Do you like mud? I mean, really? Would you jump in a mud puddle? Are your clothes ever dirty? Do you garden with gloves on?
Me, I like mud. My daughter, not so much. My husband is actually the fastidious one around here, which is excellent because he does most of the floor sweeping. I would be living in a thick layer of mud if it weren’t for my more fastidious family.
I’ve been thinking about mud and dirt the last few days. By dirt I mean messy things, not just soil. I work with preschoolers, and I work outdoors. Many of the preschoolers I work with love soil, mud, and all of the creatures who live there. They will handle worms with great glee and stroke slugs willingly, even if they are a little cool and slimy. To most children, mud and bugs have a high cool factor.
However, there are other children who think that mud is yucky and that bugs are gross. I understand that mud is wet and sticky and cold. I get that. I understand that bugs are different from us and that they creep and crawl. But at the same time I wonder how much of this dislike is socially-constructed. Have children been told quietly that bugs and mud are disgusting, maybe simply through the undertones of what their parents say? Perhaps.
I used to blame the parents for this. They obviously hadn’t exposed their children to enough mud. However, I’m beginning to wonder if some of this isn’t genetic. There do seem to be children who are deeply fastidious souls, and these children are bothered by mud and other dirty things. While I know that children get the messages that we send to a far greater degree than we think that they do, I wonder if some children aren’t born loving to be perfectly clean.
What do you think?