Make your own paper hat

My son came home from school today with a handmade Christmas hat on his head he had made at school to wear for his school Christmas dinner. I had a sudden memory flashback to childhood when we used to do the very same thing back in school for our celebration. I particularly remember being very competitive about making mine. Especially as one child was announced as having made the "best hat" each year. I remember considering myself to be particularly crafty even back then and very serious each year with more and more elaborate constructions.

Obviously the teachers made a massive fuss of us all, rightly so, so I can imagine my memory of how amazing these hats were far outweighs any actual achievements we made in papercraft haberdashery. My point is, we were encouraged in our craft. No-one was told they shouldn't have done their hat that way, or why bother making a hat at all, its not going to be as good as the other kids. Everyone joined in. 

My little corner of the internet is tiny and I just scrape the surface of the hobby world, so I mostly see hobbyists like this. We all admire each others paint jobs, praise others work, give useful tips and answer multitudes of questions mostly in the spirit of sharing knowledge without belittling others. 

This is how it should be. There's no limit to how many people are allowed to take part. There's no right or wrong way to do your own hobby. Even if you are painting up historical miniatures and someone points out you've painted the buttons on the tunics the wrong colour, hell, you're doing an alternate history. 

I do however every now and then see the other side, people are told they shouldn't be allowed to join in, or they are doing it wrong. To those people I say, shush. We are all just making our own paper hats.