to be irritated by people with clean, smartly dressed children

[mrsruffallo]

So annoying.Ttoddlers in new catalogue clothes and hair pulled tightly back.
So controlled, I can't bear seeing kids like that

Actually, I am trying to pinpoint why it annoys me so much
I am willing to accept that IABU BTW

I don't get irritated just envious and inadequate. I do try, really I do but my DC are too like me - dirt and mess magnets

Are they always like that, or are you just seeing a snapshot before they get dirty and messy again?

BTW I know what you mean. The children in school that seem to sparkle with cleanliness and smartness. And their parents taking an invisible speck of fluff of their jumpers as if they were removing a smear from a newly waxed car

Not natural.

See, I like the sound of your kids Orm. I bet I would warm to them on sight
These children that are too neat and tidy just..don't look like fun

My kids are like street urchins, torn trousers, rippped, frayed and scruffed

DD1 used to be clean and smartly dressed before DD2 came along, shoes polished every night, sponged all the stuff she'd rolled in at school off her clothes, neatly tied back hair, I still manage clean socks for her but she looks a bit of a ragamuffin some mornings

/ not sure which.

I feel a bit inadequate.
Yesterday I took the dc to the paediatrician for yearly check up (we are in italy, that's how it works year).
I noticed that ds had really dirty knees, as he had played football at school.
Lovely paed told me :"Children have to be dirty"

here, not year, sorry!

Well my kids always look pretty good. Me, however, I generally like a bag of rubbish tied up in the middle, as my Mum used to say . I find its one or other. Kids or me!

I always start out with clean sparkly children, then we go out and its all undone. I dont try and keep them that way, they are children after all.
That said, the other end of the spectrum is worse, there are some children (next doors included) who seem to be in filthy clothes from morning till night. I feel very sad when seeing them leave the house first thing in the morning with what looks like 2 weeks worth of mud and eggyness? down jumpers and trousers.

My friend's children were like that when small. Impressively neat and tidy. However, I did feel slightly sorry for them at mealtimes because they would be covered from head to foot in case of spillages.

DD somehow manages to get scruffy and messy every morning, in the 2 minutes between getting her hair done and getting out the front door.

By the time we get to school nothing is tucked in or sitting properly, and her hair looks like she has been dragged through a hedge backwards.

2 of her friends look like they have stepped out of the pages of a catalogue, even after school!

The boys are permantely in a state of scruffiness, no matter what I do!

I don't know how other people keep their kids spotless, I think it's hard enough trying to get them to stay presentable long enough to get from the house to the car.

DS3 16 months had new clothes on today, he looked very very smart at school this am, clean and tidy but im far from controlling with dirt, he will be filthy later

whats wrong with children looking clean sometimes

My 14 month old son usually starts the day clean and tidy and finishes it in a right state. Presumably if seen at the beginning of the day I would be perceived as a terribly precious mother by some people, and if seen at the end of the day, I would be perceived as a terribly neglectful mother by other people.
Oh well. I am resigned to being able to do no right as a parent in the eyes of others. Fortunately my son appears to love me, clean or scruffy.

Don't mind children occasionally looking clean. But I do hate it when little girls refuse to play out of doors, and mums won't let them, because they are always dressed in immaculate girlie dresses.

Cory, if I see DD1 filthy after playing I tell her she must have had fun to be so dirty, which of course returns to bite me in the arse because she then thinks it's a licence to get mucky and she hasn't had a good time if she's not

I think going back to school and seeing these toddlers not being allowed to get their clothes dirty. hair perfect etc sparked this off

I don't mind mine starting off clean- w do bath them a couple of times a week and they can look smart when going to parties.
I just don't get the paranoia some have of not letting them get dirty/messy at all

DD has the abilityto look impeccable which freaks me out a bit especially as she will look fabulous and then I remind her that clean pants are a good idea, as is teeth brushing and err washing . She then trudges miserably back upstairs

But her impeccable neat thing only last until the first oppertunityto run around after which she looks like pulled through a hedge backwards

So mrsRuff - you would find DD really irritating most mornings but fine after about lunch time. Like me really - I find her annoying half the time.

ahhh x-posted

At the end of every day all my three are filthy and ready for a bath and clean clothes for the next day,
I allow them to play outside, dig in mud and sand and roll about, what young children do but they do always need a bath daily

At the other end I hate seeing older babies and toddlers in filthy pushchairs with yesterdays food stained clothes and filthy hands and faces where it is obvious it is from the day before, yuck

My SIL dresses her girls in expensive clothes that she freaks out about if they get wet/dirty etc. They do look nice and she openly feels sorry for my boys who always look reasonable but are dressed mainly in second hand stuff. Its horses for courses I think. I would much rather my boys not be bothered about dirty clothes and are outside having fun, poking about in the mud and puddles whereas my SIL seems to like her girls looking pretty and doing clean, indoor activities !

YABU, because some children do just seem to manage this effortlessly. I see children at DD's nursery when I go to pick her up who I know have been running around playing in the dirt with her all day but who still look impeccable without a hair out of place.

Both of mine, on the other hand, can manage "impeccable" for about ten seconds, tops.