

 

Ok, so Gary really didn't want me to post this picture, but sometimes truth is just way better than fiction.
The story:
So as part of Brendan's schooling, he gets to take home a Clifford dog, and then journal about what Clifford did during his time with Brendan that night. It was Brendan's night and he took his journal upstairs to work on for a bit before bed. I had just put Teddy and Cecelia down for the night, Gary was at A.D.D. and I went up to check on Brendan.
I asked him if I needed to write anything in his journal, he said yes. I went to get to a blank page, and this was what I opened up to. Brendan said his teacher, Mrs. Truluck asked them to draw a picture of Clifford in their journal. I thumbed back a few pages and saw that the other kids had in fact, drawn pictures. Some were of paw prints, some were of dogs sitting, running, eating, sleeping. You get the idea.
Then there is what Brendan drew....this picture.
It took me a minute to take it all in.
Internal thoughts: Ok, so there is a paw print in blue...got it...and I think I see a dog, ok, Clifford....and his bummer,...what is that coming out of Cliffords bummer??
I turned and asked Brendan, "Honey, what is this?" pointing to the picture of the "dog".
Response: That's Clifford with fire coming out of his bummer.
All said very matter of factly.
Needless to say, I tore the picture out, with many protests from my son, and explained to him that perhaps Mrs. Truluck wouldn't appreciate a picture of Clifford in this manner and that we would keep it in the family collection of art.
He had to draw a new picture of a less firey Clifford.