Three or four baths a week?

[christonapushbike]

When we redid our bathroom we got a lovely big deep tub with the intention of using it as a nice treat approx once every 2-3 months. DSD enjoys using it 3-4 times a week and complains that her ensuite shower isn't usable as the pressure in her shower is 'too low' (its fine- not a power shower but totally usable!). Am I unreasonable to feel this is completely ungrateful attitude and an ensuite is a massive privilege (only she has one in our house) she spends up to 2 hours bathing in our bath and I've worked out each bath costs £3.50 in gas and water (it's 300 litre capacity). When challenged on why she refuses to use her own bathroom she just shrugs/ scowls. Her ensuite is a shower room with a toilet (no bath) for reference.

Is this lovely bath in your ensuite or in the family bathroom? We have a lovely deep bathtub in our ensuite but I have never ever used it - don't think dh has either. Love my double sized shower though.

Pick your battles. Once every few months??? Plus £3.50 doesn't sound all that bad for a lovely long hot soak if you like that kind of thing. I pay that much for a mediocre coffee without thinking about it.

I think it's a shame to get a lovely big bath fitted with the intention to use it only every few months!! Cost wise I'm sure it would have been cheaper to book a hotel with a bath than spend getting one fitted if you want to use it this little.

I vote YABU - a shower is completely different to a bath even if she does have the privilege of an ensuite. I think a bath is a wonderful form of self care!

Meant to be choc bar aka chocolate with the book - candle and wine or gin in my case

A bath as a ‘treat’ a few times a year. That’s so weird lol

I think you are being a bit harsh. Shes using it for its intended purpose, although I've always thought the designers of these gargantuan baths need to have a word with themselves. Totally impractical and wasteful of water as you are finding out to your cost. Is there room in her ensuite for a standard size bath maybe?

I don’t think it’s weird to have a lovely big bath and only use it occasionally. I’m very much a shower person, but we do have a lovely bath for the rare occasions that we fancy one. If we’ve room in the bathroom for a shower and a bath, why wouldn’t we have one??

But back to the original question- I actually don’t think it’s any cheaper to have a shower than a bath nowadays. Power showers use a lot of water. If I put the plug in when I had a shower it would be a decent amount of water, easily enough to have a bath in..

I have a bath every day, I don’t have a shower installed. Many people in social housing don’t have a shower. It’s definitely not a frivolous luxury.

If she’s using the bath in ‘your’ bathroom surely you can use the toilet and apparently perfectly adequate shower in her en-suite during that time if you need to?

Ungrateful ? I don’t think children need to be grateful for their homes. Is this something you would say about your own child ?

Of all the things to moan about!

A bath is honestly my favourite leisure activity. Bubbles, can of Diet Coke, Kindle, phone - I can stay in there for hours. This week I’ve been off sick three days with a rotten cold and a hot steamy bath has saved my life.

Never thought of that but great point!

if OP is at the stage of counting her SD’s bath and calculating the cost, I’m willing to guess this will be the tip of the iceberg!!

If it's not a power shower then it's not strong enough

I hate measly showers

Is she 16 by any chance? My 16 year old daughter has a shower and a bath every.single.day. At daft hours as well. She never used to until she hit 16!!! Let the girl bath lol! It’s a simple pleasure in life and she could be doing a LOT worse!!!

Oh come on. I'm a stepmother to two girls (brought them up myself though, their mother lives in another country). Never in a million years would i have told them how often they could bath. MN isn't down on stepmothers, but meanness.

This has to be a Mumsnet AI generated one...nobody would deny a child a bath

Nah my FIL was exactly like this.

i still remember the time he shouted at me for “using too much water in the bath”

I don’t think it’s weird to have a lovely big bath and only use it occasionally.

Neither do I tbh.

If it's to be treated as a luxury & used accordingly then that should apply to everyone.

It's not as if it's the only method of washing!

Oh, that was my experience, until I went to university. One bath a week, maximum, only to be filled 1/4 of the way up! No relaxing!
This poor girl, all she wants is a relaxing bath.

I bet it’s not “all she wants”
I bet she wants other stuff - money for clothes and make up or lifts to places
nothing wrong with long baths provided they don’t disrupt the family and they can cope with the 600 or 700 a year it costs

sometimes it’s these little things that make the difference between a household feeling broke and flush

Well, if she's a teenager, I suspect she does want other stuff. I would say that's normal.
The OP shouldn't have had a new bathroom installed with an extra large bath if they couldn't fund it's usage.

They don't sound particularly broke to me

But that's a perfectly normal part of growing up and teenage years. My stepson wants money for haircuts, hanging out with friends, PS games, he prefers branded smellies and clothes, he is in expensive sports (when you add up all the travel and kit over the year).... but as a parent / stepparent I'd never tell him he couldn't have a bloody bath. The only issue I'd have is if others needed to use that bathroom during the time (e.g. baths for littles) then 2hrs is excessive.

We pay toward most things and others he does extra chores for extra pocket money... but certainly not to contribute to the gas bill.

I've no comprehension of why you would spend money on a massive bath to be only used every 2-3 months. YABVU

Well wrap it up how you like - but expensive baths are not a right in less well off households and people who don’t track and understand their energy costs are more likely to struggle financially than those who don’t and educating children about finances is actually an important part of growing up - neglectful if you don’t bother with some aspects of financial management because it’s just the gas