Apparantly none of you lot are taking you children to the countryside incase you get dirty!!

[wastwinsetandpearls]

Apologies it is the Mail but someone sent it to me.

This cannot be true. I can't go anywhere without meeting someone in their new Joules wellies.

sorry a link would help

They haven't seen the state of the inside of my car from ds's wellies!

Am suprised there is any countryside left given how much we track back from our trips!

the countryside is mostly in my car. sticks and bits of tree in the boot. earth all over the rest of it.

I think Jaya Narain needs to come and clean our wellies.

And admire DS's stones and sticks collection.

Bloody hell, this place is swarming with townies every weekend... Nothing worse than hikers - ewww. Except mud. I live in the country and I certainly don't want to go into it at this time of year.

My mum was horrified by our car this week. In our defence you have to drive down a dirt track to get to our house which is presently a mud bath. So before we get on the road it is filthy.

I love mud, dd fell in a muddy puddle today. Was covered almost from head to foot. She loved it.

Mine don't need to go to the countryside to get dirty , they just play rugby !

I take the point about the rights of way on maps. People use the major paths, go for a tramp across beauty spots and back again (round here the car parks at the popular beauty spots are always very busy), and they follow signposted circular walks, but the sort of circular walk that requires the use of prior planning with a map and involves heading across a popular footpath for a couple of miles, head along a minor road for a few hundred yards, then off at an angle across a right of way crossing a field and back to the start along a different path, I don't think that happens so much.

I do think bikes lend themselves better to planning circular routes though, because you cover more distance in the time, and you can use roads as well. Though walkers do have the advantage of being able to use footpaths as well as bridleways.

So researcher spoke to unknown (small) number of mothers at one school and then talks it up as if it represents a large number of people.

It's not just bad research it's delightfully awful research: she should get a badge!

We live in the country and often cant walk DS 19m to the end of the drive without him paddling in a puddle. Theres a reason wellies where invented. At the end of the day kids and clothes wash.

It´s not my children I´m worried about getting dirty, it´s the Boden

This made me laugh because I have a friend that has a 'thing' about her children staying clean. From their weaning days when they were practically dressed from head to foot in miniature oilskins to avoid their clothes getting soiled they've not been encouraged to get grubby in the slightest. Contact with 'dirty' animals was forbidden for so long that her eldest developed a bit of a phobia about them. I'm pleased to say that she's in the minority.

we live in the country also and love it!

Ds is 7 so here is the checklist;

Hurt-Yes several times, they have to learn some how!

Dirty-yes everytime we leave the house, its the only way to be!

lost-yes as a family mainly but it adds to adventure and the dogs love it!

Funtimes-Yes had by all

Middle class-NO therefore i have no right to comment .

Funny!

We went to the woods yesterday with DD and i took some spare clothes in case she got a bit muddy.

She was actually a walking ball of mud by the time she finished. My only concern was that she was not wearing her peppa pig jumper when jumping in muddy puddles

She asolutely loves it, and so often we say 'dont get dirty' 'dont spill it' 'dont jump in puddles' etc. I love taking her on muddy stomps!

They call asking mothers from one prep school research?

Bollocks to that. Sounds like they carried out their research looking specifically for these findings, and then found them by being selective about who they ask and keeping their sample small and limited to one school.

What a load of rubbish.

My DS gets muddy every day at school in this weather, never mind going to the countryside. And do I give a toss? Um, no.

I am not going to the countryside because I don't drive - it would take 3 hours to walk there

I consider it a crap weekend if we don't all get thoroughly dirty and muddy.