Children miss out on crucial messy play because parents are 'too busy' to clean up

Nearly two-thirds of mothers and fathers admit they discourage their offspring from baking or playing sport because of the tidying up and extra washloads necessary afterwards.

Their attitude seems to be having an effect with 33 per cent of youngsters saying they do not like dirt and mess and nearly half (46 per cent) stating that looking "cool" was more important than "having fun outside".

But experts warn today that these sedentary "stainophobe" children could be missing out on important developmental playtimes.

Steven Chown, of Play England, said: "Many parents are becoming more risk averse yet 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."

One busy mother-of-two admitted that steers her youngsters away from messy play - despite fully understanding how important the freedom is to children.

Marketing executive director Jane Bonner, 38, from Chobham, Surrey, said: "I admit that I only let my little boy do messy activities every week or two because it's just a lot of work for me with tidying and clothes washing. I prefer him to do it at school."

She added: "The findings of the report are a bit concerning though. Thinking that this might mean he's worried about getting messy in the future or missing out on experimenting with other hobbies, doesn't sit well at all.

"I can see why constantly warning children off messy activities could mean that they don't have as much experience with it, and then shy away from it yet more."

With an equally time-strapped husband, 40, who works in finance, Mrs Bonner admits she often prevents her son, Sebastian, aged five, and daughter, Aiva, two, away from activities which would involve them getting dirty.

Sebastian added: "I would love to do things like baking and painting all the time at home but Mummy does get cross if we make too much mess and has to spend loads of time tidying and washing."

But the research by Persil found it is not over-protective mums who are most likely to ban activities which could cause mess - with fathers more likely to be too houseproud.

The survey of 2,000 parents and children aged 7 to 11 found that 41 per cent of parents admit they got more stuck in with messy activities when they were young, more than half (57 per cent) would prefer their children play with an iPad rather than a paintbox using excuses such as "you can do it tomorrow", "it's dirty" or "there's not enough time".

These excuses are backed up with constant reminders to keep clean with parents telling their children to wash their hands or avoid a mess three times a day - more than a thousand times each year.

It is not surprising then to note that a fifth of children have never heard of a mud pie and of those that had, over half (55 per cent) have never made one.