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'm another 'every day' person - son loved his baths and it was part of his evening routine. He had bath toys as a little one, and when a bit older he'd take his dinosaurs in and play, so it was 'downtime' too.

He carried on with daily baths and then showers instead all through his teens - which I am very grateful for!

I totally agree with everything you’ve said. It really baffles me the excuses people are making (no time, sensitive skin), there’s solutions for it and there’s no excuse to be dirty. It’s basic hygiene neglect.
The bare minimum kids need to thrive are being fed, clean and looked after. It’s part of the bedtime routine. Once they get abit older they shower themselves, so you’ve got plenty of time to teach them before they need their privacy. If they’ve barely been taught, they’ll be the smelly adults. Just laziness and down to personal standards. Some people aren’t bothered how they smell/look. I feel so much better after a shower and like to be clean.

Every single night…I have a 7 year old boy who is a literally dirt magnet though 🙈😂

Shower + wash hair as soon as both kids return home from school. I check to see if the smaller kid (6) is thorough with the washing hair part. If they get sweaty between then and bed time, another quick shower before bedtime.

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.

Agree, you can absolutely tell which kids don't get bathed every day. Even well before puberty, their hair is greasy and they smell. The parents who claim they can't tell any difference obviously have a selective bias because they are gross and grubby adults. There are tons of adults who smell and don't look groomed but are totally oblivious to it themselves.

Tragically, there are even Tiktok accounts teaching young people how to wash themselves because they never learned how to do so from their parents.

With all these baths and showers no wonder there are water shortages and how much do you all pay for your water bill? My DC were 90s kids and twice a week was plenty.

We're the same as you OP, and do extra baths if they've had a particularly grubby day in the middle, have a cold etc.

I'm fairly obsessed with cleanliness so find it bizarre that it would be assumed that because we do every other day we're dirty people. The world's gone bonkers

What time do they have dinner and go to bed?

4 year old - bath every night. It’s a chill and play time thing but also he’s generally not the best at wiping his bum yet etc so just feels like part of keeping clean enough generally!

7 year old - has a much better personal hygiene grasp so she might opt for a night off showering or bathing but we do suggest every other day. Hair wash once a week at swimming.

Yes I would say I keep everything keen and tidy too. I hoover the house every day, they both wear fresh clothes every day, our house is very organised and tidy (it has to be because it’s small). I swear she has beautiful hair and does not smell. She’s not greasy/grubby. If she comes home and she’s all dirty from playing in the mud I will of course give her a bath but otherwise it’s literally every other day and I’d have thought that was fine until puberty.

We do every other day-ish: Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays (hair wash on Tues and Sat).

In summer it increases to daily as they’re covered in sun cream. This is also the only time we really use soap (but of course we use shampoo for their hair).

ETA: Clean clothes on every day.

DS1 is in Y1 and has a bath with his younger brother once a week on a weekend, and then showers before school.

He loves his showers at the moment, and we make it fun and quick by setting an alarm for 2/3 minutes in the actual shower. He uses the Lush dupe shower gels from Lidl and likes moisturising with a bit of cocoa butter afterwards. He does smell good afterwards (albeit briefly)!

We let him watch a bit of TV in the mornings, but only once he's showered, brushed his teeth, dressed and made sure his school bag is ready, so this also motivates him to get on with his shower.

If he is actually dirty after school I'd chuck him in the bath again, but normally it seems to be his clothes that get muddy/covered in paint etc, so a quick wash of hands and face is fine.

Every day. They have a wash in the sink before bed and a bath every morning.

People who just wash their kids once a week - really.. Mum was a teacher and she could always smell the kids who didnt wash regularly.

My late Father used to have a bath once a week...

Shower or bath twice a week. But she washes her face and undercarriage every morning. She's just turned seven, so I'll increase the the showers to every other day soon.

Because that was from an era when you didn’t hop in a shower for 5 minutes and I imagine alot of people did smell when they only had a Sunday night bath. One of my parents had a bath by the fire when they were kids - they are only in their 70’s (hard to believe as it seems like something from the victorian times - we tell them that!) and they always shower/bath every day.

We’re not in that era now and I want to teach our children when you go to school, work etc you go in clean and in clean clothes. Taking a bath or shower once in a 24 hour period is a pretty basic requirement.

It takes literally a few minutes for a quick shower. My two (6 & 9) are showered every day, with long hair washed twice per week. I can't imagine leaving them a full week (or worse!! One person said every week or two!!), they will smell. They're so grubby at primary age, wiping food away with hands, noses running etc. and they're not very good at wiping after the toilet. It's good for them to learn good hygiene early too. Think of everything they're exposed to on a daily basis that will cling to clothes and skin. We do lots of sports too so perhaps that's why I feel it's so important but we've always done it daily from birth as part of getting ready for bed.

Compromising personal hygiene to save money is a very, very low bar. The cost of a few extra showers is negligible, nothing that can't be compensated by forgoing an extra night of holidays or a random gadget.

Surely there are a few non-negotiables to teaching kids in how to become adults with self respect and dignity. Even if some choices made might be more expensive or have some impact on the environment. Brushing teeth, not smelling of BO, having clean hair should be the absolute baseline.

I still help wipe her bum, she’s just started school and she can do it but I’m obviously more thorough. She is only 4 ??

I have a very sensitive sense of smell.. my child doesn’t smell bad. She’s clean and presentable.

Thread #999, explaining why some children are so restless at nights, public transport stinks, managers are always having hygiene talks with grown folks and I have to turn away when some colleagues stand next to me.
Just grim ☹️.

Kids 4 and 7, reception and yr3. Bath or shower every other day. Teeth everyday twice a day. They have occasionally bathed 3 consecutive days and also not bathed 3 consecutive days. In fact mornings are so hectic so they bath/shower at night rather than in the morning before school.

I had a bath on a weds n Sunday in the 80s I'm alive and well ❤️

Just because my kids only bath once a week doesn’t mean they don’t wash…. they wash every day with a washcloth and soap.
In my experience the kids with BO tend to be the ones wearing polyester clothes that don’t get washed properly (kids might get a bath everday, but their clothes smell, and fabric conditioner only covers the smell for a couple of hours)

same

We bath or shower everyday. Keep it simple.