Getting Dirty

Now that spring has sprung and the weather is warming up, we've been playing with the girls in the backyard (yes! we have a backyard!). Carmy & Lena are so curious about the grass, dirt and plants; they just want to get their hands into everything. It usually happens like this: Orlando and I set out a blanket on the grass, bring out some toys and sit down with the girls to play. The babies start by looking around, playing with their toys a bit, and then they venture towards the edges of the blanket and start pulling up grass. We spend a while intervening as the girls pull the grass out of the ground with their little fists and bring it towards their open mouths. Then, we spend about five minutes pulling them back onto the blanket as they repeatedly try crawling off of it. Finally, we give in and let them crawl around. Soon, they've got their sweaters, shoes and pants dirty by virtue of crawling and their hands and under their fingernails are dirty due to their grass-pulling and dirt grabbing.

Now there is a fork that every parent comes to in which they have to make a decision. Are they going to try (most likely in vain) to keep their children clean, or are they going to let them make a big mess? I find myself at this crossroad whenever we go outside, as well as at every single mealtime (three times a day). I can try to clean up messes as they happen, wipe faces and hands constantly, or I can just accept that the girls are going to make a big mess and just clean them and the mess all up later.

My dad always said (and still does) that "A little dirt won't hurt", and this phrase always runs through my mind in these moments. I choose to suppress my desire to try to keep everything clean and just let go. My brother told me about a study that suggests that little girls are kept to a higher standard of cleanliness than little boys and that this means they are more likely to develop asthma and allergies (it's part of a larger theory you have probably heard called the Hygiene Hypothesis). Popular culture is obsessed with cleanliness and sometimes it can be difficult to let that go. But the Hygiene Hypothesis suggests that it's better for our health to get dirty once in a while - besides, where's the fun in keeping clean all the time?