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

My children seem to repel dirt.

I wanted to put dd in a fresh dress this morning and was quite disapointed to see that the one she has been wearing for three days was still clean, so back in it she went.

In those three days she has been to the park twice every day, a farm, blackberry picking and conkering and eaten all her meals incuding spag. bol. whilst wearing it.

Even when rolling in mud my kids seem to get up clean, I think they are protected by magic.

yabu i hate scruffy dirty looking kids, they look like they are smelly and i want to throw them on the bath (which is what happens to ds when he looks this way)

Well while I look like I was dragged through a hedge my DD (22 months) doesn't. She is a clean freak who hates having messy hands or something spilled on her top. If she spills anything off she goes for a cloth completely unprompted. Today she carefully wiped the butter off her fingers after eating her toast. Some children might not like being messy!

That's probably where the paranoia for some parents comes from garlic, it's not OK for babies and toddlers to be mucky and perhaps some people find it difficult to make the change in their heads and are still applying that to older children who should be rolling down hills or jumping in muddy puddles.

Same as trying not to be too anxious when your crawling baby starts scrabbling about on the floor

It's more the stylish look I'd like for ds2. Somehow other mothers seem able to put a t-shirt, trousers and shoes together for their dss and they look smart and...well, sort of stylish. Ds2 always looks like I've dressed him in the dark with oven mitts on.

Mind you, DH and I aren't exactly fashion plates either so there's probably no hope. We are all always clean though. At least at the beginning of the day.

My DC's all look immaculate when they leave the house (ironed uniforms aside!). I put a lot of effort into making sure they do.

However by school pick up time they look like wee scruff bags like children should. My DC's usually stay in their clothes for the day (unless there's good reason) and they don't have bib's or whatever at mealtimes, but at bedtime EVERYTHING comes off and goes in the wash (including them in the bath!) and fresh clothes go on the next day.

Kids should get dirty shouldn't they?
I only thought older generations were dirt obsessed as cheap school uniforms/childrens clothing weren't readily available in those days.
Children grow to quickly to get prissy about their clothes. I know my way sounds labour intensive but it really isn't (certainly less effort than trying to keep them clean).

All that's required is a good washing machine and those wipe over shoe polishes in a few colours. (Least effort parenting rules OK!)

BTW I love to see clean children but always imagine that they're not having as much fun as they should be if they're clean.

Change your annoyance for can't understand how or why anyone'd want their child to be tidy all the time, and you got yourself a YANBU!

yanbu gruffalo I don't so much mind the DDs in very clean clothes but the way some have their hair pulled back SOO tightly it must hurt them and create bald spots IMO

My ds comes out of school with es lunch down himself

sorry mrsruffalo !!

rofl at shodan's ds 'looks like I've dressed him in the dark with oven mitts on'

Once a season after dc are in bed I go trhough their clothes and make notes (on paper) of what tops go with what bottoms, bearing in mind colour of shoes etc

sounds mad but as virtually all their clothes are secondhand they can easily end up looking really scrappy, and this gives me a list of outfits that look reasonably pulled-together.

(shh, I do it for myself too)

Never mind the clothes, it's the hair that bugs me. Neat, smooth bobs. Endearingly soft, glossy surf-dude curls. Clipped Etonian stlyes with floppy fringes.

Mine are the tufty sort. I suspect I could give DS2 a grade 1 buzzcut and some of his hair would still be sticking out sideways. Probably with twigs in it.

I used to think it was a boy / girl thing but my 2yo DD scrapes / messes her clothes as much as her big brother ever did.

We get lots of hand-me-down girls clothes from a friend and they are spotless, 'tis v.odd. But another friend always give us normal, slightly battered clothes which I find reasurring.

One of mine looks sparkling and clean all the time, her hair is always neat, her clothes always clean after a day at school. Even dressed scruffily, she seems to be all shiny like a new pin. My other looks a bit scruffy however clean she is. I don't really understand it.

Ooh MrsBadger. You sound very organised and stylish.

I'm not bothered by scruffy looking children per say, but children who are messy eaters make me heave.
I cant even watch babies been fed, and as for dribbling. Double yuck.

The funny thing is though my ds is not a messy eater at home just school

I think it's a nature thing and you can#t fight it . I am a natural scruff - can't look too neat even when I try. I love it when dd and ds are all smart and clean and tidy. But inevitably it all falls into a mess. And therefore my kids (and my house) tend to look somewhat bohemian...

Ds1 is always pristine, ds2 always looks like a member of Fagins gang. In identical school uniforms. Baffling

DS1 (4) was - and still is - a ridiculously clean and tidy child - and was as a baby/toddler. He takes after his dad and gets distressed if his hands get dirty or gets his clothes dirty at all.

His little brother (18 months)is a dirt magnet - we're lucky if we can get through breakfast without him needing a change of clothes and good hose down in the shower...

Funny thread

I was always impeccable as a child - no one could understand why, I played in the mud etc. but always just seemed to be "neat".

My brother on the other hand...

I can't remember ever making an effort to be clean and tidy though.

My darling DC are always impeccably dressed in their boden clothes. Not a hair out of place or a speck of dirt around them.

I make my DD sit still for hours whilst i tease her hair into a symetrical parting.

Nah i try for the clean and tidy look but hey ho!

im totally jealous of anyone who achieves this.

I feel sorry for all the kids in my local park who are not allowed to go in the sandpit because they'll mess up their clothes. And the babies who never learn to crawl because crawling happens on the floor.

I can cope with children from catalogues but completely freak me out!

My DD now 6 has always been unaturally neat and clean...she used to leave nirsery still sparkling...she's still a bit OCD about clean hands etc...but DD wh is now 2 looks like an etra from Mad Maz....crazy hair ..NO bobbles or clips ALLOWED MUMMY! She always has black knees and dried crap on her face...she HATES being wiped and sometimes I just leave her to it!

YANBU I dont like seeing small toddlers with their fine hair all scraped back and put in complicated hairdos..it looks sore!

Actually DS does look pretty sparkly most of the time - even after a day at school or playing football. Sadly I look like I;ve been dragged through a hedge backwards.