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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To let my children make mud pies in the back yard?

25 replies

Mrsfrumble · 10/04/2014 23:10

They're 3 and 18 months. Apart from being utterly filthy, they seem perfectly content. I'm sitting on the back door step drinking coffee and watching. Am I being lazy? Should I be directing them towards more wholesome (and clean) activities?

OP posts:
Dieu · 10/04/2014 23:13

Oh, you're very good. And what could be more wholesome than that? I'm afraid I'm just too anal. I would have been twitching just watching them! Good on you, I say.

elahrairahforprimeminister · 10/04/2014 23:14

No, that's what gardens are for.

Original poster
Mrsfrumble · 10/04/2014 23:15

I'm twitching a bit, which is why I'm asking! It's against my instincts to let them get so dirty, but they're enjoying themselves so much.

OP posts:
thoughtsbecomethings · 10/04/2014 23:15

Sounds perfect, mine use to love doing things like this Grin

Dieu · 10/04/2014 23:16

Bless them! Have you taken a photo? It sounds very sweet.

Original poster
Mrsfrumble · 10/04/2014 23:17

And we've never lived in a house before, always flats, so we've never had a garden. I'm starting to realize what a good thing we've been missing Smile

...although the baby has just toddled over and tried to climb into my lap, so now I'm filthy too.

OP posts:
rabbitlady · 10/04/2014 23:17

i made mud pies and i'm still here!

in fact, the other day, i pointed out a man to my daughter saying 'there's x, we used to make mud pies together'... and we're 56 now...

WorraLiberty · 10/04/2014 23:19

I'm sure you know you're not being unreasonable in the slightest Lol

honeybeeridiculous · 10/04/2014 23:21

Mine used to love a good mud pie, or leaf and petal soup. Its what childhood is made of. Good on you OP

ErrolTheDragon · 10/04/2014 23:22

YANBU at all! ...er... I'm assuming you're not in Britain though, as it's past their bedtime here.

Excellent play, and very good for their immune systems. What could be more wholesome than mudpies?

Original poster
Mrsfrumble · 10/04/2014 23:24

The 3 year old is naked now (don't worry, yard is surround by a 7 foot high fence and no overlooking buildings) and looks like an extra from Lord of the Flies. His limbs are totally coated in mud.

I made mud pies too as a child in the early 1980s. I think my parents were quite hands-off by today's standards.

OP posts:
footballagain · 10/04/2014 23:26

You are only being unreasonable if you insist on taking pictures of the little darlings caked in shite and then posting them on Facebook. Wink

Stop twitching and let them enjoy themselves...........no photographic evidence required.

Original poster
Mrsfrumble · 10/04/2014 23:26

We're in the US. Getting on for tea time, so I'll have to get them hosed down soon.

There seem to be a lot of clean-freaks on MN, so I did wonder if I would be deemed unreasonable by some.

OP posts:
ErrolTheDragon · 10/04/2014 23:27

Nothing wrong with a 3-yo being naked whether overlooked or not, so long as they're warm enough and don't need protection against sharp vegetation or stones etc.

WilsonFrickett · 10/04/2014 23:27

Making a mud pie in the 76 drought is my actual earliest memory.

Crikey, typing that has suddenly made me feel a bit weepy (Wine has been had, but still). Let them slop away op, they'll thank you a years later.

Chatelaine123 · 10/04/2014 23:29

To take it a stage further, I have an early childhood memory of digging to Australia - until I gave up! Even examining a stone, to get blood out of it...
I had big ears and lots of relatives! Lots of fun.

craftysewer · 10/04/2014 23:30

Good on you, it sounds like they are having wonderful fun. Grin

WorraLiberty · 10/04/2014 23:35

The 3 year old is naked now (don't worry, yard is surround by a 7 foot high fence and no overlooking buildings) and looks like an extra from Lord of the Flies. His limbs are totally coated in mud.

I wouldn't worry if you were in the middle of your local park Smile

ErrolTheDragon · 10/04/2014 23:37

The only parenting book I thought much of was by Penelope Leach, and she said something to the effect that small children should be dirty by the end of the day unless they'd been swimming. I guess 'or have been properly hosed down before tea' would also be acceptable Grin

Original poster
Mrsfrumble · 10/04/2014 23:42

Love it Chatelaine! Reminds me of my childhood plan to build a ladder to the moon... Out of Lego.

I spend too much time on AIBU, clearly, when I'm trying to pre-empt an imaginary chorus of cat's-bum-faces telling me not to let my children get naked or dirty.

OP posts:
Nocomet · 10/04/2014 23:43

Mine had a hole to play in and molded mud pies in plant pots that they used to stick in the green house to bake dry.

Our green house is very thin horticultural glass, the DDs weren't allowed in the green house.

As this game went on all one summer holidays, I think parental supervision was slightly lax Blush

BrianTheMole · 10/04/2014 23:43

Yes mud pies in the yard are the way forward op. Yanbu.

Famzilla · 10/04/2014 23:48

Awh 12mo DD did this today. Wasn't so much a pie as it was just rolling around in the filth and smearing it over the dog. I could feel hygiene obsessive DH twitching from 50 miles away but she was having a great time. Got some funny pictures too.

MidniteScribbler · 11/04/2014 01:54

You must now put the sprinkler on and let them run around in it naked to clean them off. Them's the rules! 'Cause my nana tolds me so. ::nods::

SaggyAndLucy · 11/04/2014 01:57

IMO a happy child is generally naked and filthy! Grin

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