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 😬

I wash my hair every other day. If I washed it daily, it would get even greasier, then before I knew it, I'd be wanting to wash it again in my lunch hour. I have to stand firm!

It’s not just about jobs though, it’s about exercise. I go to the gym/for a run/to an exercise class 5 days out of 7. My kids do sports 4 times a week. If we washed once a week we’d stink. I wonder if those who don’t wash often are quite sedentary?

Arr yeah. She mentioned her 9 month old so forgot about the title

My boys are in their twenties now but until they were around 9 they had bath, story, bed together every weekday. After that they had their own bath night every other day so still doing a bath every night- yes it was a chore & no DH didn’t help !

Whenever a thread like this comes up there are always lots of people who apparently only bathe their children once or twice a week and think that's fine. To me that's disgusting and does also explain the number of adults who smell. These people don't even give their children a proper sink wash in between.

I don't believe people who say they haven't got time, that's just an excuse to be a lazy slovenly parent. It takes 5 minutes for a quick shower, I bet they let their children watch TV or play on a screen for 5 minutes.

I'm old and even when I was at primary school in the 60s and early 70s we had a bath almost every day, on the rare occasions we didn't we had a full wash at the sink, including bum, knees, feet.

I used to help in school as a parent/grandparent volunteer and listen to children reading. You can tell the ones who aren't bathed very often.

People also need to realise that children often start puberty at primary school these days, when my grandchild was at primary school there were quite a few girls who were starting to develop in year 5 and 6 and body smells go along with that, a once a week bath would be dreadful for them.

Do the parents who only let their children bathe once or twice a week give their children clean clothes once or twice a week too?

I’m already regretting commenting!

I have kids with eczema and was told by the specialist the dirtier the better with eczema kids so we've done twice a week since they were young. Obviously if they're filthy they'll have a wash which maybe be a bath or a quick hose down with the shower.

We both work and its part of the nightime routine. It takes less than 10 minutes per child (slightly longer when younger as they loved playing in the bath with loads of bath toys so stretched it out for playtime/washing folding time).

Not really trying to be superior having clean kids. Its the same in my mind as brushing their teeth or feeding them dinner.

Also not judging OP - there’s a big difference between judging and offering advice on an ‘advice forum’ about how to build it into a routine. If it wasn’t on OP’s mind, she wouldnt have posted on here and she literally asked how do working parents do it (so we’re replying how).

Every day as part of the bedtime routine. Eldest (8) tends to shower now rather than bath. Others are 6, 4 and nearly 2. Hair wash once or twice a week and I don’t use products in the bath very often to avoid drying out their skin.

Oh I remember Sunday night baths and the dreaded bone comb, just in case 😂

I was at primary school in the sixties and early 70s and we all had a bath almost every day, it was a very rare day if we didn't. We washed our hair twice a week though, but daily baths were the norm in my family. Academics so not manual workers with dirty jobs either.

Twice a week plus swimming for DC2 who is in y2.

4 times a week plus swimming for DC1 who is y5 as he's getting smellier, but not quite enough to require a daily shower yet.

They also get a bath when clearly dirty, but that usually takes the place of one of the baths that week but obviously depends on the child.

Same here. Bath time when mine were little was a daily routine and part of the wind down before bedtime. It was always bath, then bedtime stories, then bed and lights out.

I'm trying to remember when it changed. As they got older, they had separate baths, one after the other. I would be reading bedtime stories to the younger one while the older one bathed himself.

We stopped the bedtime stories when the children decided they would prefer to read on their own, which was at around the age of 10 or 11, I think.

Whatever happened to Sunday night bath night?! Showers and baths every single day seems like an excessive use of water/shampoos/shower gels! Mine have both hit puberty now so they both shower pretty much every day but there was a good chunk of time at primary school age where it was once or twice a week for a full bath and showers on days they got particularly muddy/hot or had been doing some sort of sport. My brothers children are bathed every single day without fail wherever they are, I'm pretty sure my laid back attitude with it is a little frowned upon!

Their clothes were always clean, their hands were always washed, they didn't smell, there hair didn't get greasy or smelly!

They found baths more exciting and playful than relaxing so it would hype them up, so it could never be part of a bedtime routine.

Monday (But more because they have swimming and skin issues so have to have a shower when they get home from chlorine), Thursday and Sunday. Sometimes on a Friday night and in the summer more often. As for how working parents are managing it, we’re not anyhoo, but then I also found a lot to juggle as a sahm- it’s all tough going and you’re doing better than you think!

Everyday for my 5 yo DS.

He has a proper hair wash only once a week though.

He loves a bath as playtime and it’s very much part of night time routines

Every other day until they hit puberty which was around 9/10. Daily showers were needed then but by that point they were washing themselves so I just needed to prompt them.

Everyday bar Saturday. They don’t always wipe properly. I can’t believe how infrequent some people are doing this. I can smell my children at the end of a day….there must be some very smelly/itchy bottoms around. Yuk. In fact this makes me never want to swim in a public pool again.

I'm on the 2-3 times a week for my two. Bathing them every day would dry out their skin and their hair.

At this age - every day.

By age 6 - when dc is wiping bum more effectively - other day approximately (more in summer as gets sweaty or if muddy)

Top tip: read to your dc in the bath.
And do homework in the morning if possible - dc is much more focused on his homework before school than after.

9 year old boy showers every morning. Has done since he started school and still wet the bed through the night.

Two working parents here with 3 kids (5, 3, 1). All of them have a shower or bath daily. It’s part of the routine, dinner time, followed by bath time, then toothbrush time and the story time. They wash their hair every other day though otherwise gets very dry their head.

Bath or shower every day, wash there hair 3 times a week probably.

Both work full time, kids primary school.

Mine are grown now but when they were little every day as part of bedtime except Friday. Fridays we’d buy a comic and a sweet and eat pizza in front of the telly. The key really is to make bathtime more fun for you. Make sure there’s somewhere to sit, make tea, give yourself ten minutes to chill while they splash.

Bath every other! Wash hair when starts to look minging! Ha
I work part time, full time mum, full time wife, cleaner, dog walker, chef, the lot! It’s a lot!
just remember be kind to yourself it’ll get done in the end. Xx