Parenting seems to be an exercise of trying different things to see what works and what fails. I have been experimenting with bathing and showering with and without Nicky and have come to a couple of conclusions along the way.
When Nicky was a little baby it was obviously much easier to bath him separately. A little helpless infant needs a lot of attention and help without me focusing on myself too much.
Now that he has reached the toddler phase, he is very curious about everything and wants to explore and interact with his world. This is great for his development, but proves challenging for me.
PROS of bathing or showering WITH toddler:
1) If you try and bath or shower by yourself, the following will happen:
Bathing: Things get thrown at you while you are trying to relax in the tub. Water gets scooped up and poured. Nicky gets all wet and we have to change him all over again.
Showering: He bashes on the shower curtain, sticks his hand under the water. Yes, you guessed it, we have to change him all over again.
If you can’t beat him, join him, I say. Even if water and toys get splashed around, at least we are all wet in the bath anyway.
2) Bonding time. He likes to pour water on me. He climbs on me.
3) I have now even started using his special baby liquid soap on myself when I bath with him. I soap myself, I soap him, and we are all done in one go.
4) No need to get up early while he is asleep to bath or shower.
5) You can turn the shower into a bath at the end by putting in the plug from the start.
CONS:
1) Sometimes it really is nice to have time to yourself in the shower and bath. This is where you have to get creative. If he is distracted with a toy you can quickly make a get away. You can get up early. The other day i actually asked him to go and play with his truck while I showered and it actually worked. I couldn’t believe it.
2) Space wise it is a bit crowded in the bath.
In conclusion, I have decided that during the week I will bath or shower with Nicky and over weekends, when we can let him sleep in, or DH is around to distract him, I can have the joy of cleaning myself, by myself!
I’d love to know how other moms deal with this challenge!
I don’t shower with my kids but they do tend to always need something while I’m in the shower. I think it’s a law of physics or something. 😉
Ja, it’s like when you are on the phone… lol….
My son (he’s 2) get a shower at night with my husband. We are blessed with a large tile shower so there is plenty of room for showering and playing. As for me, I shower before he wakes up or after he goes to bed – or on rare occasion when he playing with a toy or watching a TV show in the morning.
I’m a big fan of bathing with my kids.
My boys (3 and 1) shower with Daddy. Daddy gets in first and gets all clean, then I hand him the boys, Daddy washes them up and then the boys get to play in the bath for a while. My boys rarely have me bath them, ever since they were born bathing has been Daddy’s job. Like you mentioned it is great bonding time and my hubby loves it.
When I shower I put in a movie or try to get the occupied and make a dash for it. I usually take a quick shower during the week and longer ones on the weekend like yourself.
I showed this to my DH. He does shower with Nicky sometimes. 🙂
Hi from ICLW! I often shower or bathe with my 9 month old- she loves the water, and it’s much easier than trying to get up before she does!
Hi from ICLW. Haven’t been there yet as I’m still pregnant but I’ll give it consideration. Sounds like it would much easier to bathe with the kid then worry about what they are possibly doing while you are rushing through the shower.
Though I have given up on the idea of privacy with a curious toddler around, I like to take my bath minus my kid.
She is anyways become curious about body parts and sometimes asks me questions that are hilarious and another-adjective at the same time. for e.g. a question on whether my breasts are carrying a baby too? How do you answer that?
That’s so funny! I guess you must have big boobs now!! (Maybe you can explain that they have to start building up all that milkies!)
Stopping through from ICLW! I love this post. For the longest time I couldn’t quite figure how to shower alone. We have been doing family shower time since before Baby Boy was born. When he was younger I just bathed him on his own. As he got a little older, we started again with more family showers. It’s a bit crowded, but everyone gets clean and we all get to hang out and be silly together. At least once a week Hun gets a personal shower and so do I.
I’m glad we’re past baby stage so that we can have fun with family showers 🙂
I recently had to start bathing with my daughter because of her fear of the water and I started bathing with her too! It’s very convenient for me to get a quick wash up too, but I don’t get a chance to wash my hair.
I like your plan. It’s a good compromise I think. This way you’ll also have some quiet bath time.