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 don't understand people who dedicate their lives being slaves to their washing machines.

I was born in the late 50s, and we had baths every night. In a bath in a bathroom with hot water coming out of the tap. That doesn't mean I have to do it to dd, and in fact I didn't. The reasons are different and outlined upthread, but that doesn't matter. As children, we enjoyed baths, and still do as adults. I won't go in a shower if I don't absolutely have to, for instance.

I don't understand people like dh who scrupulously shower in the morning but not at night. Rub all the dirt off onto the sheets and then wash yourself in the morning? Strange.

Shocked? Really

I wish I hadn't posted on this thread. It keeps appearing at the top of Threads I'm On. Strangers' bathing habits. The bathing habits of Nigerians. Too much information about flannels and wiping down. I wish it would go away. When will it die?

FunLoving - so you do 50/60 degree nuke wash and your WM stinks

Perhaps you should give it a bath.

You "care" so much that your DC are squeaky clean you will bath them twice daily, but you don't care about the cleanliness of planet they are going to live in for longer than you, along with their children.

How incongruous.

I agree with you OP. I walk downwind of unwashed kids and their equally unwashed parents every day and they stink!!

We all have different standards of hygiene and rates of clothes changing, but those who don't shower and wear clean clothes every day don't fool yourselves that you smell fresh because you really don't and to those of us who do, you smell rank. Ha!

'I don't give a shit about the planet' . Now that's shocking and very sad.

'you smell rank. Ha!'

You sound like a moron. Ha!

Kids who are not washed often enough DO smell, I know because dd has a school friend who has a very strong, unpleasant (to my nose, dd has never commented) smell. It is not BO as in sweat, they are 8, but rather strong smell of unwashed hair and skin. it is a lingering, greasy smell which I can smell in dds room for ages after if they have been playing there.

I have also held babies who smell sour and oily from not being washed enough. These would have been friends babies. I would never in a million years comment on it but it was noticable to me.

When dc were babies I bathed them every single day and used either Gaia or MooGoo products and neither ever had an issue with their skin. Now they have a shower / bath 6 out of 7 evenings. There is one evening where we are at activity that ends too late.

I like clean children. I also wash their clothes and pjs and bed clothes regularly.

NO ONE HAS SAID THEIR KIDS DONT WAAAAAAASH FFS

You wouldnt get that smell from having a bath every other day and a wash in between, what planet are some of you on?! Your smuggery will be of cold comfort to your kids and grandkids when you've left them a ravaged planet to try and survive on, but who gives a damn about that

the fact your child skin never suffered was in spite of using fancy bath products, not because. Oh and the fact that they dont have eczema may help

I'm surprised no one has suggested a sheep dip just in case the dc still smell after a bath

I think mine used to bathe most nights as a routine. when they were older they would shower.

clean clothes.

some kids have eczema so too much bathing may aggravate it.

I think it is important to be sensible with our resources and not take them for granted and you should consider the environment as much as possible.

That's just reminded me - I forgot to mention that, when I'm washing the bedclothes and towels twice a day (at 90 degrees), I pop the DCs in as well as obviously their thrice daily bath just isn't enough. I also stick them through the carwash twice a week.
This thread was funny for a while but it's starting to get depressing now.

OP has washed off down the plughole too

"This thread is depressing..."
Love this. Only on MN.

I meant that it's depressing to hear people say that they don't give a shit about the planet.

I have this vision of oidoyou quizzing strangers on their bathing habits as she passes them in the street.

I find it so incredibly hard to believe that most other people smell so awful, as some people seem to be suggesting. Where are all these malodorous people? I rarely meet anyone who has a noticeable smell and I have the nose of a bloodhound. It's a standing joke with my family that I can smell a pet in any house, even if it's spotlessly clean and there is no evidence of an animal living there. So I don't think I have a malfunctioning nose.

As for when this thread will die? I'd think 1000 posts or thereabouts. I might fill it myself with another 300 posts pointing out that not having a bath does not equal refusing to wash

We ripped our bathtub out on Saturday and it won't be replaced til this weekend at the earliest, so I'll let you know. We're doing strip washes til then! :o

Apparently we cant smell the stinky people as we live in squalor and are used to it Treacle

The variation in bathing habits is like anything else in life. There are some people in the black, some in the white and a million shades of grey (possibly this can be judged by the colour of the sheets). I'm in the grey area.

Also as with everything else, black - as in totally grimy and neglectfully unwashed is wrong. White is also suspect - over washed children by unfortunately OCD parent, I've been on more than one thread about this, poor children bathed 3 times a day by parents obsessed by dirt.

So the grey... dove grey might be worrying, as would battleship grey but anything else it's in the realm of normal and we should be accepting of that. Once a day is OK, twice a week (plus spot washing/extra bath as necessary) is also ok.

Saving the planet is good too as is saving water bills

ah, I'dkick I'd totally forgotten about the fact I live in squalor.

I think one of the reasons I'm enjoying this thread so much is because I have often been accused on threads of being obsessive about cleaning because I change hand towels/dish cloths etc daily, and like to keep everything clean and tidy. I've been told my house is probably sterile and unwelcoming and that no one can relax in it etc.

And yet here I am, on this thread and I'm one of the great unwashed.

Ain't life grand?

Only just got back to this...I've done three bath times since I started it!!

I admit over 600 posts about baths is dull as bath dishwater...but I am secretly chuffed!!

Now why doesnt that suprise me! ;)