A Community Member writes in asking for advice on when it is safe to let your children bathe alone, without any assistance from a parent.
A mother asks:
“How old should kids be to bathe alone?“ How old were your kids when you let them bathe by themselves, no adult in the room? I have an 8 yr old son who can pretty much bathe by himself but I still sit in there with him to make sure he does it right.”
– Mamas Uncut Community Member
Community Advice on What Age You Should Allow Your Child To Bathe Alone
To see what advice the Mamas Uncut Facebook community has for this mom in need, read the comments of the post embedded below.
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Advice Summary
The community advice seemed to be pretty consistent across the board. Allow them to bathe alone not based on their age, but on whether they were capable of doing so. There were a variety of ages that parents allowed their children to bathe alone, ranging from ages 4 to 8 years old. What age did you let your children bathe alone?”
“I wash my 6-year-olds hair and she washes the rest of her body. I leave her alone to play afterward.“
“My girls are 7 and 8 and I started teaching them to bathe themselves around the time the youngest was 5. They bathe themselves clean now. No issues.“
“I sit in the room or in the hallway right outside the door with the door open with my almost 4-year-old. If I walk away he has to sing his ABCs until mommy returns. Its normally just to get his 10-month-old brother out of his crib.“
“Our daughter started showering herself at 8. She could bathe herself for years but the hair we always have to do or at least supervise for her until recently. She’s 9 now and can do it all herself just fine. I remember doing it completely myself at like 6 though so every kid is different.“
“Mine is 9. He has been showering by himself for at least a year. He STILL doesn’t always do it right but I just send him back in to do it again or rinse the shampoo he missed out in the sink. I’m pretty much under the impression my boy isn’t going to shower properly the first time until he gets old enough to start wanting to impress a girl because he really could care less if he’s clean at this point. I do all the caring about that for him. He just handles the eye-rolling on the way back to the shower.“
Final Thoughts
The most important factor in answering this question is safety. The Parents.com team makes a very good point worth sharing, “Bathing alone can be risky because of drowning dangers, and it can take just a few seconds for even older kids to slip and drown in only a few inches of water. Because of this, many experts suggest waiting until your child is at least 8 before allowing him to dunk in the tub alone.”
Every child reaches milestones at their own pace. As a mother or a father, we have to decide when they have reached that milestone of showering/bathing themselves. I have four children and they all began bathing themselves at different ages, but by 8-years-old they were all bathing themselves with very little help from me.
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