To not bath my DC every night?

[SeeJaneKick]

DH insists they have a bath every night and I say that it's fine every other night.

They don't smell and if DH isn't here then I sometimes just wash their hands, face, teeth and nethers.

He's Aussie and I reckon he thinks it's necasary because it IS in Oz...the heat and everything.

It's a bloody mare! Mess and delay every night!

My DDs normally have a quick shower every night - it unwinds them after a long day at school. That said, if there's something happening that brings them home late and we end up skipping it, no big deal. I think people have become very phobic about cleanliness, there is a big difference between not having a full-on bath every day and full blown self-neglect and there is absolutely no evidence that the former leads to the latter

Wash every day yes, but bathing every day is not necessary.

Jeepers! I never said I did not WASH the every night! I do!

They are washed with warm water and soap if they don't have a bath!

SOme people are freaks! 6 yer old's don't get B.O.!

As a child I had a bath once a week. I didn't smell, get infections often or any of the other bad stuff supposed to happen to you from not washing 'often enough'.

Mine do generally bath every night but that's more to do with getting them through the final hour of tetchiness and crosspatchery before bed. They love it, it cheers them up etc etc.

My children wash 3 times a week as a rule. YANBU>

Question

If you only bath/shower your DCs every now and again, when do you change to everyday?

toerags lol at 'crosspatchery'

I guess when they start to get body hair and sweat, or earlier if they decide. TBH once the main bathroom (used pretty much only by DD) is redone later this year and she has a lovely new proper shower she will want to shower most days anyway.

Amd yes, DD does have a flannel wash on the days she doesn't shower or bath. She does this herself in a morning - top and tail style.

Do they not then grow up with the mentality that they don't have to bath everyday?

" I presume children feel the same."

Clarly not, otherwise they'd say so! Children don't have the same hormones and body hair as adults, They sweat less. Even if they do sweat they don't have body hair to trap it in and make it smell.

Oilpoly - I didn't. I grew up in the 70s and no child I knew bathed or showered daily. Hair was generally once a week on a Sunday. Rest of time you got washed at the sink with a flannel.

I shower daily. Have done since being a teenager. I chose to and did so. Even now I don't always do my hair daily though as it makes my psorasis on my scalp worse.

I rarely bath. I don't feel clean after a bath. I bath purely to relax.

I do not appreciate being called a freak because I bathe my children everyday. As I explained, it is just a part of a routine of calming/winding and it is how I was brought up. I also explained that it helped my children know what is coming next. I did not insult/criticize/judge anyone else choices nor say it was to do with cleanliness/BO of said child.

Everyone does things differently in a way that works for them. Calling people freaks because they do it differently is, well, not very nice!!

OP, YANBU. I wash my DC everyday but not bath.

GORGEOUSX DD2 has chronic eczema, if I bathed her everyday her poor skin would probably fall off. And I'll have you know I'm not a "minghing lazy-arse parent" thank you very fucking much

I don't like baths for cleaning as well, I am a shower girl

I couldn't go a day without bathing my kids unless something major has happened. At bedtime, we tend to do the wash face thing but a proper shower in the morning - to be nice and fresh for school = concetration

but thats just me, I am weird!

And actually bathing is not clean anyway, you are floating around in your own filth and dead skin. I find that way grosser. I shower everyday, and if I choose to have a bath once in a while, I wash myself down after as it is not a cleaning process but a relaxing process. Washing is much cleaner IMO.

I took bath to mean bath/shower. More of a catch all phrase.

When our dcs reach teenage years, they suddenly take an interest in hygiene, washing hair every morning etc. Before that age it's every few days in our house, and they use the same water. My dh and me share the same water, it's greener, too. My mum and dad used to have a bath together every night.

Obscure - I think people are offended by other posters who stated our kids/families are unclean for bathing every other night.

I did do every night with dd to get her in a routine and it worked really well, we only stopped because her skin was so dry and sore.

Well I'm a minging (no 'h', GORGEOUSX, no 'h') lazy arse parent then [shrug]

My kids get a bath once a week on a Sunday. The rest of the week its hands-face-and-arses washed before bed.

They don't smell. They have divine baby soft skin.

I dont give a fuck what you think though, being happy with my parenting decisions means it matters not one jot what childish insults you fling

Gosh.

Mine (6,4,3) bathe twice a week, Sunday night & once midweek. If we remember & have time, that is - the midweek one often doesn't happen.

Ds has eczema & it does inflame it - even a brief dunk in plain water. (OTOH I also have it & it doesn't seem to affect mine). When he used to bathe daily, it really aggravated his skin; hence cutting back to twice weekly, & his younger sisters have the same routine.

None of them ever look or smell dirty (their clothes = different matter entirely!).

Once they hit puberty obviously they'll need to bath more often.

Mine have a bath twice a week. In between they wash their face and hands at the sink. I used to have a bath once a week in the 80s, basically up until I was 13 and suddenly needed a daily shower. In summer I often endup having 2 showers a day, but in winter I sometimes go a day without a shower if I don't feel I need it. I wash my hair every other day, occasionally it will last until the third day.

I think you end up with more health problems from being too clean.

I mean Christ on a bike there's children in this world dying from lack of safe water, there's children the same age as my DD having to walk miles to fetch drinking water for their families.

Get some fucking perspective and stop being brainwashed by advertising into thinking you need to erase all trace of human scent from your body by soaking it in a nightly soup of petrochemicals and untold litres of highly purified drinking water.