to be shocked at how many parents don't....

[formerbabe]

bath their children every day!

Following on from the thread about a poster not changing her children into pyjamas, I was surprised reading the responses how many people say they only bath their kids a couple of times a week.

I bath mine every night before bed and always have done, bar illness or something catastrophic happening in my day. On the rare occasion they have had to miss their bath, I have done a quick wipe down with a flannel, but they never seem clean after it. My kids seem to get filthy during the day, mud/food etc.

I know those kids who have excema cannot always have a bath everyday, but for anyone else it just seems like pure laziness to me.

I am not British so I am used to both adults and children having a bath or shower at least once a day.

really?

where other than uber rich expat communities in the tropics have enough water to do that every day?

Not much of Africa, Asia, South America, Africa, southern Europe, the Levant
have the water supplies to cope with such selfishness

For the people who wonder how kids get so dirty - my boys seem to sweat sand :o Honestly, if they leave the house (which they do every day) they come back covered in sand, inside their socks, inside their shoes, inside their clothes... yes, always. My girl doesn't, it must be created by testosterone :o Or the fact sandpits in playgrounds and gardens draw them in irresistibly... The boys are 3 and 6. I still don't bath them every day though :o but as and when needed, with the only set in stone bath-time being Sunday evening, and others happening when needed, often in the afternoon. Their clothes do have to go in the wash daily though, and often they get through more than one set a day, due to filth so bad they have to strip on the doorstep/ porch :o Have started to make the 6 year old shower when he gets in from football training, even though it's past his bedtime when he gets home, as he sweats buckets and comes home caked in mud, even when it isn't muddy...

How do people keep kids clean, that is my question!

Notcontent

DD1 (5) is pretty good at bottom wiping, and if she does a poo we have wet toilet tissues which she uses until she wipes clean. Simples.

DDs (5&3) have baths one or twice a week and join me in the shower once or twice a week. It'll be more in the summer as they get muddy outside and I prefer their white sheets to remain white I'm always getting compliments about how well turned out they are.

One of the teachers here (teaches the 10-11 year olds) told her class that they all had to shower once a day because the room was so smelly.

Talkinpeace - talkin sense

You know the saving water argument? This is off topic slightly, but can someone explain (in simple terms!) how me saving water helps areas where there is less water? I live in a really wet area, we don't have droughts ever, there is plenty of water to go round. The rainwater eventually runs into the same drains that it would run into if it came through my house, and makes its way to the same processing plant to be purified. That water isn't scooped up and transferred to dry parts of the UK, or the world, so how exactly am I helping?

And that's not a sarcastic question - I do try not to waste water, I turn the tap off when brushing my teeth etc, I take quick showers, shallow baths, I just don't know why I'm doing it!

When we are in school time routine my dc generalky do get bathed every night as they are visably dirty. The older ones can now shower themselves thank goodness. But at weekends and holiday time, not so much. We have 2 months off here in the sumner and they go to bed whenever they fall down or fall asleep in tents or treehouses. The only bath is the paddling pool or the hose.

Twice a week for my kids although I have to shower every day.

Several times in the past I have commented on the sheer luxury if being able to have a shower or bath whenever you want and the waste of clean water caused by the current obsession with daily showering and clothes washing after one wear.

Even wet areas that don't have a water shortage use of a lot of resources purifying the water - most of which goes straight back down the drain without even touching anything when you have a shower.

Alternate between bath & top & tail-they really don't get that dirty-certainly not sticky

OP, I am with you on this one. Yes, I was raised in the 1970s and showered just once a week. BUT - my mum used to bring a bowl and a jug to our bedroom so we can wash our bits every night before bed (and change underwear, of course). Our bathroom was outside the house so it was too cold to take us there every day. However, my children are bathed daily. The older one used to spend an hour in the bath - a well deserved rest for me :). The younger one doesn't like the bath so much and he is also eczema prone, but I still bath him every day, mostly with pure water and then massage him with pure coconut butter. Seems to do the job. And yes, they do get dirty. They sweat, they get dusty, they put sand in their hair, they spill stuff on themselves, they get sticky. I personally have the nose of a hound dog and can smell every odd smell there is. So - yes, they do get dirty and they do need a proper wash every day, not just to take down the dirt, but to relax them and take down the stress. Water is such a stress buster. Why would you deny your children it???

Because we hate them? I have very strong sense of smell which is a blessing and a curse and they dont smell, today mine are at the cinema and then mgmhave several friends over this afternoon to play with the dolls, what kind of sweat do you imagine they will work up? The had a bath last night and I can imagine their faces if I insisted they had another tonight! Buuut it's a treat you shouldnt be denied kids...Get a life

Then your sense of smell is not that good or your are just used to living in filth. Either way, apparently it is the norm for the majority here. I am truly shocked - just like the OP is.

OP, has it occurred to you that you only know this through reading mumsnet threads and not by the look and smell of other people's children?! Mine has a bath once a week, he's 3, he is neither smelly nor dirty, (although it must be said he's a bit pernickety and not a sticky sort of child) and is very rarely off sick. Bet you couldn't pick him out of a crowd!!

DS is four and bathed every other day. He never smells. He hasn't gone through puberty obviously so doesn't get sweaty bo smells. Funnily enough I just wipe his bum properly. :S Not sure why so many kids have shitty arses for the whole day!

Most people in Nigeria and Cameroon wash twice a day. I was considered a skank for occasionally skipping my morning wash. They are experts in making half a bucket of water go a long way.

Oh don't pander to the OP's goady post. You don't need to explain your bathing habits or those of your children.

It is that good Val and how does a bath every other day equate to living in filth ya dope! You dont have the first idea about it but again get a life

Barbarian - I think in hot countries it's totally different, I can so understand why people wash twice a day there (when I've been in tropical countries way in the past I also washed (again with cold water out of a bucket) way more than I do at home (in freezing scotland!)

Living in filth dulls your sense of smell and you start thinking that filthy stink is NORMAL and it is not. But you only realise this when you get out of the stink and in clean conditions with no offending smells.

That said, I am not saying that small kids stink, but I am saying that they do have a particular 'unwashed' smell, just like every being who has skin, pores etc etc.

I'm with Talkinpeace on this. What a waste of water, washing clean children.

DS1 is a bit, erm, leaky because he holds going to the loo too long and he is often a little smelly by the end of the day. Like, slightly smelly so he has a flannel wash and job done.

Certainly no bath every night here!

This thread is reminding me of Roald Dahl's Witches. Ze feeeelthy steeeenk of leeetle children.

Val , I've worked with very neglected children. And, yes, many do smell. But that's the result of a LOT of not washing of body or clothes, not one, two or even three nights of not bathing.

My house is very clean and tidy thanks person I dont know Your crystal ball is obviously not working, perhaps you should give it a clean!

Val assuming people leave their homes and spend time in the fresh air, wouldn't they notice the foul stench, if there wete one, of their filth, on returning to their homes?