To think there should be minimum standards

[Obviouslynamechangedforthisagain]

For parents to keep their home?
Reading threads on here people admit to children being bathed once per week, wearing pjs for weeks on end, changing beds monthly etc.
Obviously not everyone lives in squalor but if there were minimum standards (ie 3 baths pw, bedding changed weekly) it could help an awful lot of neglected children that don't reach SS level of need.
Admittedly it would be almost impossible to police but if it could be done AIBU to think this could be a good idea?

But 5 bananas isn't compliant with 5 a day? Off the top of my head, I think the guidance was 5 different F&V portions (portion sizes widely advertisedin guidance), only one can be juiced and no more than 2 can be fruit.

So if a child substituted some of their processed junk food diet to incorporate a banana, an apple, a portion of broccoli, a portion of carrots and a portion of kale, that would be better, surely? Certainly many more nutrients. Not necessarily an ideal diet, but an improved one.

(And yes, 5 a day was an arbitrary starting point, ideally it should be more than that).

See it's all completely random. You look at a different country and their advice will be entirely different. It's an arbitrary standard that is of arguably benefit. The people reading it and calculating numbers of smoothies allowed etc are not the actual group who are priority for advice on nutrition.

It's the same thing with changing sheets and bathing. Ultimately there are massive variations within the realms of what is ok.

There will of course be some parents who don't understand that a child needs a bath, and in some circumstances there may be a role for providing clear and specific guidance. But those are situations where a lot more is going on and this would be a tiny part of the advice needed.

And as a previous poster has said, this type of advice is already out there but the issue is you don't seem to agree with it. I haven't managed to find a single reputable source suggesting a child needs to be bathed every day for example. People parent differently and have different standards and there is no basis for you suggesting your standards are right and others are wrong.

@voicelesspreacher It is a completely made up number used to encourage the idea that people should eat a decent amount of fruit and veg (and arguably driven by lobby groups in the fruit and veg industry). The '5' is from nowhere.
Ah. Just like scientists have also admitted that the "two metres" figure for social distancing was made up on the spot. Ditto Gove's "one hour exercise", and I seem to remember something about "drink two litres of water a day"; and Tony Hancock reads a slogan in a hospital waiting room "Drinka pinta milka day". All these figures which get thrown at us and are taken as gospel, yet are made up.

Yes I really don't think these examples meet the bar for neglect.

I try to change out sheets fortnightly but can't always get around to it so sometimes they go three weekly or even monthly. Not ideal but it's not caused any health issues. Weekly baths were the norm for my generation growing up.

A sink wash everyday and occasional bath is all that's really needed for heath.

Harvard Healrh advise that bathing once or twice a week for children is fine.

The NHS do advise on screen time limits for children and I still see young children glued to ipads.

The NHS advise on healthy eating and exercise, yet a quarter of reception aged children are overweight.

If I were making guidelines for parents washing daily would not feature.
Healthy eating, exercise, screen time, reading, the importance of family meals away from screens, bed times, these would be the priorities for me.

I think a lot of people would be surprised by how much easier life is with less stuff.

We were given huge bags of secondhand stuff for my son, and when we protested the amount, we were told that you need SO MUCH STUFF because they get dirty all the time.

I stripped it down to five sets of clothes for the week, three sets of spares. If something got dirty, he could be changed during the day. If it stayed clean, use it again. All in the wash on laundry day, back in his clothes box after. One small bag of emergency spares in the wardrobe in case of emergency. Layers to swap out.

Far far easier to manage a small wardrobe than a large one.

We don't change our bedding weekly, should I refer myself to SS? I wasn't aware I was neglecting my children, silly me.

See my last post.
I never said you were neglecting your children however I do seem to have hit a nerve!

That’s unkind OP!

You’ve posted about your issues! Deal with them and don’t project your issues onto others.

Your original post was ridiculous.

