Sibling Bathing

Ever since Love Bug out-grew the baby bath tub, I have been bathing him and Chica Marie together. You know, the whole two birds, one stone idea. I only have to get drenched once and the kids can play together. The other week I gave Love Bug a bath one night by himself because his sister bathed the night before (for the health of their skin and hair, I only bathe them every other day in the winter time – unless they get particularly dirty… Summer is a horse of a different color). I was still drenched because Love Bug has fallen over in the tub a few times (I was right there to scoop him up, but not fast enough to prevent the fall) and so he gets nervous and grabs ahold of my shirt. Sometimes, he has a wet wash cloth in his hands when he does that. So, yeah, I get wet! Anyway, I was kneeling by the tub (we have a HUGE old claw foot tub that is wonderful to soak in, but rough on a mama’s back when washing small ones) just gently dumping water on Love Bug, telling him to wash his feet and under arms and it was so un-rushed and peaceful and so unlike when I bathe him with his sister and militantly, robotically wash, rise, repeat so I can fix up her hair. It was a cherished time with big smiles and hugs and not as many tears (for a long time, Love Bug would howl during his entire bath, he just didn’t enjoy it). I know my parents would bathe the three of us together and then just me and my sister when we got too big, but I started wondering if this desire to bathe them separately hasn’t come at an opportune time. Chica Marie is 6. She has already started asking about bras (I think because her sister wears a training bra) and deodorant. I knew, at some point, they could no longer bathe together but I never really thought about a cut-off time. There had been some concern about Chica Marie being inappropriate with her brother, but nothing like that has happened or even came close to happening. The worst thing that has happened is one time Love Bug ate too much bubble bath suds that he threw up (this was when he was much younger) because he saw his sister doing it and one time they flooded the bathroom when Love Bug tried to dump the water on Chica Marie’s head and missed epically…. So, sibling bathing what’s the cut-off? For us it might be 6 and 2…..

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.