Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

to have unceremoniously put my DS3 aged 3.6 fully clothed in the bath?

52 replies

PacificDogwood · 01/09/2011 21:29

All day has been One Epic Struggle.
Won't bore you with the details, just the usual toddler unreasonableness.

So, tonight, when trying to get him into the bath was threatening to turn into a wrestling match, I just picked him up and sat him in it. In joggers, pants and t-shirt. He was majorly not impressed. DH thinks I am losing it .

I calmly walked away and got DS4.
I then read DS3 his story, he had his milk (still likes it) and we spoke about it. I can't wait to see if he will be slightly more cooperative tomorrow.

OP posts:

A1980 · 01/09/2011 23:36

Absolutely not unreasonable. He has to learn when mum means business and to do what he's told That showed him that refuisng to get undressed wont mean he avoids the bath!

My friend's DD suddenly started refusing to get dressed in the morning. She had been unwell for a few days and when she was better she decided she much preferred not going to school at all and being at home with mum to play, etc. Every day she tried it on with her mum until my friend had to bodily drag her out of bed and dress her. It was a screaming wrestling match every morning. Until one morning my friend flipped and said to her she wasn't fighting with her anymore. She told her she was to get up, brush her teeth and get dressed, her DD said no and rolled over in bed. My friend said "ok don't but you're still going to school though" and with that she picked her up out of bed and put her in the car in her pajamas. She had her clothes in a bag though. You bet her dd got dressed in the car when they got to school as my friend threatened to carry her into class undressed.

blackeyedsusan · 02/09/2011 00:00

3.6? 3.6? 3.6 nooooooooooooooo! was hoping things got better after 3....

TinkerTailorSoldierLibrarian · 02/09/2011 00:09

My Mum did this to my db when he was about 6, so I would have been around 4. We still talk about it now. He was wearing yellow shorts and was very, very cross indeed. He never messed about at bathtime again.

TenMinutesLate · 02/09/2011 01:07

Guilty! Put fully clothed DS1 into bath after losing all patience when she was 3..........never had any trouble getting her into the bath again :-) Reminds me also of the time (again, 3 yrs old) when I took away one of her toys...one of those plastic pink dolls houses that gets played with twice then forgotten about.....and put it outside and told her she could have it back when she behaved. Unfortunately Binmen / Charity pickup / thieving arse swipped it before she got back on track.....18 months later she tells DS2 (2.5) that if he throws his toys then Mummy will throw them away and with wide eyed horror "You'll never see them again......" Oooops do feel like the pantomine baddy at times!

HeadfirstForHalos · 02/09/2011 01:28

YADNBU!

I once, when nightmare dd1 was about 5 and whinging loudly about her dinner, calmly picked up her (plastic) plate, walked to the back door, opened it and gaily frisbeed it out. I gently closed the door and walked out of the kitchen.

Her face was

Bogeyface · 02/09/2011 01:40

tenminuteslate I think your story proves that sometimes we do need to be the wicked witch! Your DD clearly learned her lesson from that, and is passing it on!

bilblio · 02/09/2011 01:52

YANBU, I've threatened to do it to DD many times. The minute I go to lift her up she's started getting undressed. :)

TenMinutes - we threaten to throw DD's toys away... or hoover them up, if she doesn't tidy them up. She'll often refuse, until I go near them and she springs into action.
We also threaten to put her in the bin when she's being a pain... unfortunately she realises we won't actually do this so we don't get much response. :o

garlicnutter · 02/09/2011 02:09

YATNBU. Only worry is whether he'll now think it's lots of fun.
Oh, what the hell? If he gets in the bath, he gets in the bath

I once made a four-year-old come out with no shoes on (yes, they were in my bag!) For three weeks, five days a week.
Then, one morning, he miraculously presented himself for school WITH HIS SHOES ON. I'll never forget my joy at that moment.
Or the self-doubt I suffered while making the little fucker angel walk to school in his socks.

Belini · 02/09/2011 08:26

YADNBU i have done the shoe thing and also taken them out in pouring rain with no coat on as they refused to wear it. I will not fight and argue with them . Have had some funny looks from people as I walk down the road with unshoed uncoated children

youarekidding · 02/09/2011 08:37

YADNBU.

