Are your kids taking a bath together? Do you feel it’s begining to be a little bit weird? Well you’re not alone. Many parents who have kids and they get to that stage where one of the kids is getting old enough to shower by himself but his little brother is still thinking they’re babies and don’t want to be separated, sounds familiar? Well what to do when this happens? It can be a confusion situation as we all know after a long day, one bath for two kids is a great idea, but when kids get older, they need their privacy and independence, so below we will show you some basic things you can do to transition your kids from taking a bath together to a separate bath routine.
Let your kids lead On the whole Kids taking a bath together thing
Alot of parents think that they should let their kids decide on the whole brothers bathing together issue. They say that as long as the kids taking a bath together do it on their own and they’re happy, why not? Some examples show that a son of 18 months and his older sister of 5 years old still take baths together, they both enjoy playing together in the water and sharing the time together makes them happy.
You will know when it’s time for them to start taking separate baths when one of your children suddenly starts to raise concerns about the shared bath time and also starts to feel shy or wanting privacy while showering. You obviously need to be in the room when they’re young, and as long as they don’t show any issues with the shared bath time it should be ok to let them continue with their fun shower time together.
Stop it when it makes sense
Like many other things in life in general and parenting in specific, you should stop the shared bath time when it makes sense to you as the parent. How will you know when it’s time? Well, some kids will not just straight ask for privacy because they never knew it’s an option, but a good sign that should tell you it’s time to separate is when one of the siblings starts noticing and asking questions about the other’s body parts. ” Why does my little brother’s body is different? ” and questions like that should be a good sign that the kids are getting older and start to be more conscious about their body and probably they want some privacy from now on but they just don’t know how to tell you.
Another thing to point out is the fact that these questions are very normal and it’s great that your kids are curious about life and their body, you should teach them about their body parts when they start asking for it and make sure to teach them that their body is private and should never be touched by other people. Some parents let their kids take a bath together until an older age if the kids are fine with it and understand the rules of privacy and no touching. When you think about it, most kids will be too distracted with their toys and how much fun their having to even notice these things.
Last point about this issue is that some parents take the school rule approach, which means that when your kids reach the age of 5-6 you stop their shared bath time. It kinda makes sense because of the fact when your kids are old enough to go to school on their own and they start making friends of their own, it’s usually pretty much the time they want to start being their own person and seek more privacy.
Trust your instinct
Another thing to consider is the room issue, most normal baths are the same size, and most kids when they reach the age of 5-6 are the same height, so a lot of time it just becomes very crowded in the bath when you have two 5-6 year old kids trying to squeeze into a tiny bath, this could also be a good sign to start separating them.
Like we said before, a lot of things about being a parent is just your natural parental instinct, you should trust this feeling. A lot of people or websites will give you tips and advice on how to do things such as advice on when to stop kids taking a bath together and other issues, but it really should be about your own level of comfort and your children. When you feel one of your children is uncomfortable with the shared bath time, then stop it. If you suddenly get a gut feeling that this is wrong and should not happen any more, than follow your instinct and stop it.
