to leave DD unsupervised in the bath?

[redskyatnight]

She is 7. I'm quite often moving about upstairs so hear her chatting to herself or sometimes have a conversation with her.

This came up in conversation with a friend who was horrified and said she thought this was far too young for DD to be left alone in the bathroom.

a friend of mine's sister drowned in bath age 50 ish so not impossuible but accidents can and do happen at any age so you have to draw a line somewhere total supervision under 3, 3-5 close supervision after that you have to let them I walked to school on my own from age 6 onwards you can never completely eliminate risk

at 7 I think unless some learning SN or physical problem a child should be fine in bath

god i thought you were going to say 7mo or something! DN was in the bath alone at 3 with the door open and lots of checking not that it's needed the noise she makes by she's 6 now and can be left no problem

For what its worth would happily leave ds1 at 3.5 years whilst i pottered as long as I could hear him and I always stayed upstairs, but now at 5 he does such silly things I wouldn't dream of it!

MsVestibule - my school friend's sister drowned in the bath as a teenager. She was lying back, feel asleep and drowned. But you wouldn't supervise a teenager.

I don't stay in the room for my old kids (almost 7 and 9) but they know not allowed it to be too deep and to sit up - and I am generally on same floor with door not completely closed.

Sorry to hear about others' bad experiences. Seems like the majority think I am not terribly neglectful - phew!
I had a flicker of doubt because my mum insisted on bathing me till I was 12. By then I hated it and was fairly sure that that was much too old to be necessary, but did have a moment of self doubt that 7 was maybe a bit young ..
(and yes, friend is perhaps a tad overprotective).

Fine

I leave dd, 5, in bath

I leave ds, nearly 3, briefly (rum to answer door/find iPhone ;)!)

I am not relaxed leaving him but house isn't huge and doesn't take long/can hear him etc

i leave my 4 year old DD on her own in the bath and have done since she was about 2 - at the time we lived in a house with the bathroom off the kitchen so I could potter about, load the dishwasher etc whilst she played (and quite frankly the amount of time she spends in the bath, novel reading has been tempting...). trusted her with water from a young age as she has a really strong sense of her own self-preservation (dependent on the child though)

Alt :( Poor little thing. I bet her sister feels awful - very sad for both of them? How long ago was that & how is she doing now?

The 'burning' thing in your family is odd isn't it - what did your Mum do to you & your sister?

Alt - horrific story. So glad your niece well now.

Oh alt that really is horrific what a little fighter your dn must be.

Oh Alt, your poor niece. What a terrible time for her. And all of you. I remember your threads re your ds well.

jennifer, who are you? Come now, 2007 name needed. I have my suspicions... DD was born old. I actually didn't realise what an old spirit she was until I had DS. She is independent to the nth degree. I haven't been allowed to put socks on her since she was about 2.

Ds 6 goes in bath unsupervised but I'm upstairs. Dd doesn't because she's only 2 and a pain in the arse!

Altinkum - poor you and your sister 😒 glad your dn has improved so much, so hard for her.

Im sure I left my DC in the bath (together) from about 5. I would have been popping in/out at that age though.

At 7 it's absolutely fine. I leave my 5 year old Ds in to have a play while I put the washing away in the airing cupboard or make the beds. If they can get in and out by themselves and hold themselves up and be trusted not to turn the hot tap on then I don't see the problem.

My DD is 6 and I leave her unsupervised in bath. I stay upstairs but can hear her all the time. YANBU