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Nurseries

Find nursery advice from other Mumsnetters on our Nursery forum. For more guidance on early years development, sign up for Mumsnet Ages & Stages emails.

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Original poster

Ruined clothes, what would you do?

96 replies

Sakura03 · 02/08/2021 10:17

We're mostly very happy with DS' nursery but its bothers me that the children don't wear aprons when painting as nearly all my son's tops are stained (black paint), on Friday it was top and trousers, earlier in the week he'd covered his hands in black paint and used his top instead of paper, despite using a decent stain remover the top is completely ruined. I buy him cheap clothes for nursery and I expect the occasional accident but I think it looks awful bringing him in in badly stained clothes. The fact that his clothes is cheap shouldn't really matter as in my opinion you should still look after your clothes. That's the way I was brought up and I want my son to learn that we look after our clothes (just the same principle that we apply to toys etc). I feel like pointing this out to staff, what would you do? Do your nursery use aprons? Tia

OP posts:

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WhatsWithAllTheCarrots · 02/08/2021 10:20

I had this when my eldest was younger and it drove me crackers. I loved that they did painting etc and happy for him to get a but mucky, but also didn't feel I could send him each day in heavily stained clothes! In the end I asked v nicely if they could change him into a 'painting T-shirt' for these activities and packed a (clean) stained one in his bag every day for this. This worked xx

HoppingPavlova · 02/08/2021 10:25

Never bothered me. I would have dedicated clothes and just sent them in those, what do stains matter and the staff know why they are stained. Stained is different to uncleared and never washed, they are hardly going to make a SS report! My kids are now adults and don’t go around staining themselves left, right and centre with careless abandon because that’s what happened in their nursery years so I believe you are seriously overthinking that aspect.

MindyStClaire · 02/08/2021 10:27

I'm very relaxed about clothes getting dirty at nursery and happily send them back in with stained clothes if marks don't come out in the wash. I'd be very unimpressed with that though, ours always use aprons when painting, so of course I don't mind when a bit of paint or whatever finds its way through. I'd raise it, in a friendly way, stressing you absolutely don't expect him to come home pristine.

Florencenotflo · 02/08/2021 10:27

I ended up buying the nursery 'uniform' t shirts (pale yellow!) in the end so that Dd could ruin those instead. They got stained, but we're always clean, but Dd wasn't ruining her day to day clothes. Same with leggings. I used to have a little pile of ones just for nursery, because she'd come home filthy!

You've just got to get on with it, they will get dirty, so make your peace with sending him in clean but stained clothing.

8dpwoah · 02/08/2021 10:31

Seems it would be a lot easier for everyone if the nursery just used aprons? Ours do, yes the odd splotch does still get missed and things get marked but I can't complain as that's exactly what happens when we paint at home 😂

Is there a reason they don't use aprons? Don't say covid...

Intherightplace · 02/08/2021 10:35

I don't think little children should ever be in clothes anyone needs to worry about.

I hear what you're saying about looking after things, but the actual lesson is that your appearance is more important than enjoying life.

Kendodd · 02/08/2021 10:35

If the nursery have a 'uniform' I'd just buy that and let it get stained.

NuffSaidSam · 02/08/2021 10:35

I would expect a nursery to use aprons and I would ask them why they don't.

I also think it's absolutely fine to send them in with their stained clothes. Don't ruin a lot of clothes just have a nursery 'uniform' where it doesn't matter how mucky they get.

WhatsWithAllTheCarrots · 02/08/2021 10:35

I think PPs saying just send them in stained clothes maybe haven't had the experience of clothes returning more paint than fabric?! I would happily send my kids in slightly splotchy clothes, but massive swathes of black that you can't get out is a bit different, I think!

Sprogonthetyne · 02/08/2021 10:36

I assume ours dose, we get artwork sent home regularly but so far have only lost 3 tops over 4 years (split between 2 children)

MrsTophamHat · 02/08/2021 10:37

All i have done is bought a three pack of mix and match tops and leggings from Sainsburys and I send my daughter to nursery in them every single time. I'm happy that she is having fun and getting dirty is part of that but I don't want her nice clothes getting ruined.

aiwblam · 02/08/2021 10:39

I’d probably supply a plastic apron for him that he can wear to paint in.

