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.

Utterly, utterly ridiculous to try to ration the number of baths a child has.

I think it says a lot that you've spent a fortune on a bath tub that you don't want her to use, but haven't upgraded her shower, that you do want her to use, to something with decent pressure.

Why did you go to the expense of a large bath if you were going to restrict its use? The more times it is used the lower the cost per use of having it installed. I love baths, they are a treat, but £3.50 is probably much the same as a fancy coffee. As long as there is another loo that people can use then I would be happy that we had done something that made one of either of our children happy.

I have a bath every day.
I don't see the issue in 3 or 4 times a week

I'd just ration her, assuming money is tight, and I'd tell her that's the reason why. Of course she'll understand (or if she's spoilt she won't but that's her dad's problem).

A bath is £3.50, a 4 per week is £14, so £56 per month. If you and your husband also had 4 baths a week, that's £168 per month on baths. You would have to calculate the cost of a shower and subtract this though to be fair.

If you can afford £168 (minus shower costs) per month, then let her carry on. But if this is tight then it's not fair that she gets to have all the baths. One bath a week per person is reasonable, and if you don't want your bath on any given week you could donate it to her!

So you have a "show bath" i hope she also uses all your fancy bubble bath 😂

No it isn't. What if someone had OCD and wanted four baths a day and the family were struggling financially? The bathroom belongs to the whole family, not just one person. And she doesn't pay the bills.

OP I think you are getting it in the neck here because you are the stepmother. If you were her birth mother I imagine people would be more sympathetic.

Goodness!!! Where to start here? You are being extremely unreasonable - she loves a bath, you have a lovely deep bathtub in your family bathroom - what's the problem. Why are you nitpicking over the cost?

We have a shower in our en-suite which my husband uses, and a bath and shower in the main bathroom. I only ever use the bath - it's wonderful after a hard day gardening to come in and have a long hot soak in the bath. I hate showers.

Be honest with yourself, you don't like her do you? I would be careful here - if you start articulating your thoughts you may well cause trouble in your marriage.
Lighten up - take a long bath!!!!!

I'm assuming this girl is a teenager, possibly a young woman but lots of people seem to be assuming she's a young child. How old is she OP?

Me too!

I shower approximately once a month or so, that’s all. I hate showers.

I’d happily pay £3.50 multiple times a week for my DS to do an activity he loves for 2 hours, honestly I don’t see what the problem is?

From the small amount of googling I’ve done, £3.50 is nonsense.

It would take 1.12 cubic metres of gas to heat 300l of water from cold tap temp to bath hot temp. This would cost 70p approximately.

United Utilities would charge between 80p and £1.50 for 300l of water. Let’s take mid point of £1.15.

Thats £1.85.

Now let’s consider that she clearly doesn’t fill the bath to the absolute brim. And that baths are probably slightly wider on top that on the bottom. She likely fills it 2/3 full and then gets in and displaces some water for a nice deep bath.

So 2/3 of £1.85 = £1.23

Let your step daughter bathe and stop ringfencing your bath for special quarterly occasions - it’s bizarre!

How old is she? What does her parent say?

I’m not a bath fan but see no issue in someone having a nice bath a few times per week. Or daily if that’s how they like to bathe and relax!! Honestly don’t understand the issue.

she’d probably use more water with an inefficient shower anyway.

let her chill. If she is a teen then I’d say there’s worse things she can be doing.

Exactly what I thought 🤣 before kids I’d lay in my bath for up to 3 hours in an evening reading my kindle/listening to music and scrolling my phone, just kept topping up the hot.

Only £3.50? At 4 per week, that’s £728 per year. I certainly couldn’t afford that for one person’s washing habits.

I think it’s really odd to get a bath you either can’t afford to use or don’t want to pay for.
Of all the myriad of things teenagers can do I don’t think wanting a bath three times a week is outlandish behaviour.

So this is a stunt bath, like the infamous MN stunt pineapple?

I did have to challenge ds on his two baths a day habit as he was using up all the hot water, but installing a bath that your family are only allowed to use a handful of times a year is frankly nuts.

It can’t be £3.50 a bath.

We all like a bath in this house and some days 3 or 4 bath fulls can be run in a day. As a family, we probably have at least 12 baths a week. By your reconning we would be spending £2,184 just having baths. But that is almost double my entire annual gas cost.

Just let the girl wash in peace.

That's not the fault of the child who is taking a perfectly normal amount of baths. It's the fault of the person who chose the ridiculously expensive to run bath, and it is that person who should suffer the consequences of increased bills, rather than the child being denied a bath every other day.

Sorry but this sounds really mean and tight.

You installed a bath that you wanted people to use only a handful of times a year. Now you have gone to the grief of working out how much an individual bath costs?

If you didn’t feel you could afford for people to have baths you shouldn’t have had one put in.

And penny pinching over stuff like this with family never ends well. You sound like someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

So you don't like your SD ? Jealousy orrr? Nothing entitled about using the family bath does her father also begrudge her a few quid for personal hygiene ?

Yes same here on the book

Oh well done! A very pleasing post 😁

Don’t be daft. The bill payer gets the last say. When my kids were growing up, I’m sure they would have loved a nice, hot bath every day, but my finances didn’t stretch to that, so they made do with showers most of the time.

No baths for you, Cinderella!