AIBU to wish people would stop using flour for play dough

[Outtedagain]

Just that. Some people, like me, want to cook with it. I have just worked out (correctly I think) from Facebook feeds featuring play dough recipes that this is contributes to there being no flour.

I have seen many posts over the last week or so discussing what is and what isn't essential.
Yesterday someone saying exercising dogs was not essential as they are just a hobby and currently a liability, but dog owners could perhaps eat them when things get really tough.
Now we have flour being essential for a toddler's play.
You couldn't make it up.

Play dough will be full of germs and snot within 10 minutes flat. Not exactly the right time to encouraging germs.

and the germ-ridden and snotty play dough will be in a house.
It's not as if it will be carefully and strategically placed on supermarket trolley handles, petrol pump dispensers and keypads on ATM machines.

@izzywizzygood yes but why buy flour when there are shelves full of pasta cake and bread ?

It's disgusting to waste food products in this way.

It's not a waste, playdoh can be used multiple times. Once a cake or bread has been baked it can only be consumed once.

Eating is vital, kids making a mess is not

There's plenty of food available to buy in the shops, including the many things which can be made with flour.

and I'm sure they have plenty of other things to play with.

Perhaps they do. However, there are also lots of things they can't play with, including on parks and with their friends.

There’s been a flour shortage in my area since before Christmas. This isn’t panic buying related

We can't get regular flour, but no problems getting cornflour. It's no good for making play dough, but awesome for making oobleck! Kept my two DC entertained for ages, although probably a bit messier than play dough.

Now we have flour being essential for a toddler's play.

No one has said it is essential. They've simply said it's not a problem to use it to make playdough.

@honeysucklejasmin we have a soya allergy in the family and have found that Aldi do a white bloomer loaf that has no soya in. Not sure if it’s in at the moment but worth knowing about.

We got regular flour substituted for spelt flour by ocado last week - I was wondering what to do with it as we don't tend to use regular flour - but play dough is a great idea, thanks OP :)

If you are happy with using spelt flour though, I got a couple of bags from the Sharpham Park website last week, so might be worth checking there.

I haven't made playdough for years... this has made me all nostalgic.

brachiosaurusdance said it @SoupDragon

How dare people be resourceful and use items they have to entertain their children.

If you have any cornflour mix it with water to make oobleck, it's very mess and probably one for the garden but it is awesome, goes solid when handled and liquid when not.

Also, if you fancy an alternative to playdough, you could try cloud dough (pretty much like moon sand) which is one cup of baby oil to 4 cups of flour, if you have a nibbly toddler you can use vegetable oil instead

Oh Christ. Another one's escaped from their purgatory cupboard.. via the door of purity and 'doing things better'!

Its annoying to be sure, I like to cook with it also. I have a supply at the moment but find myself rationing it! Haven't seen any flour in the shops for a while.

Interesting that some people are showing their selves up to be a bit unpleasent saying things like "I don't care what you want" Someone even using pasta to make pictures. I think its pretty unreasonable to use food as a toy at the moment.

YANBU. Food trumps kids wanting to use playdough, especially when they have so many other things to play with.

Maybe they already had the flour?

especially when they have so many other things to play with.

But there are also so many other things to eat so I'm not sure what your logic is.

No shortage of flour where I am .. it is limited to one per customer but there is loads on the shelf , same with loo roll, eggs and today I got tagliatelle.. I couldn't have one plain , one strong or one self raising for instance but I rarely use it . I might buy a bag every 8 weeks or something

That doesn't explain why all flour is hard to get.

Even the most dedicated play dough maker will baulk at using the more expensive organic and specialist flours. Yet they are out of stock, too.

Interesting that some people are showing their selves up to be a bit unpleasent saying things like "I don't care what you want"

Like the ones who are saying that about the playdough makers...?

YANBU. Some of these recipes call for 500 grams. That's 2 cakes!!

Has coronavirus turned everyone into Marie Antoinette?

I wonder how much of this extra cake and biscuits and bread ends up in the bin because after they’ve made it people aren’t eating all of it.

And for that which doesn’t, I imagine the weight loss industry will be coining it in once this is over because of the amount of weight people have piled on because of too much cake.

Maybe I should complain that people making cake are selfish because I need the flour to make white sauce?

Seriously, those complaining about trivial crap like this really need to get out more. Oh, wait, you can’t. .

Thanks, i've got 3 bags in the cupboard (bought before all this kicked off) so now you've given me an idea of something to do with it given that baking is off the cards for now :)

The new Puritans - let's crush the fun out of living, it's not lockdown if you're not completely miserable.