Do you let your children mix up the play dog colours

[Motherofmonsters]

Just wondering what other people do.

I was firmly in the no mixing colours, only one colour pot at a time. This worked until DS has now turned 3 and it's all slowly being mushed together. It's making me twitch but he seems to be having more fun with it, making rainbows etc

Some Mixing will always go on. It’s their favourite thing to do with it. So I never put it all out otherwise it would all be grey brown after just one play and then next time it wouldn’t be possible to do any mixing as it would
Just be one colour! I’d rather no mixing went on at all , but it’s
Not
My playdough!

People who are saying they don't let children mix colours, you are potentially preventing children flourish in artistic talents.

i think if kids are enjoying it thats more important. and play do doesn't last forever, so i would only offer two or three colours at a time because once the pot is opened it starts to dry out and i cant stand it having half a dozen pots open going crusty

It's all that weird green brown here with flecks of red in.

Mine prefer the crazy sand. Which also used to be lovely bright colours. But even ugly it provides plenty of fun.

This is getting me tempted to get some more playdoh if we have any more shit weather before school is back though. X

I think we may almost naturally be at a keeping the colours separate age.

Well hovering over your children to ensure they don’t mix their play doh, or restricting the amount of tubs allowed definitely sounds controlling and bizarre to me!

I let the DC crack on, it always ends up mixed so why fight it? They always want to make things that are multiple colours anyway like the ice cream or cake sets where you use different colours for each step of the ice cream or cake. Every so often I add in fresh tubs which also end up mixed.

Our Playdoh lives in a big lidded box in the playroom. Around a month ago I went to get some out for the first time in several weeks and it turned out that last time the DC tidied it away they left loads of the lids off. Worse than that was that the 3yo had left an open sipper cup of juice in there and it had been steadily leaking into the Playdoh during a heatwave. The smell was horrific, I can't even describe it, and I dry heaved while trying to clean it up before deciding to just bin the lot and buy new.

When they were very little I gave them one colour (which they chose) as they were happy just squishing and cutting it, so it didn't seem necessary to turn it all to sludgy brown. As they got older they could choose several colours each to limit how quickly it all turned sludgy brown. We are now at the end of the Playdoh years (4 and 6yo) so on the rare occassion they want to play with it, they can go crazy with all the colours and when it's gone/brown it's gone/brown and I can finally get rid of all the associated paraphernalia and reclaim the space
As many other posters, seeing them turn it all brown makes me twitchy but limiting to one colour is a bit mean. It's frustrating as DCs also get upset the next time they use it and find it's all a homogenous brown. It doesn't stop them doing the same thing every time though 🙄

I didn't really like it.
No. I made them peel it off and put it back in the original pots, (or I did that) when they'd finished playing.

I just don't get how the shit coloured brown stuff, after 2 plays with it, is ok.

I'm surprised you are all objecting!

The smell always put me off Play Doh, also ds2 ate it in significant quantities so I banned it and went with plasticine instead which takes much longer to turn brown.

I allow the mixing because the alternative is to micro manage how they're playing and it ends up more stressful than fun.

I can't believe there are so many of you who do this. Mixing all the way here, when it gets manky I just make more. Kids enjoy making it.

I wish they wouldnt but yes i also have multiple food bags of brown playdoh until i buy new ones

I also will never understand how people resell complete lego sets as ours are made up once according to the instructions then all go in a big box

Im clearly just doing it all wrong

Ha funny thread. I don’t like it when they mix (and my son is not yet 2 so it’s still a little in my control!) but it’s inevitable ! And the spaghetti machine mixes them all up haha!

Yes I do, I make it at home and mix up blue, red and yellow, we do keep some blobs as the original colour but also end up with other colours that eventually end up brown.

If you keep playdough in a ziploc bag in the fridge it will last months and months.

I made them peel it off and put it back in the original pots, (or I did that) when they'd finished playing.

Wow! Were you a SAHM by chance? Sorry but how an earth did you get your DCs to do this and stay sane! Play dough tended to be for day after properly ill, not well enough to go back to nursery/school but not ill, so out it came while I tried to catch up with some work - mix away, I don't care, just so long as it keeps you quiet for 10 minutes. And isn't it part of learning, seeing how colours mix?!

My DD is 3.5 and doesnt mix the colours. I dont know if this is due to my encouraging it when she was younger or if she just doesnt like brown sludge. Either way I'm a happy mummy

God I am dreading this stage with mine (she’s almost 18 months, perhaps we should be doing this already?) I can’t bear the smell of shopbought play dough. Vile. And I can’t bear the feeling plasticine leaves on your hands - does anyone else get this? I think I need to learn to make my own - I once wanted it for an activity at school (I was teaching y4 so it was something specific rather than general play in EYFS) and my lovely TA made a batch and put coffee, lemon and something else essence in it so it smelt lush! 3 separate batches, not all mixed....

Oh hell no.

I remember getting told off for it as a child and not understanding why, and being frustrated. As an adult I can totally see why I wasn't allowed to do it, but remembering that feeling of frustration means I let my son do as he wishes with them. It's only play doh!

Small children is all about experimenting. I was actually opposite to people limiting mixing and bought all the different colours because dc wanted to use different colours. Same for everything else. I let my dc write/draw all over the wall.
Results speak for itself. Won numerous art prizes and competitions. Letting children make a lot of mess when younger has positive results, imo.