My boys love to get messy and creative crafting and cooking,. We are a family happy to embrace the mess and general stains that may come from having fun. We were ever so amazed at this research, According to Persil small & mighty parents arewe are raising a generation of ‘stainophobes’.
"A third (33%) of children admitting they don’t like dirt and mess and nearly half (46%) stating that looking ‘cool’ was more important than ‘having fun outside’.
Despite the nation tuning into the Commonwealth Games and Great British Bake Off in their millions, almost two thirds (59%) of tired parents are actively discouraging their children from taking up activities such as baking and sports in order to avoid extra wash loads. Interestingly it is Dads who are most likely to stop their kids from doing an activity that could cause mess (55% vs 50%).
Even though over two fifths (41%) of parents admit they got more stuck in with messy activities when they were young, more than half (57%) wouldprefer their children play with an iPad over a set of paints to avoid stained clothes, using excuses such as “you can do it tomorrow”, “it’s dirty” or “there’s not enough time” to dissuade their child from doing so.
It’s no wonder young people are worried, with parents in the UK warning their children to wash or stay clean three times a day – that’s over a thousand times each year. To help young people to get over their stain fear Persil has enlisted TV magician Ben Hanlin (ITV2’s Tricked) to helpencourage kids to get stuck in and wear stains with pride. Ben kicked off by surprising a school in none other than Staines, Surrey, with an impromptu day of messy magic. The video of the spectacular magic tricks can be viewed below
For today’s kids, indoor activities rule – watching TV (61%) or playing computer games (48%) are the top activities that kids do after school – with outdoor pursuits in decline. A surprising one fifth of children have never heard of a mud pie and of those that had, over half (55%) had never made one.
Bernie Hall, Assistant Brand Manager for Persil, said: “Parents today live busy lives, so it’s no wonder they want to cut house work to a minimum where they can. However, laundry technology has progressed so much in recent years that it needn’t be at the expense of kids’ play time. Persil’s cleaning formulation is so advanced that stains which would likely have been permanent years ago can now be tackled easily. We’re encouraging kids to wear their stains of honour – such as mud and poster paint - with pride!”
Steven Chown, Programme Development Manager for Play England, added: “The Persil survey confirms our own research that many parents are becoming more risk averse. Getting messy is part of a happy, healthy childhood and such play is linked with a range of cognitive and developmental benefits. Given the opportunity, today’s children would do exactly the same things as we did when we were children –climbing trees, making mud pies and splashing around in puddles – so it is important parents encourage this form of play and don’t worry too much about the mess.”
Working with Play England, Persil has revealed the top seven fun, engaging and possibly messy activities parents should encourage their children to get stuck into to develop kids’ creative side – one for every day of the week:
COOKING STAINS: Learn to cook spaghetti in the kitchen with mum and dad
FRUIT SPLASHES: Pick blackcurrants or make fresh fruit smoothies
GRASSY SMUDGES: Play football in the park or roll down hill
MUD SPLATTERS: Make a mud pie in the garden and jumping in muddy puddles
JAMMY SMEARS: Make a jam sandwich picnic for you and your friends
PAINT DROPS: Get creative and paint a picture, make a collage using natural materials and poster paints
WATER MARKS: Find some frogspawn in the spring, have water fights with friends in summer or go sledging in winter
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