Need suggestions to make bathtime fun! ...for me!

[Lizita]

I find bathtime a real drag. It's the end of the day, I'm tired, I just want to get dd into bed as quickly as possible. Unfortunately dd loves her bath...

Anyone else feel like this? I'm aware that if i was working I would probably treasure that time, but as it is I'm just SO BORED of bathtime!!

Any ideas on how to make it more exciting for me?? At the moment I sit by the bath while dd mucks about with her bath toys, I sing a song or two then get her out. Poor thing only gets 5 mins, 10 mins at the most, in the bath.

By the way, I thought it was a fab idea!

Message withdrawn

Well, bedtime tonight was a disaster . I've been a crap mum today, snappy etc, and dd a moany girl! She was being a pain by the time it was nearly bathtime, so it was the quickest and most brusque bedtime ever...by the time she was in the bath she was calm & happy again but I rushed it, gave her a quick wash and out, she was out in 30 seconds and of course was instantly screaming again. She is in bed half an hour earlier than usual and now I'm feeling really upset & awful and just want her up again so I can do bedtime all over again as a nice mummy . Why do we suddenly lose our patience like this? It's not as if I'm having a stressful week, we've been very lazy in fact, hanging out indoors most of the time. I guess I was just desperate to get my own space back as quickly as possible.

Also, as I was being horrible to her (well, as in brusque and not very gentle getting her ready for bed, not singing all the usual songs or smiling), I knew what i was doing and that I should stop and turn the situation around, but I just didn't...why is that? It's like there's a switch that's been turned on and you can't stop till it's turned off again or something.

I get a bit like that when I have PMT - I know I'm being an old bag but I can't help it.

Write today off as a bad job - start afresh tomorrow.

Try to spot the signs of tiredness in you and bring bath time forward an hour perhaps. How about 4pm bath time then tea? You'll both enjoy it more and won't feel that you're rushing her off to bed.

Tommorow is a new day, don't sweat it!

My 2 have just been in the bath, and the bathroom is sparkling, I alway clean it whilst they are in there!

Why don't you look out a really good CD, chill a bottle of wine and tommorow, reward yourself, whilst DD is in the bath, with some chilled out time, you and DD will propably like each other a lot more after that. HTH

Thanks . I am going to concentrate all my attention on dd tomorrow, and get out of the house too! Today I spent far too much time on here, I think she just wanted some attention tbh. But yes, tomorrow is another day !

How did your bathtime go, toothyboy?

Bath time not too bad today Lizita, forgot my cup of tea though! I just cleaned the bathroom a bit, plucked my eyebrows and pottered about! It was after bedtime it all went downhill . Ds was in bed, door shut and I was just about to have a bath, I could hear him whinging so went in and he told me he'd done a poo in his nappy. I checked and he hadn't, but then said he needed to. So I put him on the potty, and he proceeded to keep getting up and down, messing around and not getting on with the task in hand. So I said "right, nappy back on then and back to bed", but he was insistent that he needed to poo. We had a bit of a battle - which I don't normally enter into, but I would rather he pooed in the potty than in his nappy that I would then have to change! I ended up shouting at him, and dumping him in bed without his proper "goodnight phrases" and storming out.
Anyway - I know that's not about bath time, but just wanted to share with you that I also ended up feeling angry and mean. I went back in after my bath, said sorry for shouting, and gave him a kiss - felt much better. He's now sound asleep and I've got over it!
Start over tomorrow and it'll be better. What time do you do bath time? I do it about 6.30/6.45 ish, if you're around the same time we could be psychic support for each other!!

There must've been something in the water this evening then!
Yes I do bath exactly the same time, after the Simpsons!

Tesco have some lovely, educational ABCDE... bath jigsaws at the moment, my dd played for ages, plus we sang and looked at the pictures. You can relax in the bath while she does the jigsaws

I leave my kids to get on with it now by themselves, but in the days where I had to supervise (in a hands-off way), I used to clean the bog etc. Fun, eh?

Thank you thank you thank you everyone ! . Although I was interrupted by dd's playfulness now & then, I was able to spend 20 mins reading the paper & sipping Martini on ice! MUCH more chilled out. Also, it psychologically changed the latter part of the day too, dd got 100% of my attention because I knew come bathtime I could sit back!!
(Mind you we were both generally in good moods anyway! - and had had a good day, out shopping in the morning , visitor in the afternoon!

Things i do whilst in dd is in the bath.
Have a cup of tea and read a magazine (whilst perched on the lid of the loo next to bath - not with my feet up on a sofa! )
Clean the rest of the bathroom.
Have a shower myself - glass screen means i can watch dd in the bath safely.
Listen to radio (our bathroom is downstairs and next to kitchen, so radio plugged in there)
Chat on the phone

Then sing 5 little ducks went swimming one day, dropping a duck of the edge of the bath at each verse. Then wash hair and out she comes!

I sing Row Row Row your boat (splashing her) then out! I also have a "time to get out" song, it helps me not to get frustrated & upset sounding when she protests! - i just keep on singing!

Oh i meant to ask, how long roughly do your kids spend in the bath?

As long as they like - anything from 5 minute to half-an-hour

Roughly, how long is a piece of string.

1 They need bath but are tired - 2 mins
2 I need to clean the bathroom - 20 mins
3 Chilling out time - as long as the glass of wine lasts - or they want out - 1 hour