Do you let your child play in the dirt?

[GoldBar]

Just curious to know what other parents' views on this are.

I was out last week with two parents with different approaches (mine is somewhere in the middle). We were sitting having coffee in an outside cafe with a garden and small play area, with grass, dirt and muddy puddles from sprinklers. Parent 1's children (aged 5 and 3) started playing with stones and twigs in the dirt, building piles of them, and ran through the muddy puddles in the grass and held their hands under the sprinklers, getting wet and filthy. Parent 1 didn't say anything. Parent 2's child (4) went to do the same but Parent 2 told them to come back and sit at the table if they were going to be 'naughty' and not play nicely. Parent 1 smiled and said she was ok with her children getting wet and dirty because they do it all the time and she always brings spare clothes. Parent 2 said she brings spare clothes too but she thinks children should be taught to look after their clothes and not get dirty just for the sake of it.

[MaryBoBary]

Sorry OP, I missed the part about it being at a cafe. If the children did not need to go back into the cafe at all, and the muddy area was a designated play area then I'm still parent 1. However, if the children were going to need to traipse muddy footprints through the cafe in order to leave, or were just churning up part of the cafe garden into a mud pond, then no. That's not ok and I would definitely be parent 2.

[Spidey66]

Don't have kids, but if I did I'd be parent 1. A bit of muck is good for their immunity and dirty clothes can go in the machine. Plus I'd be the parent who buys clothes from Primark or supermarket....no point on spending a fortune on kids clothes (except maybe shoes) if they're going to grow out of them in five minutes. So if they're past saving, it ain't the end of the world.

Let kids be kids!

Don't a lot of schools do forest school? A way of exploring nature and getting grubby!

[DanielTigersMummy21]

I'd never stop DC from playing in the mud due to preserving her clothes.

I do often stop her playing in the mud/leaves outside in places where dogs are taken to go to the toilet.

[81Byerley]

My ex mother in law is 92 now. She was telling me that when her nephew was 14 he asked her if she would take him in if both his parents died. He was a very much loved and pampered only child, and she had five kids and was a very much "rough and ready" sort of mum. She told me that when she looked after him for the day, he'd be stripped of all his clothes including underwear, dressed in her children's clothes, and then bathed and changed back before his Mum collected him. She said he was always the filthiest of the children at the end of the day, because he wasn't allowed to get dirty at home.