When do kids switch from baths to showers?

[Anonymous]

DS is 7 and while he is frequently annoying, I do enjoy our bath time chats. Dreading when he will ban me from the bathroom and take a shower. I mean, obviously will have to cut the cord as he gets order and closer to puberty! But does it typically happen earlier?

[Anonymous]

Lady, develop some healthy boundaries and find times to chat when you're both clothed.

[Anonymous]

DS switched at 6, DD more like 9, but DD was bathing herself for years before switching to showers. I'd pop in to check she had rinsed her hair well for the first year of that, but I wasn't there the whole time.

[Anonymous]

Even when they start taking a shower, the parent needs to be nearby for awhile to remind the kid to wash all body parts. You just verbally ask: did you wash your ears? Did you wash your armpits, etc. until they get a hang of it. Then after weeks of this, you keep giving them more and more privacy to get a complete shower. But, it’s not like flipping a switch and walking away.

[Anonymous]

DD switched at 6. Still takes a bath occasionally, but prefers showers.

The thing is, she has long hair and can't wash it on her own, so we still wind up helping her with her shower. But it's generally not social time -- she gets in and gets her hair wet, one of us helps wash and condition her hair, and then she finishes her shower on her own. I anticipate we will have to continue to help with her hair for another couple years, at a minimum making sure she is fulling washing it and also rinsing it all out, even if we aren't doing it ourselves.

If she had short hair I think she'd be fully independent in the shower by now.

[Anonymous]

Around 8 or 9 or so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS switched at 6, DD more like 9, but DD was bathing herself for years before switching to showers. I'd pop in to check she had rinsed her hair well for the first year of that, but I wasn't there the whole time.

+1, my kid was mostly bathing on her own before showers, too. I'd help with drawing the bath and washing/rinsing her hair, but then mostly she was just playing, washing on her own with some check ins from us.

There are lots of ways to get 1:1 time with kids that don't rely on them being in the bathtub. While I do remember spending that time with DD when she was little, I'd much rather spend time with her now in another room. Sitting on the toilet while chatting has a time and place, but it's not really the coziest or most comfortable place to catch up on each others day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even when they start taking a shower, the parent needs to be nearby for awhile to remind the kid to wash all body parts. You just verbally ask: did you wash your ears? Did you wash your armpits, etc. until they get a hang of it. Then after weeks of this, you keep giving them more and more privacy to get a complete shower. But, it’s not like flipping a switch and walking away.

True, though kids vary on this. I have a kid who really only needed to be told once or twice how to wash their body -- they are very fastidious. Same with tooth brushing -- never have to remind them to get all the nooks and crannies, never try to get away with a cursory 15 seconds with the tooth brush and a rinse.

I have another kid who I still have to remind/check in with on this stuff at 10. I'm not helping him shower, but we have a checklist and I do ask if he covered it, and I still sometimes oversee toothbrushing (I try to be chill about it and just hangout nearby and only say something if I hear a too-short brushing session). Some kids just don't care as much about hygiene and you will have to stay on them for longer to really impress upon them the value/importance of this. And even then, I still think my 10 year old might be lackadaisical about it as an adult. But I'm at least going to try to put in the time now and hope it sticks. Whereas with my other kid, I barely had to do anything -- they are just very invested in cleanliness for whatever reason.

[Anonymous]

Ours were taking showers before they could stand up on their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lady, develop some healthy boundaries and find times to chat when you're both clothed.

lol. I just stand in the bathroom or sit on the toilet. Sometimes I sit by the tub and soak my feet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7 and the kid is still treated like a baby. Great job

NP. My 8 yo still prefers baths 🤷‍♀️

[Anonymous]

My 8 yearold still takes a bath with her little sister. While the 8 yearold can bath herself, I still need to help her 4 year old sister so I am sitting right there.

It never dawned on me that this could be weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 8 yearold still takes a bath with her little sister. While the 8 yearold can bath herself, I still need to help her 4 year old sister so I am sitting right there.

It never dawned on me that this could be weird.

Similar here, with 2 DDs the same age. The 8yo has been taking showers independently for about a year now, but she likes to do a bath every once in a while, and I usually combine that with her little sister's bath time. But I honestly don't see that lasting much longer as she's realized she is running out of room in the tub!

[Anonymous]

Around 5

[Anonymous]

32.