Working Mum - Making a right mess

My 18-month-old came home from nursery resembling a Smurf last week. She'd decided to paint herself and was covered in blue paint. Her hair was sticking up where staff had tried to wash the paint out and it was liberally spread over her pinafore and top. She was a funny sight and even turned the bath water blue.

Thankfully, I'm used to collecting a filthy child from nursery - her big sister is a dirt magnet. DD1 (Dear Daughter 1) loves digging in muck and climbing trees. I joke with her carers that she hasn't had a good day if she's not smeared in dirt, but some of my friends are horrified at the idea.

One was even advised to judge a nursery on whether the children had snotty noses. They regarded it as a sign of lack of care. Personally, I know how much DD2 (Dear Daughter 2) protests at having her nose wiped and would rather she be allowed to focus on what she is doing than be constantly accosted by a practitioner wielding a tissue.

I once bumped into a local childminder while we were playing in the park and was amazed at the number of times she cleaned her children's hands with sanitising gel. They were afraid to pick up sticks. I would have loved to have seen her reaction to DD1 experimentally licking frost off a leaf or eating soil.

SPOTLESS

I feel it's a difficult line for childcarers to tread. Before starting nursery, DD1 was cared for by a childminder who was great but I did occasionally worry about her being so spotless at the end of the day. My husband and I even half-jokingly wondered if she stripped DD1 off after we'd left.

I was concerned that she wasn't being allowed to get hands-on, but now she attends nursery I find it annoying that our wash basket is constantly overflowing and, I admit, it can be embarrassing taking filthy kids home on the bus.

While it is fantastic to have a range of messy play activities on offer, I would prefer it if my girls were encouraged to wear overalls and aprons. A friend even complained to her child's nursery about the actual paint they used as it wouldn't wash out of clothes. Replacing them was getting expensive.

I'd also like the importance of handwashing to be higher on the nursery's agenda. Sometimes I can't find soap or a dry towel when I go into the children's toilets. It makes me question how the children can clean themselves independently after messy activities, let alone after going to the toilet.

Recently, my children have been loving investigating a mud kitchen and 'swamp' filled with green slime, grass and twigs at nursery. While the evidence of what they've been enjoying is plastered all over them, practitioners haven't actually explained to us parents what the children gain from all this grubby play. We need educating too. Knowing how my youngest benefited from covering herself in blue paint may have made scrubbing her, and the bath, less of a chore.

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