DS coming home from nursery with dirty hands... who is BU, me or DH? (Warning: trivial)

[JesusInTheCabbageVan]

DH has asked that I put this to the jury, as he considers me to be wrong.

DS regularly comes home from nursery with really mucky hands, from playing in the garden. My view is: bit of muck probably good for him, can wash it off when he gets in, no harm done. They have their hands full at pick up time, not practical to be washing loads of kids' hands, particularly when they'll just go straight out and start digging in the mud again.

DH thinks it's out of order* and "if they weren't so nice, I'd say something."

So. Who is right?

*DH has asked me to clarify as follows. "I don't think it's out of order. That makes me sound like a typical moany husband. Put that I know they're lovely and all that, or something"

Why doesn't the parent collecting DS take him/send him to the toilet to wash his hands?

My DH would love to be Mr Banks!

When mine were in nursery, I would frequently find them still immersed in whatever I was doing at pick-up - even at the arse end of the day - because the nursery staff wanted to keep the children happy and playing. Any cleaning and tidying happened after closing.

So yes, they'd come home with mucky hands, face, feet, everything. And that was exactly as I wanted it. If they're clean and tidy, they haven't been having enough fun.

Dd comes home filthy after playing in the nursery mud pit

Two changes of clothes normally and turns the water black....

I don't let her touch my

She loves it

My DS is permanently mucky from nursery because, bless them, they have a mud pit in the garden full of digging tools and insects. He spends 90% of his time in it.

However I did pick him up the other day and he wasn't mucky, but he was blue instead - practically Smurf coloured! They were rather apologetic about the amount of food colouring they had added to the water play table.

Dirty kids are hAppy kids :-)

I would REALLY, REALLY, REALLY like you to invite four of your child's friends round for two hours. And I would like you to organise for your husband to complete a task with them. Make pancakes or something.

After that ask him if he really thinks it is 'out of order' that your child comes home with a bit of mud on his hands!!!

mameulah Four two year olds making pancakes?

To be fair to DH (who is lovely) he and I had childhoods which were the polar opposite of one another. His was quite similar to Nigel Slater's in Toast, and I was basically feral. Generally we do a good job of meeting in the middle

When working in a nursery we would play in grassy garden area until end. We had the odd one not allowed to be dirty so would bring them in half hour early clean them and then they woulf have to stat in on their own with the staff. I think parents who want this are very strange but you always get a couple that prefer it.

I think your DH has a point.

Children are either playing in mud, soil, sand or messy stuff in the garden, in which case they should be encouraged to wash their hands when they've finished as routine, or they are playing with garden toys that shouldn't be so dirty that they automatically make hands filthy.

If the children are washing their hands but just not doing it thoroughly enough, then I'd leave it if they wash hands before eating anyway. But I work in early years, and I think children should be made to wash their hands when they've finished doing mucky stuff.

When my kids come home mucky I know they've had a good day. Its when they are super clean you need to worry!

I'm with you OP, bit of dirt never hurt no one. Teach him to was his hands before eating etc and he will be fine