It's not the mess I am concerned about, but more the fact that they all try to eat the paint, etc. With 4 out of 5 kids putting the crayons or paints in their mouths, it becomes a bit of a zoo. The other day I tried painting and ended up giving the 10 month old and 13 month old utensils to play with while the others painted because they really are too young in my opinion. That freed me up to monitor the 17 month old and 21 month old more closely and help them out. We may try this strategy again as it sort of worked out.