When do you seperate them at bathtime?

My girls (3 in January) still take baths together, and with their younger brother (15 months).

It was going fine until recently. 'T' decided that she needs the entire tub as her personal swimming pool. And she'll tell her siblings to 'get out of my spot' so she can swim! LOL It's kinda funny, but in the meantime the baby is squished up under the faucet, and her sister is in a small corner on the opposite end of the tub..

I can't imagine how we would handle seperate baths, but I think it's time to do that. They do bathe only every other day as it is, so I'm wondering if bathing the baby one day, 'T' the next and her sister the next would work?? But then, if one see's water it's nearly impossible to keep the other two from wanting to get in! Bathing in two tubs I suppose would be do-able, but then there goes any time I have to quickly clean up the house (I use bath time to put laundry away most nights) as it would require a lot more close supervision (right now I can see the one tub from their rooms where I'm doing laundry, the other tub I would not have eyes on at all)

What age did you start seperating for baths, and how did you work out the logistics??

 

We actually used to bathe one baby per night, and alternate, until a few months ago. (Nadia has been showering independently for some time now, otherwise I'd give her a bath during K&K's nap time most days -- it was just easier.)

But then, Kevan started getting *very* upset on days when it wasn't his bath, and he would just sob, which kind of ruined our happy bedtime. So, we started bathing them together, every other night. I have huge kids, and there is a bit of a personal space issue going on, but they've adapted for now. I can't imagine three in the tub at once, though!

Sorry, I know that was zero help. When it's time to separate mine for baths, I will likely bathe Kevan first while Karina reads stories with daddy or something, and then bathe her.

 

My three still take a bath together. My DD just turned five and my boys are almost four. They did go through a phase where they wanted to swim and we had problems a lot like you described. We just stuck with it because I really couldn't come up with another reasonable solution, and we only have one bath tub. I wash them up one at a time, and take them out one at a time. So, after I took the first one out, the other two would usually spread out and start "swimming". The one that got to stay in the longest usually ended up playing a bit on their own and I'd allow that child to stay for a few extra minutes. I took turns with who was last.

For the child(ren) that got out first and second, I already had a movie ready to go for them. Once they were out, I just pushed "play" and they were happy. Our kitchen - where the movie was played - is just around the corner from our bathroom. So I could hear and sneak a peek as often as I wanted/needed.

Good luck. It's not easy trying to bath three little ones, no matter what way you go!

 

We were just laughing about how it takes all day to bathe all 5 kids.....we stpped bathing our daughter with the boys about a yr ago (when she was 6) and the big boys just in the last few mths (4 and 5yrs). We do all bathe on Sun and then alternate nights - Kaylyn and babis 1 night, big boys the next.

 

We only do baths 3x a week, FWIW (Weds, Fri, and Sun). We still do them together occasionally, but as you've been finding, they want more space now. They each like to stretch out and "swim." So it's actually easier to bathe them one at a time -- and although it might take slightly longer, it's much less hectic for me since there is less splashing, shoving, potential for injury, etc. Also, I can use the "we need to save some water for Amy/Sarah" argument to get the first bath over with quickly -- and then the hot water runs out and that ends the second bath!

As far as logistics -- I try to get both kids' PJs and pullups ready ahead of time, and make sure we have enough towels in the bathroom. Then one kid goes first (whoever volunteers) while the other one just hangs out by herself in the house. Then the first one gets out and the second one gets in and just hangs out in the water while I get the first one dry and dressed. Then she goes off and plays while I bathe the second one. Starting around age 3, I felt OK with letting them just wander around the house unsupervised (they tend to be pretty non-destructive, and our house is pretty small).

One nice recent development is that both of them often want to take showers instead. It's kind of annoying to have a small person throw the bathroom door wide open (letting out all the steam) and climb into the shower with me at 7:00 a.m., but then that child is bathed and we don't have to worry about it at bedtime!

HTH!

 

Ours still bathe together...the new "hot" thing in our house right now is showering. They both have discovered that they like to take showers now. They have been showering for the last 4 nights. They shower in our bathroom which is a big walk in shower so their is plenty of room for both of them. When they take a bath together, the space thing is an issue. DS loves to swim and takes up alot of space. DD gets frustrated with him and bathtime was becoming a major battle with her because she didn't want to get in the tub with him. We did bathe them seperately a couple of times and it worked out well. It just made bathtime take longer....which wasn't fun for me, but it was less tears/fighting/screaming, etc.....