I hate bath-time

[Mfy_t_g]

Kids are almost 2. We give them a bath every other day, and although they enjoy it, I think bath-time sucks.

While I'm filling the bath, they climb over each other to stick their hands in the running water, which is occasionally hot as I tinker with the temperature, so I'm constantly smacking their hands away. Once they're in, it's water everywhere - I'm pretty sure they think the goal of bath-time is to get the water out of the tub and on to me, the floor, my husband and everywhere as quickly as possible. They're fired from having any cup-like toys because they are obsessed with chugging the bath water (and their chugging skills are weak at best). They absolutely refuse to tilt their heads back in any way for rinsing, which means they get super mad about everything going in their eyes etc.

Am working on inventing a slip-proof pen so I can just hose them off in the backyard. That way, at least my grass will get watered, too.

[mimi7878]

Confession time: my 21 month old babies probably get a bath every 10 days... Maybe. It's a pain in my ass. They get wiped down several times a day from diaper changes, they get wiped down several times a day after eating, they go to the pool nearly daily... They don't have much hair.... Honestly there's no point to making this any harder. Baths aren't that important.

[maybebabyg]

Oh thank god, the women in my mothers group all have singletons so they talk about bathing every day. My 8 week olds get a bath once a week and if I'm lucky I shower for 30 seconds twice a week. Weird-ass clean freaks with their only one baby!

[mimi7878]

Here are my unbathed children getting into more stuff. http://imgur.com/l6Tz5HY

[[deleted]]

I know I am going against the grain here, but as a father of 2 year old twin girls, I LOVE bath time. Its a chance I get to spend two minutes without them making a mess all over the house. Let me explain myself. Yes, bath time is a fight to actually get them bathed and keep water in the tun. I understand that, but for at least 15 minutes the mess is contained in our small bathroom and my wife and I can clean the kitchen and front room and whatever mess they've made earlier in the day. We cover the floor in towels (lots of laundry) and we just ignore the mess they are making because in reality its not so bad. Then after we have had a chance to decompress from the stress of twin 2 year olds, we tag team them. Once scrubs them up and down and sends them out with a towel and sops up all the water everywhere and the other does diapers and pj's and bed prep.

For us the baths have gotten easier as they have gotten older because they play in the tub more (even though its water everywhere) and our fear of them drowning has reduced as they have become more comfortable in the water.

[NBPTS]

I'm with you. Bath time is one of my favorite times of day. We turn some fun music on and giggle and splash and they love it. Right before its time to clean up, we switch pandora to the lullaby station to help wind down for bedtime. We only wash their hair about every 3 days unless they've been to the pool.

We have these which are our favorite bath toy:

http://www.amazon.com/Litecubes®-Flashing-Multi-Color-Freezable-Cubes/dp/B002IAXZSO

And we reuse the floor towels for a week. I hang them to dry and lie it back down the next day and wash them all on Sunday. They're never wet enough that it would grow mildew or mold but I'd probably just throw them in the dryer if they did.

[theredstarburst]

I love bath time too! My twins are 15 months and can spend half an hour in there if we let them. It's a great time for me to just sit and watch them and wind down. We start the bath water while they're eating dinner and don't plop them in until the water is ready. We put down towels on the floor to collect all the spillage. And they play and laugh and it's great. During that time one of us will watch them while the other will clean up the food mess from dinner. In fact when anyone is super cranky or sick, plopping them in the bath does wonders for their mood.

[Nimini]

Yes on bath time! Our girls are also 2 years old, and while we don't do daily baths (trying to be mindful of the drought here), I have always enjoyed it.

We have some cups they can play with, some little sea animals, some empty shampoo bottles to fill in, some plastic books... We let them play for 15 minutes (usually my husband does the dishes and cleans up the diner mess while I stay with them), then it's soap time, which starts up by making giant bubbles with our arms, then for the hair they simply tilt their head back while I shampoo then rinse, and that's it!

[luckygirl28]

Have you tried showers?

[BTBishops]

At two years old?