Crowsaregreat · 02/08/2021 10:41

I imagine that for nursery workers, ensuring every one of 30 kids going near paint has an apron on is impossible. It's also not a very good use of their time when they could be facilitating learning and play.

Kids are exploring and learning all the time, you seem to want to drill into them that they should take a step back and ask themselves 'could this get my clothes dirty' before getting stuck in. Let them enjoy themselves and be mucky. Who gives a shit if they are in stained clothes. My kids wear clothes I buy in cheap bundles and I don't care if they are stained, if it's really bad then it just goes in the bin.

THATbasicSNOWFLAKE · 02/08/2021 10:44

This. Also some kids wont wear an apron for whatever reason.

Skyeheather · 02/08/2021 10:44

When my son started nursery we were told not to dress him in his best clothes because he will be painting, playing outside in sand, mud and water etc. I just got some cheap plain supermarket joggers and T-shirt's and those were his "nursery clothes". I also got him a jacket and coat from the charity shop and kept the nice one he got for Christmas for outside nursery. You can't expect the nursery to keep their clothes clean when lots of the activities involve various kinds of mess.

MaMelon · 02/08/2021 10:44

Ours always used aprons - I’d have thought it was standard practice along with tidying up and washing hands. You always expect a bit of mess from nursery but not to the extent that perfectly good clothes are stained regularly because the staff don’t put aprons on their children as they do in other nurseries.

Lemonlemon88 · 02/08/2021 10:45

I honestly just buy the cheapest clothes for nursery and used to let my dd just look an absolute scruff covered in stains or I would have been buying new things every week. My DS remains mainly clean! The only time I got grumpy was when they let my DD paint in her coat.

Mintjulia · 02/08/2021 10:46

At our nursery, Friday was paint day. Old clothes or previously painted clothes were expected.

They didn't use aprons because they had parents complaining that they had put their children in 'dirty' aprons.

Intherightplace · 02/08/2021 10:49

Ah, actually that's a fair point, there probably is some Covid rule that prohibits shared aprons.

HoppingPavlova · 02/08/2021 10:50

I think PPs saying just send them in stained clothes maybe haven't had the experience of clothes returning more paint than fabric?!

I have and seemed to be very kid dependant. Some of mine seemed to cover themselves in it, others not so much. If heavily covered staff would change the offending items, always had a spare set in their bag, but guessing they did that because they didn’t want everything in the centre covered in paint transferred off the clothes rather than because the kid was ‘dirty’. They would just put them in a plastic bag in their locker and I would bung it in the machine with everything else, none of this wasting half my life with stain removing madness for dedicated nursery clothes. Nursery staff are not stupid, they can tell kids coming with clean clothes that are stained from nursery as opposed to dirty neglected kids.

Marmitemarinaded · 02/08/2021 10:52

Either ask them to put him I an apron

Buy an apron and ask they put him in this when messy play

As. Simple. As. That.

HoppingPavlova · 02/08/2021 10:53

At our nursery, Friday was paint day. Old clothes or previously painted clothes were expected.

Ours had painting on the roster every day, some other activities were rotated through days so kids who came different days didn’t always miss out but painting was one of the standards each day, along with movement session (aka bung on something like Wiggles and staff do dance actions but kids just jump around like maniacs) and book/reading session which was also a daily standard.

PostMenWithACat · 02/08/2021 10:55

Mine had little cotton smock things to wear over their clothes. Like a little uniform. They looked very cute.

It never particularly bothered me and they went to nursery in cheap and cheerful play clothes anyway. In fact unless we went somewhere special they were always in cheap and cheerful play clothes. Asda was a very good friend.

billiebeeme · 02/08/2021 10:55

I've seen them often without any aprons on even though I know they have them 🤷🏻‍♀️ We've not had too many accidents but I agree with you. Even if they are cheap you shouldn't be having to buy new ones constantly. I also don't send them in stuff that is very stained I'll just end up binning it.

MissyB1 · 02/08/2021 10:57

As op said getting every child into an apron every time they want to paint - often only for 30 seconds before they get bored, is a full time job in itself! And yes some go into a full blown screaming tantrum if you try and put it on, ditto bibs at lunchtime.

We are also supposed to wash the aprons in between each child wearing them - so that’s another job.

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