Does anyone actually ENJOY messy play with their dcs?

[notnowbernard]

God, I hate it. Am rubbish at it too. Quite enjoy a felt-tip pen session and can cut out shapes but that's about it, really

Dd1 asked me to do "modelling" today. I told her the re-cycling bin was empty

She persuaded me to do painting. I persuaded her to do it in the garden. It still ended in a complete fiasco... mess everywhere, her COVERED in paint, my clean washing hanging on the line covered in paint

How do you do it in a relaxed and care-free way? Or is this why she goes to nursery?

i love it. but only because it's one thing i can leave him to do on his own while i mn

we have those paints that are like pens with spongy bits on the end - much less mess with those.

Oh, I love messy play- what's not to like?

I like it if she plays for more than 5 mins - otherwise it's a lot of prep and clearing up for very little action!

my friends used to send their kids round to mine for messy play - I have a messy house and never minded getting playdoh/glitter/paint sploshed around

I don't like but have mess and gunk aversion therefore children and gunk is the worst
Do praise myself for pushing my own boundries and forcing myself to do it a couple of times a week

Hated it, did the bare minimum. Reminded myself that I was good at other things (reading aloud and singing) and that crafts could be left to the nursery/CM.

I love it! As long as I have the time to clear up afterwards, its the most fun we have!

Cover the table with lots of paper, paints, bath all ready, strip to all but nappy and get the paints out. We did try an apron, but she pulls it off. We do feet painting and hand painting, and added glue and glitter, much to Dhs horror as he was finding purple glitter over his work clothes for days!

I have also covered the floor in paper and we have walked across it. Now that is messy and not great in our flat!

Its just so much fun!

I love it, I love the excuse to get my hands dirty, to play in the mud or to muck around with paint, gluing and sticking.

Pavlov - are you nuts?

Had a traumatic experience recently involving 2 unsupervised pre-schoolers and a box of craft materials which contained multiple tubes of coloured glitter

Glitter is now a banned item

I have never been very arty. Even when I was a child I disliked drawing or cutting or sticking so to do it now as an adult is torture.

I don't mind the mess and I don't mind the getting it out and clearing it up IF (and this is a masive IF) it actually keeps ds entertained for more than 3mins.

Generally speaking painting does not do this but it took me a long time to realise this. Nowadays I tend to ignore the desperate pleas for painting as I know what the outcome will be.

I don'tmind pladoh, gluey/crafty/sticky stuff at all as ds actually quite likes these now and will do them for quite a while.

Drawing and painting hold no appeal for ds at all. The object being made had to be 3D in nature.

I had forgotten water and sand play though.

Ds loved/loves this and will do this for ages. We use do regularly have water play and a version of sand play where we use dried beans/oats, a large box and various contaniers in our flat and believe me when you mix that with baking, the mess is unbelievable !!

I'm not sure I enjoy it exactly but if it stops ds hassling me to 'play' soliders, knights and dragons with him it is sOOOO worth it.

I am not sure it is possible to make yourself be relaxed about it. But not doing painting when there is clean washing nearby would help.

DS is quite a tidy painter (just 5) but DD is going to be one that gets it everywhere. She refuses to leave a single bit of visible white on the paper!

Am ok with messy play but have a hard time remaining relaxed with baking as they keep licking their fingers half way through!

Oh and playdough which gets dropped and trodden in, knelt in etc. But playdough lasts for at least an hour so it's worth it.

My favourite is letting them make 'soup' while I garden in peace or relax on a deck chair.

I get totally bored out my skull playing with ds at times. It's nice for half an hour but pretty mind-numbing and lonely, tbh.

I fill up a bucket with soapy water and dd washes her dolls' clothes, then pegs it on the clothes horse (1950's childhood here)

Perhaps she can re-wash the painted clothes too!

I hate it.

That's why they do painting at nursery, and we have Aquadraw at home

OTOTC - liking your idea