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AIBU?

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Original poster

To feel sorry for children who are not allowed to get dirty?

119 replies

Falconi · 14/04/2014 13:04

The sun is finally shining, children can finally have fun at playgrounds and parks and I have seen to many parents getting streesed over their kids getting their clothes dirty:(.
My friend didn't allow her daughter play with chalk the other day and now my neighbour just screamed at his daughter face that she is FILTHY but she isn't....she just has been playing at a very clean playground however with a long white skirt and flip flops on... And she does look clean!
Just put old 'primark' clothes on your kids and let them play on their holidays ffs.

OP posts:
snice · 14/04/2014 13:50

This reminds me of the time a group of us met at the park for a play and a picnic when the children err n were 6 or 7. My friend dressed her daughter in white pedal pushers then shouted at her for sitting on the grass and told her in no uncertain terms she was not to get th e m dirty. Poor child. Still dressed up like a doll by her mother even today aged 13

TiggyKBE · 14/04/2014 13:50

I was at a Nation Trust property the other day. There was a woodlandy bit where people had been leaning logs together to make dens. A girl goes to her parents with a big log in her arms and asks "Can we build a den?" "No" said the Father, "Some have already been done", and the family walked off. He just didn't 'get' childhood. I felt very sad and a bit angry. And very judgey of course.

NigellasDealer · 14/04/2014 13:52

exMIL did this to DD, made her wear white socks and sandals then shout at her for getting them dirty. totally fucking bizarre. needless to say her boy cousins were playing happily.

BillyBanter · 14/04/2014 13:59

Kids wear their day on their clothes. Stains are a sign of a good day.

MoominsAreScary · 14/04/2014 13:59

Fb selling pages!
Ds3 looks clean for about half an hour after getting up, he must be a dirt magnet.

One of my favourite childhood pics is me with a friend, her wearing a clean pretty dress and me in jeans and a worzl worzel gummidge tshirt absolutely covered in mud!

ICanSeeTheSun · 14/04/2014 14:00

I can bath, dress and do the DC hair and teeth. Then I blink.

I really don't care 99% of the time, i only want them to arrive clean and tidy.

TinyTear · 14/04/2014 14:02

Agreed. This girl in my local playground was told of for... WALKING in the sandpit!

I find sand everywhere when we come back home, including my bra!

CabbagesAndKings · 14/04/2014 14:02

YANBU. Last summer I went with a big crowd of friends & their children to a fantastic adventure park foresty place. Bring a picnic and you can spend the whole day- it's fab.

One friend in particular threw an absolute fit at her 6 year old. The girl was wearing new white ballet pumps, and her mum had told her exactly what she could go on at the park, so she wouldn't get her shoes dirty. The little girl accidentally walked through some mud anyway, and was made to sit on a picnic bench and clean her shoes with a baby wipe, then wasn't allowed on the equipment again.

Why would you? Just why?

My niece gets it as well. She is always tricked out in about 4 different layers of frilly something or other,dinky little shoes, hair done just so, all designer gear. poor child can barely move. She's not allowed to run, in case she trips and gets dirty. The child is taught to mince along like she's in a costume drama. Have never seen her run or jump. She's 4.

Gileswithachainsaw · 14/04/2014 14:04

I don't know why people worry souvh tbh. I mean it's not hard to tell the difference between a kid who's dirty from aging and a kid who's properly grubby from not being cared for.

Kids are meant to play. It's how they learn and it's how they burn off their energy in between school and bed time.

Gileswithachainsaw · 14/04/2014 14:05

So much

Gileswithachainsaw · 14/04/2014 14:06

Dirty from playing

Bloody iphome

JacktheLab · 14/04/2014 14:07

I definetly do, but I grew up on a farm, so lean towards the grubby end of the style spectrum...

DS' clothes are always clean, at least when we leave the house and though I struggle to keep up with the laundry sometimes he seems to have a lovely time at home and in nursery and I can see what he's been painting from the smears he comes home with! Grin

ZenGardener · 14/04/2014 14:12

The other day I was picking my son up from pre-school and the playground was a big muddy mess after winter and the snow melting.

