Picking up dc in 'dirty' clothes

[headinhands]

Ds had a party to go to in the next street. Kids of an age they can be left without parent. I thought it would be a good opportunity to turn over the border in the side garden. After dropping him off I get stuck in and before long it was time to collect him. I change from gardening boots to trainers but didn't change clothes. The house is about 3 minutes away.

When I got there one of the other parents collecting was taken aback that I was a 'bit muddy'. Yeah it was obvious I'd been forking over a garden but I wasn't leaving any mud anywhere. I had a few small streaks of mud on me here and there but had clean footwear. I suddenly felt embarrassed that I had turned up 'muddy'.

Is it bad manners to collect a child from a party if it's obvious you've been gardening?

I swear I wasn't head to toe in sloppy soil!

No, that parent sounds like a twat

Were they really "taken aback" or did they simply make conversation about the mud on your clothes....

They sound strange. Unless you were rocking nips like Charlie dimmock. And even then it’s hardly worth looking askance at

Don’t you have staff?

(They we’re being stupid)

I cannot imagine how they came to express being ‘taken aback’ - that’s the height of bad manners.

Not bad manners at all. You had clean footwear so nothing was left on their floors.
Ignore them.