How often does your 9 year old shower?

[Anonymous]

I let my almost-9 year old skip a shower if she has a late activity or if we've just been hanging out at home all day. Otherwise she showers daily. I won't have her wash her hair, or will just have her do a co-wash, unless it needs it (her hair is very prone to dryness and frizz so daily shampooing is not a good idea).

For me it's about building a habit. One reason kids this age fight showers is they struggle with transitions and still think of the transition to the shower as hard. But it's something you have to do, like brushing your teeth or hair. You can't skip it just because you don't feel like it.

Also kids this age are just about to hit puberty when daily showering becomes really important. So getting in the habit before that happens is a good idea. Not just for hygiene reasons (though definitely yes, for hygiene) but for social reasons too -- you don't want to be sending your kid to school smelling of body odor in middle school when kids can be very harsh towards each other. Especially true for girls -- I remember girls in my middle school being horribly cruel to anyone they perceived as not being sufficiently clean. It's an obnoxious behavior, but why make your kid a target? Just encourage daily hygiene until it becomes habit and then it's one less thing for them to worry about.

[Anonymous]

My 4th grade DD showers every day and washes her long, thick hair every other day. Her hair starts to smell if she leaves it longer than that, but she has no BO yet. My older DS started with BO after sports by 2nd grade. He showers sometimes 2x/day.

I will let them be lazy and skip a day on Fridays if we aren't doing much. It's my personal preference for them to smell freshly washed, hair especially. I don't think they are particularly "dirty" after a day of not bathing, provided they are washing their hands/face, wearing clean clothes, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daily shower, washing hair every other day. It takes literally 5 minutes to properly soap the body and rinse. Additional 5 minute when washing hair. Do better at parenting.

Wow. Do better at kindness, and not judging and shaming other people.

I hope this isn’t how you treat your kids and isn’t the example you set for them.

It’s pretty gross not to bathe daily or every other day. The weekly is lazy parenting.

These are like comments middle schoolers make. Ewwwww! You are sooooa gross! There’s no way an intelligent adult is behind this post.

Where do you think the middle schoolers get that attitude?

Once kids are in full-fledge puberty, once a week will definitely not cut it and other kids will likely tease them for smelling bad (because they will smell bad! puberty does that).

I'm not counting the swimmers in the thread who are showering post pool and then just doing one shower at home weekly. A pool shower is a shower and will address body odor and general cleanliness. So I'm just talking about kids who truly are just taking one shower a week at age 9. It's not enough, and it's going to make it especially tough when they start having body odor and you have to try and get them to suddenly start taking more showers right as they are being hit with hormonal issues.

[Anonymous]

We have a 13 year old who has not started puberty. He showers after he has been out doing anything leading to sweating, so after sports practice, and after he has been swimming. Otherwise he takes a shower every other day. He knows he will need to take a shower daily when he starts puberty and the BO kicks in.

I lived in Europe, my college age roommates bathed twice a week, that is why they wore perfume and cologne. They were all healthy and perfectly fine. Bathing too frequently is actually bad for your skin and hair.

The obsession with showering and being totally clean is very much an American thing.

OP, your child is fine with bathing every other day. But yes, make sure she knows how to wipe after pooping, that is a hygiene thing.

[Anonymous]

Nasty how they don’t clean their ass crack for a week

[Anonymous]

Every single day. And anything less would be gross.

[Anonymous]

Daily, except for Saturday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We seem to run out of time for a shower most nights. Is showering once or twice a week before puberty gross? She doesn't play a ton of sports and doesn't smell. I'm just finding working in more frequent showers challenging between activities, reading time, homework, etc.

A 9 year old showers in 10 minutes, including thick hair. Don't you have 10 minutes?

[Anonymous]

We don't do showers, we have my kid splash around in the bird bath for a while in the backyard every few months.





(...how is this a question? we do daily showers)

[Anonymous]

Some kids this age do in fact smell bad. Daily shower!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a 13 year old who has not started puberty. He showers after he has been out doing anything leading to sweating, so after sports practice, and after he has been swimming. Otherwise he takes a shower every other day. He knows he will need to take a shower daily when he starts puberty and the BO kicks in.

I lived in Europe, my college age roommates bathed twice a week, that is why they wore perfume and cologne. They were all healthy and perfectly fine. Bathing too frequently is actually bad for your skin and hair.

The obsession with showering and being totally clean is very much an American thing.

OP, your child is fine with bathing every other day. But yes, make sure she knows how to wipe after pooping, that is a hygiene thing.

Most Europeans use bidets, which is much more hygienic. Wiping is not very effective and kids tend to be especially bad at it.

So unless you have a bidet, your child should definitely be showering more than once or twice a week. It can be a quick rinse off without washing hair, my kid does those often. You don't have to use hot water, you can use minimal soap, and you can do it in 2-4 minutes generally. But if your kid is going multiple days between bathing, it's not particularly hygienic.

Both my kid and I have sensitive skin and are eczema-prone, and we shower daily without irritating or drying out our skin. The key is keeping showers short, not letting the water get too hot, and being in the habit of using a gentle moisturizers on likely dry areas right after the shower (we keep coconut oil in the shower and it gets massaged into elbows, knees, and other high exposure areas right after toweling dry.

[Anonymous]

Your kids teacher would appreciate once a day. Have you ever been in an elementary school at the end of the day. Smells horrible like body odor.

[Anonymous]

I get my 9 year old to shower every day so it is a habit by the time puberty hits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a 13 year old who has not started puberty. He showers after he has been out doing anything leading to sweating, so after sports practice, and after he has been swimming. Otherwise he takes a shower every other day. He knows he will need to take a shower daily when he starts puberty and the BO kicks in.

I lived in Europe, my college age roommates bathed twice a week, that is why they wore perfume and cologne. They were all healthy and perfectly fine. Bathing too frequently is actually bad for your skin and hair.

The obsession with showering and being totally clean is very much an American thing.

OP, your child is fine with bathing every other day. But yes, make sure she knows how to wipe after pooping, that is a hygiene thing.

Most Europeans use bidets, which is much more hygienic. Wiping is not very effective and kids tend to be especially bad at it.

So unless you have a bidet, your child should definitely be showering more than once or twice a week. It can be a quick rinse off without washing hair, my kid does those often. You don't have to use hot water, you can use minimal soap, and you can do it in 2-4 minutes generally. But if your kid is going multiple days between bathing, it's not particularly hygienic.

Both my kid and I have sensitive skin and are eczema-prone, and we shower daily without irritating or drying out our skin. The key is keeping showers short, not letting the water get too hot, and being in the habit of using a gentle moisturizers on likely dry areas right after the shower (we keep coconut oil in the shower and it gets massaged into elbows, knees, and other high exposure areas right after toweling dry.

My son resistant to showering and I realized it's because his skin was getting too dry -- now I give him a really gentle body wash (like Olay) and heavy moisturizer afterwards, and he enjoys showers.

[Anonymous]

mine is 9, and take a shower every other day or every sports day.