Absolutely.. Good call.
However a small caveat
Where would the fun be for " us" superior beings to be able to " mock"
Now there's a paradox

My kids have a bath once a week unless they get really dirty but school age so they're pretty clean and manage to smell so good! I'm holding onto these years. Once puberty kicks in it'll be daily I'm sure. Sheets also monthly, sorry but I have stuff to do and a lovely house and garden but can't do it all every week

People do wash when they don't shower, and they really don't smell.

what??
My child was only bathed once a week when younger unless he was particularly dirty from an activity.
all of your points are unreasonable, get a life.

I know what you mean

I have sessions every so often where I just clear everything out

My theory is, it's not a tidy up if I don't get rid of things

I go to people's houses sometimes and it just looks so much like hard work

And they spend more time than I do trying to keep the place tidy and mine is tidier

(And i do have two kids before anyone says anything)

Sure let’s focus resources on laundry police while there’s kids getting sexually and physically abused. Get a grip.

Who is going to monitor and enforce this??

Get a grip

My child was fantastic at going into school in dirty clothes rather than the clean ones... SS were sent around to check we were coping. We were.

Kids need a bed, clean clothes and food. Those are the minimum standards. Not something you feel we ought to achieve. Mine had terrible eczema if bathed more than once a week so they washed essentials, PJs were twice a week and no one died if the sheets weren't changed weekly especially if they still seemed fresh.

There are already minimum standards, and if anyone has concerns about the wellbeing of an individual child they not only can but should report it to Child Safeguarding at their local authority.

Even as a pipe dream the idea of dictating by statute how often you should change the duvet cover makes me immediately want to rebel.

Can you read, see the 3rd paragraph of my OP🙄

So things were so bad SS called around and you don't see any issue with that?

I mean I agree that children shoildn't grow up in squalor of course, but I am not so sure about stipulating such specifics across the board for all parents. Didn't I see something recently about tooth brushing being taught in schools-it is quite shocking that this is needed.

Mine were brought up on pretty much daily baths and I do change the bedding usually 1-2 weekly (depends on the weather to be honest as getting it dry is awful in winter and I don't have a dryer). I am very fussy with the house so it is always clean and tidy. What I will say though as much as this is my preference, I am not convinced it has rubbed off good habits on my children. They are teens now and their bedrooms can bring tears to my eyes-I have had to learn to shut the door to keep my sanity.

Also, if bringing in strict guidelines-where do they stop? Would you prescribe children must be taken on holiday X times a year, must have access to horse riding, must learn to swim, must have an after school hobby, must have X amount of toys, etc etc. Some of these things are lovely things to give to children and some would argue important to their development too-but out of reach for many parents.

I actually don't disagree that some guidelines would be helpful. Perhaps not in terms of timings but advice about basic hygiene for new parents wouldn't be a bad thing. The problem is that it's very rarely 'just' lack of hygiene. Most of the children (I'm a DSL) who I flag for these kinds of things have parents who are struggling with life in lots of ways; poverty, lack of support from family/friends, addiction, additional needs. They need all the help they can get but the help was needed so long ago...telling them now that they need to trim their child's nails once a week or wash their child's hair regularly would be pointless.

Taking children swimming, horse riding, scouts, football etc is beneficial for them.
Paid activities may well be out of reach for many parents, but there are plenty of low cost/free activities that they can take up.
So yes, along with nutrition I would include extra curricular activities in the guidelines.

I'm a bath every night, clean bedding every week kind of a person, but my DM isn't. As I child I had a bath on Sunday evening the sheets were pro a my changed monthly. They were nylon sheets too, and as an adult I think there should be a law about the minimum quality of sheets I certainly wasn't neglected. There are minimum standards, how those standards are achieved isn't uniform. It might be by a daily shower or a weekly bath. Or by taking your child swimming and using public facilities if you have no other option.

This is batshit OP. Are you just trying to goad? Or do you really believe this?