to think people who don't bath/wash their DCs every night are lazy?

[BigMommaOf4]

I am shocked by the amount of people on here who state that they only bathe/wash their DCs once or twice a week. OK bad cases of excema accepted, I just think that's soooo lazy. No one IRL I know leaves it that long so is it just a peculiar Mumsnet trait because they are too busy MNing?

DTS1 has excema btw, I just cover him in an emollient before he gets in the bath and it does not exercerbate it.

I mean, come on, babies and toddlers in nappies, older Dcs not very efficient at bum wipeing - how can people leave them to fester for days?

In the 'olden days' when tin baths had to be got out and water boiled in a copper pot, obviously it was not possible every day but nowadays that's not the case.

Also my DCs love RELAXING in the bath/shower. It's not only for cleanliness. They love feeling warm, clean and comfortable before getting into bed. Even my 12 week old starts getting excited just from me taking him upstairs of an evening because he knows he's going in the bath and he adores it.

Do all these people, who only bath their DCs twice a year, have a bath/shower every day themselves? Bet they do! Feel sorry for the poor DCs.

My DCs have a bath 4 or 5 times a week. We have saturday night off (to watch Strictly!), and one or two nights in the week.

They also only get their hair washed once a week.

Why are people bathing DCs?

We just shower them. Its far quicker and as DS2 has eczema and it means it does not dry his skin so much.

Every other night is quite enough. My 2 DC's get very dry and their hair a bit mad if bathed every night. Plus they'd rather spend the time having a longer cuddle and story. Every night is EXCESSIVE.

forehead - perhaps you just have spectacularly smelly children.

BeenBeta - where in the world are you? NZ yet?

Would love to shower DS but he hates it. Loves a good splash in the bath, though, and he just re-uses baby DD's water so it's probably more ecologically sound than doing two showers.

StarExpat - PLEASE share your moisturising routine, I would love to find something to cure my eczema!

Mathanxiety - sadly your aqueous cream story doesn't surprise me. I was once told that asthma meds contain a substance which reduces your magnesium levels (I think it's magnesium)...apparently magnesium is essential for controlling asthma.

Bastard drug companies. These are the same arsewipes who invented female sexual dysfunction as a 'genuine' condition so as to make women feel inadequate so that they could flog loads of 'useless sex life saving' drugs.

I give my children a bath twice and sometimes only once a week and I have never cleaned my kitchen cupboards

Well I am a clean freak but really don't think dd (nearly 4) needs a daily bath/shower. And she does have dry skin, which seems smoother if she has less frequent baths. But if she needs one, she has one.
OP, why do you even care so much? Most children do not actually smell, and are not caked in food/mud on a daily basis. Even if they are, that is what flannels are for!

You wait until they are teenagers - won't go in the bath/shower but once they're in you can't get 'em out! You'll look fondly back to the days bathtime was a fun part of the evening routine as you nag your DD or DS to hurry up and get out after an hour or so locked in. What DO they get up to in there? On second thoughts, best not ask.

BleedyGonzalez - no not gone yet. We have our authorisation to go by NZ Immigration all fully sorted out now though.

We always planned to go in July next year anyway but would prefer a decent exchange rate before we pull the trigger.

Oooooh! So excited for you! Good luck, matey!

to all those criticising baths instead of showers....ummm, amazingly, some of us don't have showers in our houses and can't afford to install them so baths it is.
i must be smelly and poor!

Why would chilren need to be bathed every day?

Ds just has a shallow bath (age 2) - probably similar amount if water to your bowl if hot water and a flannel. Just enough to wash him and his hair and let him have a splash around. :)

DD1 has eczema and we were advised by the dermatloigist that a bath a day/night could help (with all the proper lotions) and it DOES help. Helps to wash off all the dust and sweat.
So yes we bath every night before bed.

OK seems that the general consensus is that AIBU then!

Hands BigMommaOf4 the understatement of the year award

And No I don't really care what other people do with regards to their DCs hygiene, I am just shocked so why should'nt I start a thread about it? After all most of the AIBU threads are complete nonsense so why should this one be any different? Was a tad inflammatory perhaps .

Still think imho that once a week is rank and still pity them poor urchins who have to put up with that .

See that there was some insult with reference to my name which was deleted before I could read it (shame). The 'Big' is actually because I often get referred to as 'Amazonian' rather than the excess weight I'm carrying after DC4!

none of my four have had baths tonight, act 5 month old dd3 hasn't been bathed for 3 days..

My teenagers are freaks -- I never have to remind them to wash.

I will happily admit to being lazy - or maybe it's just that sometimes I just can't face it - once you have more than one dc it becomes a real chore. Dd3 is 5 months old and spends most evenings screaming - not a happy bathing experience for dds 1 nd 2.

DCs dont need baths every day in the way adults do as, until they hit puberty they do not sweat from their armpits and genitals which is where the smelly sweat comes from. Until the sex hormones kick in they do not get BO in the way adults do.

BigMomma - I seriously doubt that any parent on here is letting their children go round dirty and smelly.

Now my dses are teenagers, I freely acknowledge that they do need to bathe/shower daily - especially as they cycle round paper rounds in the morning! I will nag/chase them if neccessary now, but they definitely didn't smell when they were little.

When I was a teenager, we only had baths twice a week - and I hated it because I knew I was whiffy (Mum didn't buy me deodorant either, and my pocket money didn't run to it), and I only had two clean school shirts a week, so summer especially was horrible. I certainly wouldn't dream of stopping a child who wanted to be clean!

Dd has a bath once per week, and a shower once a week as well. She's not smelly. Too much washing isn't good for her dry skin and eczema

Now DS1 is 14 and has discovered girls it's hard to keep him out of the bathroom. With DS2 (10) he'd be calling the NSPCC if I forced him tp shower/bath more than every two to three days. And with DD (5) I find that every other day works fine. Horses for courses and no one else's business really. I think I have a fairly pragmatic, common sense approach.

Until puberty unless they are visibly dirty or sticky or actually smell because of what they have been eating, then a bath once a week and hair wash once a fortnight is plenty. They don't need more than this. However if you wish to wash them every day that is fine as well.

I know I'm really late to this, but arses this has been confusing me all day:

My HV told me not to bath my son at all before 12 weeks as he was slow to gain weight

Did she think he would shrink in the wash?