Would you let your child play in the mud?

Question

Some parks departments are starting to have summer events where they have a huge mud pit for kids to play in. Parents are told to dress their kids in shorts or swimsuits that can get ruined and kids are hosed down afterwards. Would you take your child to an event like this?

Answer 1

That's ridiculous. The whole fun of playing in the mud as a child was the spontaneity of it !!! Not being sure if you were going to get in trouble, etc. This makes no sense at all... telling your kid to jump in the mud and get dirty.

Just another way that life is really going over the edge for kids. God help us.

I♥♫→mia☼☺†

Answer 2

I let my child play in the mud at home, but when we went to a function like that I didn't let him play in the puddle. The puddle was under the little bridge and there were several small children in diapers that had been playing in the mud. One of them had an obviously poopy diaper and it seemed very unsanitary to me. Otherwise I have no problem with my kids playing in the mud.

Answer 3

For sure! Sounds like fun, just as long as it is well supervised and doesn't get out of control. A little mud (or in this case a lot) never hurt anyone :)

Answer 4

You know I was about to scream that this is GREAT, but then some insightful person said that in a public mud bath it might not be too cool after all. I mean what they do in pools is one thing but in a mud bath. Maybe not such a good idea.

Answer 5

I don't know that I'd take them to and event somewhere else, but they play in the mud at home sometimes. I don't care as long as they don't track it all over the house.

Answer 6

You know I am all for my son playing in the mud or running in the sprinkler at home! To me at a public event like that, it could be dangerous. Sanitary reasons or stupid idiots out there. I am far from paranoid but probably wouldn't allow my child to do that. Water is another story you can see, but mud you can't and you never know. If the children already knew and were looking forward to it, suggests a mud pit at home.

Answer 7

Can I play too?! We have a big Mud Volley Ball game for Charity here, its alot of fun. Sure I would take my kid.

Answer 8

I played mud volleyball in college and it was a riot. My kids are too young right now to enjoy it but I would certainly let them if they wanted to when they got a little older--and join them too!

Answer 9

If the dirt isnt full rubbish, like pipes, and other things that might cut her/him and cause an infection, if its clean dirt then I would. (clean dirt is an oxymoron I know) Dirt actually builds immunity in children so its not all bad.

also on a note to lemon tea...how does an adult playing in the dirt make them of caveman like mentality? I just dont get it?

Answer 10

Its one thing to your little kid dabble with some mud pies for a while, and another for adults to do what adults in our culture have often done; and that is to borrow ignorant and/or wild behavior that some ignorant adults engage in and make sure children are introduced to it.

What - has someone seen Girls-Gone-Wild or else some of these mud-fests that some older people do and decided that would be fun for children? Whether its parents buying grown up clothes for their little kids, making sure small children can keep up with older brothers and sisters by giving them things like video games, or adults' being afraid to be uncool and say that kids shouldn't do some thing; its always adults who contribute to things kids do that later turn out to be a giant problem.

Kids of a certain type of intellect would not find wallowing in mud with a gang of other kids fun; and the kids who would find it fun don't need the encouragement.

My mother used to have a phrase she'd use to refer to this type of thing - "savage amusement".

It would even be one thing if a bunch of kids just got a little crazy one day and did this type of thing on their own; but it is a completely different thing for a bunch of morons who run parks to think up this stupid activity and offer it as fun for kids. It isn't about the mud. Its about the mentality of this type of activity for a group of kids who are either young enough to need their activities to be activities that encourage a certain type of intellectual development or old enough so they should have outgrown the enjoyment of such a stupid activity.

Someone should write to some of the "geniuses" who are thought this up and ask if they think its great how many college kids go wild on Spring break or how many drink as much as they do to the point where their college years are nothing but a big party or whether anyone finds it obnoxious that after something like a Superbowl win the police have to guard against rioting by even the fans of the winning team in the city where the game was held.

Most people have concerns about the level of behavior that is often seen in today's teenagers and young adults. It has degraded considerably over the last couple of decades, and it is on a level that is far beyond what any past generations did for fun. What most people don't seem to realize that it is probably far less peer influence than it is the influence and failure of adults to direct kids toward constructive activities and mentalities while they're young.

This is yet one more stupid, stupid, thing that some adults somewhere have thought up. (I'm not saying kids should never have this kind of fun sponteously, but when adults think it up and encourage kids who may not have even thought of it on their own its a whole different kind of thing.)

If there's one thing worse than adults who don't get involved its adults who get involved with their stupid ideas. This is a case where the activity itself may be reasonably harmless but the message it sends is not.