Parents don't shower often.

[pateandcheese]

Is this a generational thing?
My parents in their late 60's only shower once a week.
I wouldn't say they ever smell or look scruffy, but I find it odd.
I've obviously not lived at home in 15+ years so never really noticed before, but before lockdown we went away as a family for a week and they both showered once in that time.
Me, my DH and small kids shower or bath every day without fail.
They're both retired so it's not as if they're massively busy.
They're very house proud and everything is fresh and ironed and tidy.
I just don't get the showering thing.
But thinking about it when I lived at home I'd only shower a few times a week in my teens too. It's only since moving out I shower every day.

"I'm not sure a strip wash takes longer than a shower but even if it does, it uses a lot less hot water."

For me, it takes much less time.
For a shower I need to run the water until it's hot, brush my hair, get in wash my hair and body (don't see the point of a shower if not washing hair). Then I have to use body lotion because washing the whole body dries my skin. Then because I unfortunately have a screen rather than a curtain I have to squeegee down the screen then leave the fan on or open the window for ages. Quite a lot more time and hassle.

Growing in the 60s,up a bath ( no shower) was taken once a week.

Children were taught how to do a full strip wash efficiently and neatly in a sink full of water- this was done daily. Face, neck, bit, bits and feet.

I find a shower too drying to do every day, so I shower or bathe 3 times a week wit a daily sink strip wash every other day.

My mother doesn’t either, OP. She lives on her own though and isn’t in the best health, so I think she just does what’s easiest for her and then doesn’t appreciate that perhaps she looks a bit unkempt (she does) when she’s in company.

In my childhood, (nobody had showers anyway) it was usual to have one bath a week. But you also had an all-over wash twice a day. (face, neck, armpits and bottom; sometimes feet. Known as an APB which stood for armpits, pubes, Bottom. Anyone remember putting hoisting their feet one at a time into the handbasin? Must see if I still can). That was my hygeine routine until I left home. Just remembered, arguing with my mum in my teens, because I washed my hair once a week which she thought was much too often for good health (risk of catching a cold etc.increased by having wet hair; of course we had no hair dryer) . Once a month was plenty according to her; but never wash your hair during a period when you were extra likely to catch cold. . When we first married, we lived in a flat in a house with only one bathroom two floors down, shared by all the household; the landlady allowed us one bath a week each. ( You had to book it, as she controlled the hot water geyser.) DH and I shared each others bathwater so we got two. Otherwise we had an APB in the kitchen sink. All perfectly normal back then.

Bet you parents are doing an APB at least once a day.  Saves  hot water and fuel costs.  Maybe they are struggling a bit with fuel bills?

I think people shower too often now. It's not good for anything other than a feeling of superiority - waste of time, resources, not great for hair or skin

Much healthier! Shower/bath every day dries up skin.

My grandma showered every day when I was young, but as she got older (I'd say 82+) she stopped. It was too much of an effort for her and she had a few slips. So she would go in every three days or so and wash with a flannel at the sink daily.

I do think it becomes more of a physical chore the older you get.

"Just remembered, arguing with my mum in my teens, because I washed my hair once a week which she thought was much too often for good health"

I had greasy hair and wanted to wash my hair every day because I got nasty comments at school, but my parents didn't want me to. They said it was bad for the hair to over-wash it though I suspect the real reasons were hot water use and availability of the bathroom.

@Ginfordinner

I don’t think it is generational, but an upbringing thing. I am 62 and shower or bath every day, and always bathed every day as a child, as did my parents. DH is nearly 69 and showers every other day because he has a skin condition that results in extremely dry skin. My late MIL used to shower every day until her alzheimers got the better of her. She died last year aged 90.

So, less of the ageism please.

If you're my age and had hot water on tap every day, you were clearly a lot better off than my family. And we weren't poor. Sunday was bath night, and the hot water was put on specially. And we shared the bath water, taking turns. (which does make me cringe now, to be fair)

Yes, my kids shower every day, because they grew up with daily baths and constant hot water - and maybe if I had a walk-in shower, I would too. But even with constant hot water available, I probably only shower alternate days.

I'm 62. Family of 4 kids Brought up in a council house with no control over hot water/heating and we had bath every Sunday night. In between we washed mornings and night ( if mum was watching). We had hair washed in the summer holidays so we could dry it outside. We had clean clothes on Monday mornings and Sunday clothes for church. Washing clothes meant huge trip to laundrette or washing in the boiler every Monday. When we moved to our own ( smaller, more expensive) house in 1969 we used the laundrette as it was nearer and my mum got a washing machine about the time I left home ( 1976) and a shower that same year. Luckily as it was a big heatwave and I was working in a factory so could shower every night after work. My mum went every week once she had a job for a wash and set. We would have a bath if we had to see the doctor and clean clothes too.

I hate bathing and showering, really loathe it as I have dry skin and react to water on my skin which makes it go red and inflamed for a while afterwards ( life long thing). I bath occasionally and shower 2 or 3 times a week and wash at the basin otherwise. I have clean knickers daily but wash my other clothes when they need it , not after every wear. I am now vindicated as we are encouraged not to wash clothes as frequently. Drove me mad when my kids chucked clothes in the wash basket after an hours wear! I don't think I smell ( DH would say, he baths morning and night, he was brought up in a relatively wealthy family home).

I think we are all different. Teenagers need to bath more often than adults I think though

It's not a generational thing that I know of! I was born in the mid 70s and was bathed every day, and so did all of my family. My parents would have been in their eighties now had they not died.

