Are you stunting your child's development or do you let them make mud pies?

[PrincessSmartyPants]

what do you think about this article in paper at the weekend suggesting some parents are not giving kids time to develop but chanelling all their energy into adult led structured activities?
things kids should do

I started a thread on that list on MN!

oops- where is it then? Have large glass of wine as companion so thought I was being vaguely original. Sorry

Oh, no, just saying it wasn't her list. And tbh, my ds (4) would rather read a book than do most of those things. I'd love him to though.

I knew some kids who went to the Dragon pre-prep in Oxford, and knew their 'activity schedules' before they went and whilst they were there. I'm not at all surprised at this list in that context.

Most of the ordinary children I know spend a lot of time doing those mud pie making, sandcastle building, worm finding, sort of activities anyway.

But it's very hard to fit them in to the weekly schedule for Tarquin (4) between tennis coaching, swimming lessons, French club, Chess tournaments, piano, violin, and singing lessons, gymnastics, cricket, rugby, and fencing for beginners

Mine do all the things on the list regularly.
I'd find it hard to stop them.

Paint using hands on feet??

Mine have painted their hands, arms, feet legs and bellies - bright orange.

Well Horatio (4 mths) does baby yoga, baby gym, tumble tots, listens daily to Baby Mozart, weekly swimmimg lessons, baby signing classes, has a play session with french au pair to prepare for language classes starting next month. He does have regular playdates with a variety of children from nice homes and I forgot to mention that we have scheduled in some child initated activity once a month for 2 minutes.

mine do all those things all the time.

have to make your own entertainment in the sticks...

I did all those things as a kid

i used to make perfume from rose petals.........it smelt foul

my kids do almost all those things, they are usually filthy but mostly happy

Mine do structured activities and run wild too.I think there is a place and a need for both.

Agree that some poor sods don't get left alone to do their own stuff for a second. Will probably grow up to be shouty, substance-abusing high achievers. Or drop-outs.

I did all of those all the time as a child. Rose petal perfurme was foul, ggg, I agree! Was lucky enough to live somewhere with a really really clay-y soil so used to make tea cups and things.

Have done all the age-appropriate ones with ds. Wish I hadn't taught him to stamp in puddles though. Sigh...

One of his structured activities involves running through the woods, making flour bombs, brewing caveman shower gel, identifying birds and flowers. Gets to have a ball with 20+ kids his age. Not all orgainised activities are bad.

i thought we did this when persil were flinging around the "dirt is good " campaign. looks like the same list.

and i think its bollocks.

yes fret your selvesall the mothers who have nowt else to do - OMG my kids never rolled down a grassy bank - they WILL do it immediatly or off to social services we go.

more guilt piling this is.

your kids are gonna be mightily fucked up if they never made a sand castle..... err ok

I made perfume from rose petals to gigglinggoblin. It smelled nice at first but I think it rotted or something because it was brown and smelt like a turd next time I opened the bottle to make use some considerable time later.

I also once collected my tears in a bottle to prove how much I had cried over something. That stank pretty soon too.

I also once collected my tears in a bottle to prove how much I had cried over something. That stank pretty soon too.

This really made me chuckle.

I can see the articles point, too many mums are obsessed with wiping their kids with wet wipes these days!!

I think as long as you do a bit of both, you're fine. We've done Baby Signing and Gym Tots etc etc, but also spend plenty of time doing the stuff on the list too. As long as they're busy doing something, does it really matter? Far better than sitting in all day doing nothing at all IMO.

I also made rose petal perfume. My grandma had about 20 rose bushes in her front garden. I thought it smelt beautiful, but know in retrospect that it was pretty rank! Took hours! Reminds me of that Peter Kay sketch!

I made rose petal perfume too, in a bucket with a potato masher! I decanted it into tupperware cups, and was surprised my aunt wasn't delighted when I gave it to her !

I can remember my parent's greenhouse grew grape vines (inedible grapes tho'). I made a huge mud banquet once, not only mud pies, but mud soup and mud sandwiches using big vine leaves as the bread.

y ds ran round and round my sis's garden, until he fell in a huge pile of chicken manure. Does that count as one of the type of things on the list?