Reusing bathwater

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Just read on a money saving post how family of 4 reuse same bathwater each night, saving a fortune in the process.

6 & 3 year old gets bathed first, then mum heats it up for her bath and finally dad (as he is the dirtiest or so they say) adds hot water and has a scrub.

Omg, AIBU or is the the most gross thing ever.

I often share a bath with my 2 young children . My husband sometimes has a dunk in my bath water if the girls haven't been in it.

Normally if we share its not because we need a good wash, we just need a quick refresher or just want a soak in a hot bath.

I don't like baths anyway (sitting in dirt and skin cell soup ) so the thought of getting into someone's else old bath water makes me heave.

When I was growing up we had a bath on sundays, id get in first, then my brother, then my younger sister.

Perfectly normal up until recently, 'til people have become so brainwashed by adverts for cleaning products they now believe that healthy humans are filthy and must be scrubbed down at least twice a day.

I’d rather get in my tiny bathtub with my DH, DS and Ddog than get into a hot tub or public pool

We’ve regularly done what @nestisflown describes it’s almost like a shower each. Especially when I was on my own with the kids. It was quick easy and cheap.

No need to share a bath tub in my opinion.

Not the grossest thing ever though.

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Like many others have said, not all that long ago we had a bath on Sunday nights.

Nobody I knew had a shower! Who the hell was that well off?

We had a cat's lick/flannel wash in the mornings.

Sundays we had a bath, kids, mum then dad got any top up water that was left in the tank.

And yes, donating to a water charity for the last 20 years!

Why is it weird to point out that

Not everyone can afford all that hot water
In many countries people don't even have clean drinking water let alone loads of hot water to bath in at the turn of a tap.

Saying those people are gross/ revolting etc is pretty nasty.

I don't like baths, but think this was the norm in the 80s thankfully time has moved on. Got to be better ways to save money

Curious, I think of showers as being modern and fancy as well!

We did have one of those rubber things from boots that you put over the taps and had a shower on the end, that always fell off the taps and was next to useless, though 😂😂😂

Good you you on the charity support as well!

When the kids were smaller I used to sometimes warm up their water afterwards and use it - they weren’t really all that dirty so it made sense.

I don’t feel now that I can expect my 12 and 6 yos to use each other’s water for different reasons, and I wouldn’t ask them to use mine. Dd usually showers now anyway.

I don’t find it that gross but I think maybe only none adult should use it - take it in turns! By the time it gets to the dad it’s probably a bit gross!

I grew up in the 70s sharing a bath with 2 siblings. Not one after the other - just all in together.

Nice until we moved here, about 5 years ago, we hadn't had a proper shower since we moved in together in the late 80s! Out firsr teeny tiny flat had one because of the lack of room. None of our rural, small village homes had one, just the rubber tap attachment that usually ended up spraying the whole room!

Now we have an over the bath shower! Get us, gone posh

Oooh get you!

Fancy

I feel like a lot of people don't really understand how soap works. It holds the dirt in the water, and stops it attaching to your skin. So unless someone is really very grimy, there's nothing particularly unhygenic about doing this. And for those of us who don't have mains gas, it's still hard and expensive to get plentiful hot running water, enough for everyone to have a bath in the same evening.

Doesn't seem that strange. If they have a shower and it's electric that's like boiling three kettles at once! Immersion heaters aren't cheap to run either.

If they have a combi quick showers might work out cheaper.

This is assuming they're not on a water meter, so it's the cost of heating the water rather than the cost of the water itself.

And for those of us who don't have mains gas Oh do shut up! There you go, talking about shit that doesn't happen here in the UK... like not having superfast broadband and mobile phone signal.

Next you'll be telling me you get powercuts when its windy, or rains!

Pshaw!

When did the fashion for showers come in? We only had baths in our houses with no shower attachment. I remember in 1973 my parents buying a new build house with a large bathroom with a shower cubicle, a bath, toilet, hand basin and a bidet. All in fashionable pink. My first house with a shower was 1978. My current house has some sort of water saving restrictors on the showers and it's like standing under a dripping tap. They are useless and I never feel clean, so DH and I share the bath water as money is tight. Every little helps.

This was the normal not that many generations ago. In my grandparents day a tin bath was carried in by the boys once a week and put in front of the fire and filled with hot water. This took forever. Dad, as head of household bathed, then mum then oldest kid to youngest kid packing as many kids in at once as possible. My grandparents said there was no way you could see the bar of soap in the water as a child, too murky, and was pretty cold by the time any kid got in. It was once a week ready ready for church and large families were the norm.

We did this growing up and I was born in the late 80’s/early 90’s.

Still do it occasionally now actually though it’s usually I’ll have a bath and dh will have it after as he doesn’t like it as hot as I do.

It’s saving water and an electric

I have done it before but wouldn’t do it regularly, and not if hair has been washed as then water gets scummy with soap. I agree the bucket wash suggestion would save more water and be clean for each person, that is what we did in South Africa when I was there during the drought. Plus you can even catch the water and use it to flush loo or water plants.

In Japan the water is left in for days and reheated for each family member. But they wash and rinse very thoroughly before getting in the tub. So the water is to relax and soak.

We do something similar ish and DH gets second bath as he prefers his water a bit cooler than I do.

I was born in 1983, mom first, sister, brother, me, then Dad, and only twice a week for us kids, Wednesday's & Sunday's.
Mom bathed every day, and Dad had her water.

We had a shower fitted when I was about 6.