Quote Originally Posted by mickyc View Post
I have railway ties by my house and sometimes the kids sit on them. One mom was not happy her son got tar on his jeans.
Do you mean actual railway ties? From and old railroad? If I was that parent, I would be upset too because railroad ties contain all kinds of cancer causing chemicals like creosote. And you said they have tar on them... yikes. I just bought a new dryer last week and was reading the "instructions." And it says not to put any oil stained clothes in it. No oil, in any small quantity not even cooking oil. So I can't imagine tar would be safe in there.

As for the rest of it, bring on the messes! Kids generally love dirt and playing in the mud so more power to them. I'm not a clean freek so when I find the little bits of broken leaves and twigs from someone's pocket on the playroom floor... I bring out the vaccuum.

Lee-Bee: Years ago I was a Girl Guide leader with the 5&6 yr olds. There was a mom that had a 5yr old in my group (and an 8yr old brother) the house rule was the kids couldn't bring paper home. All art work was tossed in the trash can as they left our meetings. Same for school art work. It all went in the trash immediately as mom didn't like paper cluttering the house.

At age 5 this girl had already learned to not put any effort or enjoyment into our art projects because it was thrown out. It was sad.
That's not just sad, it's pathetic. Keeping a few prized pieces of art work isn't cluttering and if she was going to throw them out, she didn't have to be so blatant about it. I drove my mom crazy with all the "little bits of paper" all over the house when I was a kid. I was always doing some project or another. She certainly didn't keep every picture I ever drew, but two years ago when my parents moved, they cleaned house, so to speak. The whole family gathered around to go through the old cards, school projects and pictures that my brother and I did that she saved. We were in fits of laughter. It is one of my favorite family memories. And all of those things are now thrown out but it's okay, cuz I know they were appreciated at the time.


torontokids: I wonder if the mom is more concerned about the amount of laundry more than the stains? She recently went back to school and is finding the adjustment overwhelming. I wonder if the 2 outfits a day is getting to be too much? (one outfit from the morning and when she picks her up she is normally already wet/sandy).
Could be. If the outfit from the morning is just wet and sandy, can't you keep it at your house and hang it to dry? When dry, the sand will come off easily. You don't have to launder it every day, but use it for the week as her dirty clothes and send it home on Friday. I have been doing this with socks for the past week or so. The kids come in crocs with socks. The grass is so wet with dew, the socks get wet but I just rinse in the sink and hang to dry till tomorrow. If I send them home every day, they don't come back.