There was a little girl there who was about two and she was wearing a pristine, sheep-skin poncho.

The mum was chatting to some other mums but kept calling over to her daughter to stay out of the mud.

Of course, a few minutes later I saw the mum running across the playground carrying her daughter who must have fallen flat on her bum because she was covered in mud all up back. The poor mum looked frantic.

I have a Darwinian attitude to clothes. If it doesn't survive being bunged in the washing machine then it isn't for our family.

Saski · 14/04/2014 14:14

Kids wear their day on their clothes. Stains are a sign of a good day.

I totally agree with this.

More disturbing still is that it seems to be the girls who are primarily affected this, with their dresses. I do love a pretty dress but either they're easily soaked/washed or they're useless.

ZenGardener · 14/04/2014 14:14

Oh, and Crocs. I know people hate them but they are just fantastic for throwing in the washing machine after a day at the park playing in sand, water, mud, whatever and they come out dry and ready to wear.

I see so many kids at the park in nice shoes being told off by their parents for getting them wet/dirty.

pianodoodle · 14/04/2014 14:18

I think there is a general obsession with things being pristine and clean all the time in general. Scrubbing new born babies, bathing small children every single day....

I don't know - I bath my 2 year old every evening because she's spent all day getting dirty Grin

Clutterbugsmum · 14/04/2014 14:19

My SIL/MIL used to get really stressed if my dc got dirty while in their care. It took them a good couple/three years to get that I didn't care as long as my dc were happy.

I parent completelt different to them, my children are allowed to get dirty/wet as long as they are happy. Where SIL didn't allow her's to play or get mucky.

NigellasDealer · 14/04/2014 14:20

yes my sil and mil were also like this but they never came round to my point of view (that playing is good and we have a bloody washing machine) rather remaining with their view that I was a shit parent.

MummyPigsFatTummy · 14/04/2014 14:25

I remember a story a friend of mine told from when he was a cub leader. They all came back from having a fantastic camping weekend - all the boys (as it was then) had had a blast. One Dad picked up his son and was furious because the boy had a bag full of dirty clothes (frankly I would have thought the fact he wasn't still wearing the ones he had left in would have been cause for celebration but who am I to judge?). He actually complained about it to the leaders. What he thought cub camp (in a woods in England) would involve I have no idea.

Takes all sorts I guess. I felt sorry for his son though.

Gileswithachainsaw · 14/04/2014 14:28

wtf did he expect! It was CAMPING in the fecking WOODS??!!

Poor kid. Not their fault parents are to stupid to spend five mins on eBay to pick up some cheap clothes that can get binned if need be.

Gileswithachainsaw · 14/04/2014 14:29

And my folks were always skint. They still went out and got some cheap t shirts and joggers so I could join in with the fun on guide camps etc

Stinklebell · 14/04/2014 14:31

Mine have a couple of outfits that they aren't allowed to get filthy - one lot are outfits bought for my Dad's 65th birthday party - if they want to wear them they know they're not allowed to wreck them.

DD2 did insist on wearing hers to the park once, I made her sit on a bench and watch - she lasted 10 minutes before we went home and changed Grin

Most of the time I couldn't give a stuff though.

We were on holiday with some friends last year, the parents spent the whole week telling the kids off for getting sand on themselves or chasing them around with wetwipes. Drove me absolutely batty

Thurlow · 14/04/2014 14:40

I agree. Just get cheap or second-hand clothes and let them be.

Though how anyone keeps a toddler clean is beyond me. DD just seems to exhume a faint spray of snot constantly which acts as PVA glue on her face, to be covered by a fine but remarkable layer of mud, dust and biscuit crumbs. I have never in my life known that child to not look just ever so slightly grubby, no matter what I do. I live in awe of parents whose children don't have a face that is permanently 4 shades darker than the rest of them or don't have banana stains on their leggings...

Gileswithachainsaw · 14/04/2014 14:50

thurlow

Are you sure you didn't bring my dd home with you instead

Thurlow · 14/04/2014 14:54
Grin

Though I'm not sure she always goes to bed that clean, the dirt hides outside the bathroom to leap on her again after a bath...