The word most moms hate…MESS. However, when it involves children, I’m here to tell you why messy play is so important for a child’s development.

Children have one job and that is to play! Children learn through touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste. In order for children to learn through those senses it’s important not to interrupt the natural play scheme of messy play. I’m not referring to destroying toys and bringing in handfuls of dirt into the kitchen from outside. I’m talking about letting your child experience painting with their hands, running outside barefoot, playing in sand, getting spaghetti all over their face while they eat, and splashing water in the bath tub.

All of these activities wake up our senses and teach our brain how to organize all of this information on how it makes us feel. When this process is disrupted over and over again it can lead to children having difficulty processing new sensory experiences as they get older. Often resulting in battles during bath time, tantrum when wearing that new wool sweater you bought him/her for Christmas, and tears when getting sand in their socks. Overall, messy is better when in a controlled, supervised environment.