MIL bathing habits

[Bitesize89]

My in laws come to stay with us pretty frequently and I've noticed over time that mil never bathes when she comes. She can be here 3-4 days without a shower or bath. It recently was revealed that she only ever uses baths and no soap in her bath. This came up after she bagged my DD and didn't use any soap on her and she said well there was bubble bath in the water, I was shocked as I don't think that's a proper way to bathe and she said when she bathes she doesn't use soap and only bubble bath. So not only does she not bathe for days on and but when she bathes she just has a bubble bath and no soap.im really grossed out.

People are ignorant and judgemental as you can see on the thread.

Right?

If just soaking in hot water is enough, why do these people bother washing their hands

I was referring to the 'bubble bath and soap being the same' comment.
If you'd read any of my other comments you'd see my views on showering/bathing everyday being a fairly modern thing.

I'd be so uncomfortable in your house, snoopy!

The entire world is made of chemicals.

One is sitting in one's own dead skin cells and dirt. One does not get 'much cleaner' in a bath.

I have a bath occasionally and it is for the feel of the warm water and reading a book in a relaxed state but for ‘necessity’ washing id have a shower.

Well, yes. But the entire premise of the OP as hygiene monitor is toxic.

Ok so do we just use all we can or reduce what we can?

Crikey, very judgemental. Showering daily isn't mandatory and for not very sweaty people might not even be necessary. Generally, people mostly only strip wash if other bathing methods aren't available to them.

Just to say, I never shower but I do take a bath once every three to four months, whether I need it or not.

Bubble bath is soap. Actually to be exact from a composition perspective, it's not soap-soap. But by that logic, handwash isn't soap either, nor is shower gel. Many (most?) of body washing products don't contain soap. But they're washing products nonetheless that will clean you.

Not washing for several days is gross.

I might have missed MIL's age.

I'm in my 60s. As a child and a teen, I was only allowed to bath once a week and was expected to wash my 'important bits' at a sink on other days.

The reason? The cost of heating the water. (There was also the fact that we didn't have a full bathroom. My baths took place in a tub in front of the fire.)

The only person in the household who was able to get a shower every day was my dad, courtesy of the pithead baths. I didn't have access to a shower until I moved away to uni.

It may be that the OP's MIL had a similar experience.

I have concerns that you're monitoring. But how do you know?

Maybe she brings her own shower gel and does things surreptitiously?

Because you're nosey and weird?

People on this thread are completely deluded. Over washing and using soaps has resulted in a masive reduction in the diversity of the human skin microbiome.

This leads to skin problems e.g. eczema.

Humans are supposed to have bacteria, funghi, and other microbs on our skin, having a symbiotic relationship with these things.

I'm not suggesting we should be stinking of B.O. and be crawling with body lice of course, but it's actually beneficial to our health to NOT wash with soap every day.

I pity the amount of people on the thread calling those who don't wash gross, projecting their own internalised shame about their own bodies outwards.

Bubble bath has detergent in it so is a form of liquid soap !!

Not coming back OP? Found something more worthy to think about hopefully. Or are you in the shower...

How does OP know? That's the scary part!

Drying with a towel after removed most of those, anyway showers are usually a lot quicker which a lot of the time isn’t long enough to effectively remove all dead skin cells so you have dead skin on you then aswell anyway😂

It's untrue that older people do not need to wash as often.

Old people often have a musty smell about them.

It's basic hygiene to stand under a shower for 2 minutes and have a proper wash.

I wonder if the OP's bath isn't clean? I've stayed with families where I felt I'd be dirtier after a bath than without!

Exactly! Every human needs to shower every day. They may not be able to smell themselves but can you imagine how their bits smell! Absolutely vile

Your ignorance is astonishing. Soaking in the bath with bubble bath get you cleaner than a shower, especially when so many claim not to wash their legs and feet. When my granddaughter had nappy rash I would put her in a warm bath with bubble bath instead of using wipes, she would be completely clean in ten minutes or so. I grew up in the sixties and seventies when a weekly bath was the norm. I don't shower every day although I used to when I was younger. When my dad lived with me for his last three years of life, he didn't shower or bath at all! That pissed me off, you would have freaked out.

Also. Why is this poster spying on another adult in the bathroom? It's bizarre behaviour.

Hilarious that you think a daily shower (with soap) makes you clean when all it really does is strip your skin and kill off the bacteria that actually stop you smelling. Daily scrubbers usually stink the worst, they just drown it in cheap fragrance

I am probably a similar age to your MIL. I don’t like taking a bath or shower in someone else’s house unless I am going to be staying longer than three nights. Does this mean l am filthy and smelly? Of course not. I am fastidious in the use of deodorant and make sure l have a good wash at the sink in the places that matter. When I take baths at home, I use Oilatum as l have eczema. This was on the advice of doctors. This is why I think your MIL is fine with bubble bath. It is only relatively recently that people have been taking daily showers but it is perfectly possible to keep oneself clean and fresh smelling in other ways. You have not mentioned an unfortunate odour from MIL so she is obviously keeping herself clean. I think you are being unnecessarily judgmental.