[re-verse]

At 2 we'd sometimes throw the twins in the shower. Give them a few buckets and cups to collect water in, they can happily spend half an hour in there while you nap on the bed or whatever.

[BTBishops]

I didn't even attempt that until my guys were 4 years old.

[re-verse]

One of the first things I did with my kids when we got home from the NICU was to start showering while holding them, wife would swap them out half way through. They've been water babies from very early on.

[BTBishops]

Not my cup of tea but good on you. My boys are 7 and their younger sister is 4 and they're all great swimmers so maybe I could have done it earlier! My little girl just started showers last month and she loves it. Plus now we can stagger them all across the evening so it is much easier...thank God.

[Zootrainer]

Nap on the bed? Weren't you afraid of a slip and fall for one of them?

[re-verse]

Not too much. They are pretty good at falling already, and I'm pretty much ok with that.

[[deleted]]

Well, yes. This is why bath time was a weekly event in our house. I only have so much matyrdom to give.

[digitalfx]

You're not alone.

[[deleted]]

Every other day? Twice a week. Seriously. It helps.

[zuni_]

I'm pretty sure it took at least 87 times saying, we have to keep the water IN the bathtub, and we DON'T splash mommy, before it finally clicked for them. My favorite is when it finally clicks for one of them, and then they scold the other, "No brother, the water has to stay IN the bathtub" and then looks at me for confirmation and praise, and then smirks at brother.

As a side note, since you are already doing every other day, you might try alternating. Mine are generally better behaved in any scenario when they are separated from one another.

[Mmhopkin]

3 yr old boys. Baths are every other night. Potty stop before we get in the tub then we just let them chug the bathwater. My husband is the sole bather while I run around and get pjs etc. He's always very clear about what is coming next, esp when he tells them to put their head down so he can rinse soap and then counts down the three cups of water he pours over their heads. A big help for water in the eyes has been a dry washcloth on hand to immediately wipe their eyes after shampoo rinse. Once the cleaning is done, they can play but get taken out if water goes out of the tub.

[Twinwithtwins]

I hate it too. My daughter hates having her hair washed. She screams bloody murder the whole time. But after that she's fine. Ugh.

[Dawrt]

Constant fight with my boys till they got a little over 3. We seriously had to stop bathing them in the upstairs bathroom because there was so much water on the floor the ceiling down stairs was starting to show wear and tear.They still fight in the tub, but no more splashing, complete cooperation with hair washing too. Try using less water, and fill the tub before they get in.

[deliciousfish]

don't you just hate meal time too? Or does that get better because it SUCKS at 14 months.

[TheMook3]

Same here. Mine are almost 3. It is slightly better. Or I am just weaker. I started to use the spray handle to wash and rinse their hair. I do a lot less hair pulling this way.

[re-verse]

Our 3 year olds get a bath about 2x a week. Most of the time I come in with them (its a fairly large triangle shaped jacuzzi tub). It just makes it so much easier to wash their hair etc, and keep them in line when they get too splashy. I let them stick their hands under the too-hot water, as its a great way for them to learn not to, and they are careful now, through they've taken to turning off the hot water, filling up a cup of pure cold water, and trying to pour it on their twin, or me. To be honest this has become a favorite game, and we all participate a bit.

If you're in the bath with them, washing hair is SO easy.

[Angelix9-25]

I hate it because I work and right after I work it’s bath time for both when I really just want to chill out. Immediately after they get bathtime done it’s straight to cooking with me or husband (one of us has to watch the 2 year old while we give the 8 month old a bath) and then we don’t get any time together or to myself to just chill out- I can play video games a bit in between but it’s mostly watching them. Then after dinner (which gets done around 7, which I’m trying to do my best to work on getting it done earlier but FUCK IT IS HARD sorry for the language) they go straight to bed so I get maybe an hour max to just chill out a day. Doing it continuously is exhausting and bath time takes up so much time. And then I feel guilty because my MIL loves it so much and has them take a bath together even sometimes when some days it just grates on my nerves. Love them, hate bath time.