Mixing the playdoh colors yes or no?

[T0matoplant]

Lighthearted: So I grew up in a house that was very strictly no mixing on the premise that all the playdoh would end up brown and be ruined. So we only ever played with one colour at a time. And I'd never really thought much about this until ds asked me for multiple colours at once and I honestly felt a little conflicted! I let him play with multiple at once but it got me wondering what way others think about this!

Yabu :playdoh should be kept separate one colour at a time.

Yanbu: Life is for living and playdoh colours are for mixing.

I think it depends on the child.

Some children will enjoy mixing and then not mind the next time they play and it's all brown; mixing is fine.

Other kids will enjoy mixing and then have a meltdown when they realise they can't seperate it or refuse to play with it because it's all brown; one colour at a time for these kids.

I think this makes sense.

Or they can play with the colours at the same time but not mix them together.

I believe they should not be mixed. I have believed this since birth. My Play-Doh never mixed.

My children believed differently. I just left them to it and cringed inwardly. It was their Play-Doh, if they wanted it to be all brown and disgusting then it was up to them.

Homemade playdoh.

I'm not massively into homemade anything, but homemade playdoh has been a complete revelation (as far as anything playdoh could be 😂). Much less slimy than real playdoh, takes days rather then hours to go hard when left out. You can make a big batch of each colour, keep it in takeaway containers or empty playdoh pots and then just pull off a chunk when your child wants it and bin after a single use. They can then mix all they want.

Yep, I’m from the camp where mixing wasn’t allowed when I was a kid so I did allow it with mine. And the screaming absolute meltdown at the result wasn’t worth it nor was having to buy them all over again, and again and again (DD is autistic and claimed it would be different). I stopped buying them. She grew out of using them. My 5 year old DNiece (AuDHD) comes to ours regularly (and my 13 year old DD is super vigilant in not letting her mix the colours of the play dough she hasn’t touched for many years 🙄

We always mixed up the colours..

Try being the eldest sibling who liked to keep the colours separate but knew your younger sibs would be careless and let the colours get mixed as soon as they got their grubby mitts on the stuff, so you didn't want to play with it any more.

my DC had loads of play doh and I just let them get on with it and be creative and have fun. I have no idea if they mixed the colours or not.

My main concern was that it didn’t dry out so made sure they put them back in the tubs with the lids on.

Always home made play dough in primary colours & let them learn colour mixing 😃
(but keep some back for when they need blue & all they have left is purple!)

ETA - also bought play dough smells vile - you can add essential oils to home made play dough

Why does play-doh smell so good? Like, what is it they put in there that brings back such fond memories of this stuff?

Mixing is no good, OP. Brown play-doh is clay and no one wanted clay when they bought play-doh.

You're doing well IMO 😄

Can anyone share their homemade playdoh recipe ? @PassOnThat @GoatsareGOAT I tried a couple of times but didn't get good results. I love the idea of letting them discover colour mixing on their own and my daughter is getting to an age where she might enjoy it ! (too late for my boys sadly).

Play dough is banned in my house full stop god awful stuff

Whatever mixing happens Play Dough defies all usual spectrum laws and turns brown.

😮

Personally mixing gives me the sweats, but it’s not my playdoh, so I let the kids do whatever they want with it.

I let them mix colours as it's part of the fun of playing with it. If you don't want a blob of brown play dough, put out complimentary colours like greens, blues and yellow or pinks and purples. This works well when you have one of those sets with the tiny pots. I would always prefer homemade play dough though - if you use the gel food colours you get the same vibrant colours as the shop bought stuff.

No, we don't mix! I don't like it for a start, but I also know my DC would enjoy mixing it at the time and then be DEVASTATED next time they went to play with it and it was all sludge. Once I bought some very cheap stuff (think from B&M) and let them mix that as much as they wanted. They had fun for a bit and then said they preferred keeping it one colour.

I bought a massive box of Play Doh in 2020 (lockdown desperation!) and it's still going strong. It came with 2 pots of each colour and we haven't even opened the second set yet! (DC are now 11 and 7 but have always been good about looking after it.)

No, but it’s inevitable and cannot be stopped.

My inner voice screams as I watch him smash blues in with yellows and splogges of green everywhere but life is too short to actually give a shit.

Hope you can read this, from this book. (Never too late for play dough!)

https://www.iheartnaptime.net/play-dough-recipe/

Here's the best recipe I've used - it made lovely playdoh (silky, smooth, not too slimy). Much better than the shop stuff! I added the food colouring afterwards though as I made several colours from one batch. Make sure the food colouring is washable or you can use washable paints instead.

I am not the crafty type at all, but making homemade playdoh has totally taken the stress out of playdoh activities. It doesn't dry out as quickly as the stuff in tubs, it doesn't matter if it's mixed and the kids aren't precious over it in the same way, so I can now just throw a few lumps down on table and let them get on with it without "guarding" the playdoh 😂.

So glad I'm not the only one who's internally cringing when the colours are getting mixed up!! 😅 there's probably therapy in this for my inner child somewhere!!

I always say, it’s your playdoh, it’s up to you if you mix it, just remember that it can’t be un-mixed

Never really cared as long as kids have fun I was allowed to mix playdoh as a child. You can just buy a new one, they get hard quick