AIBU...

[lilacdaisy611]

To think DD's nursery should make an effort to keep clothes clean during messy play like painting??

Like, put a smock on them? Let them play in their undershirt, etc.?

This is the second time DD has come home with a brand new jumper ruined by paint. Went straight in the wash with stain remover which helped but not enough.

I'm a little annoyed. Should I say something to them? Or am I dumb for sending her off in nice clothing to nursery?

I know they're all very busy and have the 3:1 ratio etc. but is that so much to ask? How hard is it to put a smock on??

Not sure it makes a difference, but DD is 15 months so will be awhile before she can do crafts without making a mess.

I work in a preschool. We are supposed to have paint on offer basically all the time. It is impossible to ensure each child which wants to paint is wearing some sort of covering. For example, we have 2/3/4 year olds, the 2 year olds go to the paint, put one whole hand in the paint plate, smack it on a piece of paper and then are done. They generally learn to go and wash their hands off by themselves fairly quickly, but unless we had a member of staff solely monitoring the paint tray, then there is no chance of making each child out on a smock/apron.
We actually put the paint away today as a pretty new child was just constantly going to the paint, smearing it everywhere, pouring it out, and washing their hands every time we turned around!
Send your child in old clothes, buy stuff from a charity shop for nursery use and the nursery will not care if you’ve clearly washed something but it’s stained.

We have nursery clothes, hand me downs or super cheap.
There are photos of DS in an apron painting today but they changed his trousers and his jumper is filthy, on the back too! I don’t know how it’s possible but there you go.
He had a lovely time though.

My DSDs nursery has aprons but she still ends up covered in paint or spills her lunch down herself. Don't send her to nursery in stuff you don't want stained. Nursery teachers have enough to do.

Dirty clothes mean the child has had fun. Children need this, nursery is the perfect place for it. Children are not dolls unfortunately they need to explore mud, water, paint and playdough.

Have you no charity shops in your area either? Some of them are expensive (Cancer Research) but the Red Cross, Salvation Army , etc in my town are about 50p for a Frugi top!

Also, don't buy pale colours like yellow and the stains are less obvious.

Most kids here go to nursery in stained clothes too. It's not just about not ruining expensive things, it's about getting every single wear possible out of the things you have. Nursery won't give two hoots!

I find you need to invest a lot of time in charity shopping so it’s not really a “cheap” option.

E.g. you can buy a cheap pack of 5 tops in the correct size from Asda, or you could spend several hours/ multiple trips to find one top in the correct size.

The charity shops near me don’t have many children’s clothes though, so maybe I’m unlucky.

Old clothes for nursery even aprons don't stop paint going up underneath and stopping a child to put them on often leads to them running away and never doing the messy play....clean child no learning experience

Young children under three can quite often get upset at being made to put on an apron. 2yo tend to come back and forth to
messy play and painting and it’s often not worth putting aprons on them. Once they reach 3yo most can understand the need to protect clothes and stay longer at an activity. Aprons also don’t stop clothes getting paint on them. You still have children who will wipe hands on trousers etc in the middle of it or splash it onto the chair etc.

Always send in clothes they can get messy and have a couple of changes of clothes so they can be changed out of very messy things especially if very young as they do make more mess exploring. They go the nursery to have a wide range of educational experiences not Just to be babysat.

This is the fault of the paint manufacturers. The paint is supposed to be washable, but it isn’t - it still stains. We’d had so many complaints about this over the years, and even changing the brand of paint makes no difference. They all stain, even the water based ones.

Get ye to a charity shop me dear

I wish they would put a smock on them, but they don’t, which they say is due to restriction of movement but I assume is actually because they’d need to wash them. (I’d be happy to take one in for them to use though and wash it myself)

we were told to just get clothes from charity shops for nursery so that’s what we do, mainly because things get lost as well. Tbh we get all our child’s clothes second hand.

The paint should be washable though, we’ve never had this issue.

Who actually sends kids to nursery in brand new clothes?

Absolutely YABVU, My nursery requests that you send them in clothes that you don't mind getting dirty and have even said don't worry about stains. As long as they are "clean" then stains are fine! I love that they do all the messy stuff there as it means i don't need to get paint all over my own house!

I worked in nurseries with under 2's for over a decade. The best clothing I ever saw for nursery was a child who's parent bought a pack of cheap dark coloured asda school polo shirts (£6 for 5) and dark school sweathshirts (£5 for 2). Genius.

You need to send her to nursery in cheap clothes and save the new jumpers for her day off. If she gets dirty while with you then you can soak her clothes immediately but at nursery she'd be wearing those clothes until home time.

Stains on nursery clothes is a sign of the activities and fun she had. Annoying for you but it's fine to send her to nursery in second hand or slightly stained clothing. Ratios are 3 to 1 but in the time it takes the adult to change a nappy or pop to the loo quickly, the kids can get into mischief.

I bought bundles off Facebook and eBay for this purpose so it's not the end of the world if something can't be salvaged.

If things are stained after nursery that’s fine they are still usable for nursery anyway.

Mine wear stained stuff to nursery. My boyfriend is mortified by this 🙄

Never send your kids to nursery in nice clothes because even with an apron on they will get paint, glue, food all over them
My son's nursery clothes generally come from the charity shop or Primemark and once they are stained (usually the first time he wears it) they stay in the nursery clothes pile.
I work in his nursery and we try to keep the children clean but we are incredibly busy and there is a lot of paperwork and absolutely no down time.
We always ask parents to send their children in old clothes but if parents ignore us then not much we can do.
And washable paint is rubbish. It always stains.

The benefit to your DD of the messy play is priceless.

The stained jumper is a sunk cost but at least you can keep it for use at nursery!!

You don't want a neat little princess after a day of nursery, you want a muddy, sandy, paint-splattered child who's had a brilliant day and learned loads.

YABU.

thats why you dont put 'best' clothes on for nursery
or buy an apron for her or use old clothes its not a fashion show