Does this offend you? My rainsoaked daughter digging earthworms out of the mud and creating a “natural habitat” for him in a bucket?

I remember a story my mother told me from my childhood. We lived, from the time I was about four to seven, in the boon-docks. When I say boon-docks, I mean, seriously, the middle of nowhere! It was a community called Deep Creek (If you’re bored you can try googling that community. Hope you had more luck than I did!). There was a small grocery/gas station/tire shop and….well, other than a few houses and a creek, some farmland, cows and lots of pine trees, that was about it. We were thirty minutes either way from the nearest town (oh, population 8-10,000). Yeah, that is the boon-docks.

Well, at this time my father worked offshore on oil rigs. He would be gone for two weeks at a time and then have two weeks home. My mother was a sahm at the time and loved this schedule. She has always been a bit of a loner and liked her quiet time! My dad would be gone and my mom would sew, garden, jog, and read to her heart’s content. My sister and I spent most of our days playing outside and basically having the run of several acres of land….pig pens, dog houses,corn field, swing set, and sandbox included. We were even allowed to go into the woods as long as we stayed in the edges. My dad would then come home for two weeks and, according to the season, we would all load up in his truck and spend the time camping, boating, fishing, hunting. It was like a two week vacation every month!

It was some seriously good days!!

My mother, generally let us play outside as much as we wanted. And usually that was what we wanted to do. (We didn’t have cable, VCR’s or video games. I have very few television watching moments from my childhood.) We were even allowed to play out in the rain or mud as long as we weren’t coming in and out of the house constantly. We did have to have parental permission to play in hurricanes though.

Those days were pretty quiet but we did get visitors. My parents are both from large families that lived fairly close (considering where we lived.) and we were members of a church. So we would have visitors stop in on ocassion.

One such day it had rained the night before. All night. And the yard was full of wonderful, sticky, gooey, black mud! Oh, did we ever have some good mud!

A lady from our church came by to see my mother. She was horrified to see my sister and I happily sitting at the back of my mother’s Camaro, smack dab in the middle of a mud puddle. We were making mud pies, applying mud “make-up”, building little houses out of twigs and grass (this sticky mud made a lovely cement!) and all sorts of rather dirty activities. We were covered in mud from our scalp down to the creases in our feet! I’m sure it was a delightful sight!

After scolding us, “Your mother is going to have a fit when she sees you in this mud!” She knocks on the door to our house.

My mother answers to this ladies accusations, “Do you know what your daughter’s are doing?!” My mother did not exactly know, although she thought she had a good idea. But she was starting to get the idea we had commited some random act of….well, murder, maybe?

“They are playing in the mud!!”

My mother, quite relieved that we had not hot-wired her Camaro (she did love that car) and headed off to Mexico, answered with,”Oh. I know. It’s okay. I don’t mind.”

And she got the look. You know that look. The “You’ve Just Been Awarded Bad Parent of the Year Award” look! (Any of you ever gotten that look before? )

I loved playing in the dirt and mud as a child. I still love playing in the dirt and mud! Or rain! It’s some of the best experiences I’ve had. I’m even hoping to participate in the Volkslauf Mud Run next spring!

So, I’ve always been the kind of parent who let my kids get dirty. I let them play in the rain. I let them play in the mud! What does it hurt?

I mean, God used dirt to create man, did he not?

Genesis 2:7

Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

And…..could it even help?

I had heard bits and pieces of information for a few years now from parenting books and some newer dieting books (all second hand mind you) about exposure to dirt, pet dander and other “dirty” things early in life really boosts your immune system. A lot of this research (what I found on-line for this post) is still new and being tested but it seems that this may very well be the case. And if you use my parents (who played in dirt as children) my siblings and I (who played in dirt as children) and my own kids (who played in dirt….ummmmm, yesterday) we all have very strong immune systems. We have very few allergies. None of us have asthma….

So I found a few articles….

USA Today points out that kids in urban areas or cities are more likely to develop allergies/asthma than children born in rural areas or kids from underdeveloped countries.

The new approach to allergy prevention and treatment arises from a paradox. Known as the hygiene hypothesis, it suggests that growing up in cities and suburbs, away from fields and farm animals, leaves people more susceptible to a host of immune disorders, including allergies and asthma.

Weinstock says the divide between developed and undeveloped countries is still evident today. “Hay fever is the most common allergy in the developed world,” he says. “Yet, there are some countries in the world where doctors don’t know what hay fever is.”

David C. Sloane, Ph.D., a medical historian and associate professor of policy planning and development at USC says this:

Now, researchers are beginning to believe that there may be negative consequences from that and are arguing that our immune systems aren’t as strong as they would be if children were interacting more with dirt.

There is some evidence that children are not as independent in their play and daily activities as were their grandparents 50 years ago. Parents are more interested in organized activities that may not be as spontaneous or “in the dirt” as the sandlot baseball games of days gone by.

Which, I think we can all agree is true. Parents are a lot more in control of where their child is playing and how clean it is!

Now, do not misunderstand me. I’m not advocating that you begin letting your child go to the gas station bathrooms without any shoes on, or that you forego nightly bathtimes! I really appreciate that our society basically encourages cleanliness. I like for my children to be spotless when they are put to bed, eat with clean hands and faces, and start each day in a fresh clean set of clothes.

But, I think (and I felt this way before I did any research on it) that getting dirty is a fun part of childhood. And, I for one, am going to let my kids play in the dirt. And if you bring your kids to my house, I’m gonna let them do it too! (But I’ll wash their faces and hands for you before I send them home)!

*I’m not promoting the hygiene hypothesis but if you’d like to research it yourself there is some very interesting information related to cleanliness, antibacterial products, allergies, asthma, and the like.

Update: MIntheGap mentions an article from Answers In Genisis that I looked up and read. Thought the link would be of interest.