How often are you bathing your primary aged children?

[RedRobyn24]

My daughter is 4 and has just started reception. I also have a 9 month old.

At the moment I bathe both of them (sometimes together usually apart) every other day. Is this what other people do? I try not to wash DD1’s hair more than once a week

Are other parents really doing this every day?

To be honest this is a wider question about how the heck parents find the time for everything. I’m a SAHM as well, don’t know how two working parents do it AND make sure their children are eating well and the house is cleaned and the dog it walked and the reading home work is done… but also the child has downtime to just play as well 😬

Every day, it's part of our bedtime routine and I always feel like she needs it, especially after a day of preschool. We alternate between baths or showers but she has one or the other every night, and we wash and dry her hair every other day.

This is how I feel too, I can't imagine not washing my little girl every day, I feel like she needs it to stay nice and fresh!

What do you specifically disagree with?

What do you specifically disagree with?

My 7 year old DS has a bath every day. Unless he has grazed his knee or something and we will opt for a flannel wash to avoid the drama! Hair wash every other night. Some times it’s just plain water, if he doesn’t need a good clean. He occasionally showers but generally prefers a bath. I can’t bare the thought of him getting into his pyjamas and bed without a bath, probably because I shower every evening before bed too.

Every day it was easier to do it every day like I do for me then have to think about or remember to do it just got done

Bath every night about 6.45. Hair wash every other day.
We both work but I fetch both kids (20 months and nearly 4) from nursery at 4.30. So they have 2 hours for food and playing before going up for the bath, which i think is enough

I do a bath every night,two year old, pick up from nursery about 5.45, easy dinner (as nursery gives him nutritious meals) like yoghurt beans and toast and fruit, then lots of stories, bathtime, more stories and milk and bed, I have to stay with him until he is asleep and then be quiet in the flat after so it’s hard to even do the washing up at 9pm (and he wants to join in if I do it while he’s awake!) my standards have dropped nothing is organized in places which is stresssful but I have a cleaner once a week and I eat out a lot rather than cooking everything from scratch. I fantasize about moving abroad and having a live in domestic helper! And the self care is absolutely dropped I haven’t exercised in weeks and I need dentist and opticians and to do so much life admin

Before DC started reception - probably every other day.

Now it's much harder to fit everything in, and although it's a struggle to get DC in the bath, once in they don't want to get out. So now it's once a week.

However, we use damp cloths to wipe after the toilet rather than toilet paper, so our bottoms are washed multiple times a day. Face is washed after most meals too.

Everyday, hair every other day, I find small children get mucky.

Same as you

We do every Sunday, Monday and Thursday (then I’d say some Fridays and Saturdays but always at least one out of the two). So four a week, sometimes five. Occasionally three if it’s been very busy. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are just hard days for us with work and after school clubs etc so we just skip it. Obviously if they were filthy we’d make the time but it’s hard at the moment when they’re also shattered on those days and need their sleep.

In the winter I used to bath them as soon as they came in from school and I put them into their PJS and slippers . I served up tea at 4pm and was washed and dried up by 5 . I did their lunch boxes gathered up uniform they needed for school , cleaned shoes and then did homework , reading and spellings . All done by 7 pm , kids in bed by 7.30.

In the Summer similar routine but showered them just before bed as they liked to play out in the summer after school.

What time did you get in from school? We get home at 3.30pm from primary school, I can’t imagine being able to get them bathed and into their pyjamas while also cooking their dinner and serving it by 4pm!

Tea was often a casserole , stew etc otherwise I would cook at 4pm

Disgusting. I simply don't believe that you only have time to bathe your child once a week. Your child will be one of those acrid musty smelling ones I had to sit next to when I volunteered to listen to readers in school.

That is what most people used to do in the 1970s.

There have been several people on this thread, including me, who were children in the 60s and 70s, who have said that we had a bath every day as children.
Certain people may have bathed once a week then but plenty of people had daily baths. Full central heating with hot water tanks was common by then so no problem with heating water.

Surely washing their hands/face/feet/genitals is lot more labour intensive? Why not just pop them in a bath or shower for 10 mins, so they have fun, you can pop and do something else - and they actually get properly clean?
I don’t always shower myself every single day (the vast majority of days I do), but I always bath or shower DS daily - his fingernails get black and simple handwashing can’t get those properly clean. There’s nothing nicer than cuddling a squeaky clean child in their pyjamas while you read them a story!

We were bathed on a Sunday and a Wednesday but had a strip wash everyday.

That’s what I think… easier to chuck them in the shower than do a full flannel wash!

Rubbish. What are they going to smell of?! They are four, so their armpits don't smell. I already said their bottoms are washed multiple times a day so certainly no toilet smells. Faces and hands also washed multiple times a day so no food smells.

A daily bath isn't necessary, it's just a modern societal norm. DC isn't working down a pit.

Every other night. My daughter does start to smell a bit 'down there' any longer than that. Then again I'm not convinced she wipes particularly well when she goes for a number 2, and she never tells me when she goes either. So I've settled for every other night.

Hair though, that only gets washed twice a week. She's got the thickest, unruliest mop of hair so it suits me.

If a child doesn't wash their arms, legs, necks, ears, behind ears, torso, knees, feet, armpits or hair for a week they smell.
They won't smell of BO, but they still smell of musty unwashed body and hair. You probably can't smell it because you're used to it, but they smell and others will smell them too.

I'm confident that is not the case. Plus, millions of curly-haired dry-haired people wash their hair once a week, it's super common.