Loving these stories and feel less alone as I've done many

Latest one: DS (7yo) was just not getting ready for supermarket last week, you know the old if I ignore the request I'll delay the inevitable!. Well he got 5 minute warning, 2 minute, 1 minute and we're leaving NOW DS as I walked out of the front door. He was not happy about walking around ASDA in t-shirt/ boxers and no shoes. He's been surprisingly co-operative since.

Done the school and PJ's one and the fully clothed bath one too. Oh and the dinner calmly thrown put in bin.

Actions speak louder than words.

youarekidding · 02/09/2011 08:40

Oh Also done the no rain coat in rain.

Againagainagain · 02/09/2011 09:04

I've done the school in pj, only had to do it once with him

seeker · 02/09/2011 09:13

Seriously? I think a better approach if the day had been a struggle and you know that bathtime is a difficult would have been to just quietly skip the bath.

Mine would have thought it hysterically funny, and wanted it to happen every night!

diddl · 02/09/2011 09:17

I´m with seeker on this.

Mine would also have found it funny.

seeker · 02/09/2011 09:21

Actually, I might have done if specifically to make them laugh. If it had been a horrid day it might have broken the jangly mood and made for a happy bath and bed time.

If I had thought of it, and not been so wound up and cross myself that lightening the mood was a distant dream.......

SmethwickBelle · 02/09/2011 09:21

Oh the frisbeeing plate!!! - HeadfirstForHalos you've made my day with that.

I am sorely in danger of taking DS1 to the shops in his pjyamas and slippers sometimes he is so slow to get dressed and makes such a DRAMA out of it all...

OP YADNBU

Huffythetantrumslayer · 02/09/2011 10:46

mistlethrush · 02/09/2011 10:59

Its interesting... I've done the 'into bath with clothes on' and DS was very distressed (only stood him up in it) - got out immediately, stripped and got back in promptly (and have had no problems since) - after getting back in we had a laugh about it - but not actually when it was happening.

We've done the 'into car in only pants' routine too. Which results in speed dressing in car on way to school.

Early days (abou 18 / 20 mo?) we did the 'please don't take your shoes off' after nursery - which didn't work (5 min journey home) and so took his socks off and made him walk in from the car (which was, apparently, really awful and horrid, even though he happily runs out onto the drive in bare feet normally). Even now he still asks if he can take his shoes off on journeys!

Oh - and we've had the storm off to bedroom having not touched tea - which I've proceeded to take into the sitting room and eat - whilst DH, when DS comes downstairs confirms that its been thrown away (although he was cooked another one )

CinnabarRed · 02/09/2011 11:47

My Mum, when wound up beyond endurance by DB and me when toddlers, would blow up a balloon (preferably the long sausage type) and hit us as hard as she could with it. We fell about laughing, she felt better and the day invariably improved from there on.

candr · 02/09/2011 12:24

I have dumped a child at nursery in PJ's too as he used to take forever getting dressed - it only took doing once.

BertieBotts · 02/09/2011 18:14

I've taken DS to the childminder in his pyjamas and the next day he said he wanted to go in his pyjamas again so that CM would dress him again Since DP moved in he always insists he dresses him if given the option - maybe I'm just really bad at dressing him...

Original poster

PacificDogwood · 02/09/2011 22:06

seeker, he needed some kind of hosing down otherwise he would have permanently glued himself to his bed sheets with stickiness!

Thanks for everybody else's stories - they are all . So far I have only had to casually say 'I am leaving' and in astonishly short time my school boys have their shoes/jackets/bags on.

I am loving the balloon hitting thing, Cinnabar, noted for future reference.

OP posts:

UsAndTwo · 02/09/2011 22:21

I did exactly the same thing when my DS (now 8) was about 3. I got so fed up that he would not get changed after 30mins of his screaming I warned him he would go in the bath with his clothes on. He didn't believe me and so ended up fully clothed in the bath. I should add that 5 years later he thinks this is absolutely hilarious and keeps asking me to re-tell the story of when I bathed him with clothes on (I also took a photo at the time). However it has backfired as several times recently he has re-enacted this by getting into the shower with clothes on!

michaelbooblie · 02/09/2011 22:28

YANBU 3y olds are absolute contrary, tantrumming nightmares.
I have my very own little dictator.

HeadfirstForHalos · 02/09/2011 23:24

Smethwickbelle glad it made your day. :) At the time it was either calmly frisbee the plate or have a nervous breakdown but I can laugh now!

It has gone down as legend to the younger dc.

Flip

1 2 3