to think that baths are very overrated?

[AKMD]

Is this a general experience of baths or am I just incompetent at bubbly relaxation?:

• I have to run the bath to near-scalding temperatures. If I run it to a normal temperature, it is too cold within 5 minutes and I burn my feet adding more hot water.

• if I fill the bath to a pleasingly high level, it sloshes into the overflow hole as soon as I get in. This makes me think I'm fat.

• if I attempt to read a book in the bath, it inevitably gets soggy, either from my wet hands or from the steam. If I have no book, I get bored and start reading the back of the shampoo bottles until a decent enough time has passed to have made it worth running a bath in the first place.

• when I try to lie back in the bath, bubbles get up my nose and the edge is hard. A bath pillow feels ridiculous.

• DH decides halfway through that he needs to use the bathroom. Sigh.

• by the end of the non- relaxing bubble bath, I'm all sweaty. Washing in my own filth doesn't appeal so I have to have a shower.

So, baths are pointless AIBU?

I love my bath.

Candles, aromatherapy oil/bubbles, book and/or music...

...I have even been known to set up DD's portable DVD player on the lid of the loo so I can watch a film in there!

...and don't forget the wine!

Dum I have been known to skype people from the bath... Not on video call, just normal, but it's great being able to chat to someone without worrying about dropping the phone in the bath!

Baths need bubbles, wine or tea, an improving book, a magazine, and a towel within reach. Once you are ready to get out then just soap/showergel and quick rinse off in the shower.

An interesting thing to do in the shower, if you have a shower over a bath rather than a freestanding one, is to put the plug in and shower as normal (so you are effectively filling the bath but from the shower head). You'd be amazed at how much water a shower can use without you noticing it - I've really cut back my shower time since starting to do this. I feel that by having ultra quick showers I can justify a nice long wallow every so often.

Grace is laptop ok in bathroom then with the steam? I got mine a few months ago and have been soooo tempted but not dared try it out!

Meant to add in response to an earlier post - I have 2 plugs - one for the plughole and one for the overflow so bath stays nice and deep!

Baths are for fun, nothing to do with getting clean IMHO. Gotta shower oneself down if only to get rid of all the soap scum, not to mention own gunk. 99% of bath/shower/handwashing stuff on the market has SLS in it, I developed eczema from that through constant handwashing after birth of DS! Even tho I've never been allergy-prone, nor any family history. Switched to plant-derived gels, but expensive, at least when you shower you only use a fraction of what you'd put in the bath water. Water-use wise, too, even a veeeeery long shower only takes half the water a bath takes, at most. THat's unless you've got a power shower, they're a mini Niagara Falls!

Scrubbing bath out every time too, was doing it before DS, no time now!

Aye, count me in for the showers!

Nothing can beat a two-in-the-bath experience though, shame DH and I have VASTLY different temperature preferences (he runs it so hot I cook before I even get in!) and also our bath is tiny.

Dum It never occurred to me that steam would be a problem - I put it a little way away from the bath on a footstool so that lots of air can circulate round it and it doesn't appear to have done any harm.

The second plug for the overflow is genius!

Where can I buy an overflow plug thing? I've search Amazon without much luck.

I never know what I'm supposed to do in the bath. I get in and sit there and think...now what?

We have lived in this house for four years, and I have never taken a bath here.

I could stand under a hot shower all day, though.

The only thing worse than a bath at home in sitting in the jacuzzi at the gym. Firstly, at sitting in other people dead skin, and then at having to make small talk with total strangers.

Will give that a try instead of the loo lid which is right next to the bath then - I know DVD player sometimes gets a bit erratic after while.

It's not a specific overflow plug - I just measured the overflow and bought a standard plug from B & Q to stick in it!

I hate baths. I have never understood why women love them so much. Is it because we're conditioned to think we should? You know, the whole candles, relaxing music, expensive bubble bath stuff that they cram down our throats in every ad break?

YABVVU. I love my bath, I had loft insulation packed round it when I had it installed. It stays hot for aaaaaaaaaaages. [hgrin]

I agree with Lynette about jacuzzis - yuk! I was made to go in the PIL's over the weekend and couldn't see any pleasure in it! As soon as I got out I jumped in the shower to wash off all the ming!

I agree with Toby - we are conditioned to think we should like baths I think!

We would you lie in hot water to relax when you could have a nice little lie down on your bed with nice soft pillows and duvet, and not a hard sided bath? It makes no sense to me.

The last bath I had was a smelly tea tree oil one after childbirth for fanjo healing purposes. That was 7 years ago. Won't be having anymore babies, so don't plan on ever having a bath again!

You can't exactly read books in the shower, either.
I love baths, I loathe showers. Shower = freezing experience, unless I run it for at least 20 minutes which actually uses more water than the bath would.
I think we're "conditioned" to think that ultraclean bodies are either possible, or the only acceptable ones.

Ice cold bottle of beer in a hot shower :o that's relaxing!

I can read a book on my sofa. Or in bed. Or in the park. Or on a train.

I am very easily bored and have the attention span of a goldfish, but even I can manage not to need to read a book in the 5 minutes or so it takes me to shower every morning.

Ice cold bottle of beer in a hot shower that's relaxing!

i must admit I'd be willing to give that a go!