I'd like to know what percentage of houses had showers in the 40s and 50s and how many people used them daily

I grew up in a 50s built council house and we didn’t even have heating until the late 80s, apart from a 4 bar electric fire in the living room). I remember putting on my secondary school uniform under the bedcovers, trying to avoid skin meeting cold air!

I think my mum probably got a shower installed around the mid 90s. Nan never (her house was 30s built and had a claw foot bath tub until the
80s).

@2bazookas

In my childhood, (nobody had showers anyway) it was usual to have one bath a week. But you also had an all-over wash twice a day. (face, neck, armpits and bottom; sometimes feet. Known as an APB which stood for armpits, pubes, Bottom. Anyone remember putting hoisting their feet one at a time into the handbasin? Must see if I still can). That was my hygeine routine until I left home. Just remembered, arguing with my mum in my teens, because I washed my hair once a week which she thought was much too often for good health (risk of catching a cold etc.increased by having wet hair; of course we had no hair dryer) . Once a month was plenty according to her; but never wash your hair during a period when you were extra likely to catch cold. . When we first married, we lived in a flat in a house with only one bathroom two floors down, shared by all the household; the landlady allowed us one bath a week each. ( You had to book it, as she controlled the hot water geyser.) DH and I shared each others bathwater so we got two. Otherwise we had an APB in the kitchen sink. All perfectly normal back then.

Bet you parents are doing an APB at least once a day.  Saves  hot water and fuel costs.  Maybe they are struggling a bit with fuel bills?</div></div>

I’m in my 40’s and we didn’t have a shower in the house when I was growing up. Just one of those rubber hoses that went over the bath taps for hair washing. It was way too short and kept popping off the taps and so we used a plastic jug instead. We had a bath every other day or so, shared the water.

I'm not sure my grandparents ever had a bath judging by the layer of dust on it and there was no shower. My mum used to say 'they keep their coal in the bath'. They didn't but might as well have done. They looked after their personal appearance otherwise and I assume they washed at the sink. Difficult to assess if any body odour because of the overpowering cigarette fug. Happy memories!

Oh and my granny only had an inside bathroom out in 1970 by her landlord because she was disabled and could n longer lift down the tin bath and fill it with boiling water from the stove. Outside toilet until then. She had 8 kids in 2 bed house. I never thought of her as poor because she always had food on the stove ( unlike my family)

Kids and old people don't have the same hormones as humans of, er... breeding age. So they don't smell or sweat as much. So they don't need to wash as much. They're more like a knee than an armpit!

Coupled with the stress and hard work of 'drawing a bath' when they were younger, they probably wash at the sink instead.

Think of all those films going back to the mid 20th century, when a woman's excuse for not going out of an evening could be 'Oh, I can't, I'm washing my hair!' They only used to do it once a week.

Early 50s and I tend to have a sink wash most days. Hair wash once or twice a week. I shower when I've been gardening or doing heavy exercise where I end up hot and sweaty. I've got really dry skin and hair and fully moisturise every day.

Growing up it was sink wash every day and bath night on a Sunday. My mum bought a shower for me to use when I was in my early 20s!

I'm in my 60s and shower daily. I don't think people in their 60s are usually old enough to be doddery getting in and out of a shower so that's not usually a reason not to.
We did grow up in an era without showers and with a bath once or twice a week. Even in the 80s with small children we all bathed every other day mostly. We had bath taps with a shower attachment but it did not work very well.It was probably late 80s when daily bathing was usual and 90s before I had a proper shower.

My in laws council house didn't have heating or a boiler until about 20 ish years ago. They had to light the fire to heat water. It still has no shower.

It was very rare in the 50s and 60s to have a shower in the home. It became a new 'trend' and was considered very posh and very much the in thing to have one fitted - starting in the late 60s/early 70s I think. Up until then, if you wanted to wash hair either you did it over the sink or you used one of those hand held rubber jobs that fitted on to the taps.

Nowadays, of course, you'd be amazed if you went to buy a new flat/house and it didn't have a shower, as they're just expected as a 'norm'.

The other thing to remember was that back in the 50s/60s, it was also not always the norm to have central heating, so having a bath could be a pretty joyless experience, especially in the winter, so you certainly wouldn't be bathing daily.

@Lavenderfieldsofprovence

To the people saying they shower or bath two or three times a week, but don’t smell, the chances are you’ve got used to that musty smell and can’t even recognise it. I bet other people don’t share your view.

There’s no excuse for anyone in this day and age to not shower every day. As for the twice a week people, that’s disgusting and unhygienic.

Quite possibly you’re wrong and showering every day may be doing you more harm than good:

www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/09/26/917019912/in-the-era-of-hygiene-clean-author-makes-the-case-for-showering-less

"I wouldn't put weird chemicals in my body I'm careful about eating"

So what chemicals are in the substances you put on the largest organ on your body every day?

How much of the beneficial oils your body exudes do you scrub off every day?

I'm late 50s I we didn't have a shower in the house until I was about 12 I think.

But when we did, we all showered daily.

I wonder if some people don't bath/shower so much due to finding it difficult getting in & out/fear of slipping?

"To the people saying they shower or bath two or three times a week, but don’t smell, the chances are you’ve got used to that musty smell and can’t even recognise it. I bet other people don’t share your view."

Those people are presumably washing the smelly bits and putting deodorant on the pits so there's no reason why they'd smell.

Sindy’s shower cubicle was very exotic to 80s little me. I don’t think I knew anyone with a real life shower back then.