She comes home filthy most days from Reception as she used to from Nursery. Not necessarily ‘muddy’ but sometimes - it’s dry at the moment but still comes back covered in grass stains and soil. We don’t really do any gardening as a family, and she has a ‘mud kitchen’ in the garden but honestly mostly just plays with water in it, sometimes sand. The only time it bothers me is when she’s clearly been drawing over herself in whiteboard pen which do not come out of clothes no matter how washable they claim to be.
She was paddling in a stream recently and got caked in mud. And on holiday the other week the heavens opened whilst we were in some lovely gardens, we took shelter in the (open side but under a roof) cafe but DD wanted to just run around in the rain, stand under the fountains fully clothed (not wearing a coat at any point) and roll around on the grass with a friend she’d acquired from somewhere. All of which happy to let her get on with as I had a change of clothes for her with me, plus always keep one of those huge muslins left over from baby days in the bag which I use as a towel/ picnic blanket/ whatever. So could just clean her up and put her in dry things in the loos after - necessary as we were going for dinner afterwards.
We used to go to a messy play/ arty baby and toddler group which I liked as I found I wasn’t really keen on the fully messy stuff at home. Once when she was 2 she stripped herself down to her pants and just painted herself entirely bright red. I really wanted to stop her but I managed to just let her enjoy, and at least I’ve got the pictures for her 18th!
Id love to say I’m entirely at peace with it, but it does stress me out a bit inside, I just try not to let it show! My husband in the other hand is terrible, it really bothers him. We’ve had a number of conversations about how he needs to rein it in a bit and not pass his hang ups onto her.