Bath Time

It's an interesting phenomenon that whenever a small child is placed in the bathtub in this house, no matter what it is precisely the other children are doing, if they are in the house, they will magically appear in the bathroom either demanding to be included or attempting to take over the bathtime ritual. Even more interesting is those same children, when requested to individually cleanse themselves, will vociferously refuse to do so. For some strange reason, when there is a baby involved, bath time is automatically equated with fun and playtime.

Tonight, in attempting to bathe my son, who granted adores baths, loves to play in the water, and whose childish giggles are often infectious, I was quickly inundated by the presence of my youngest pair of daughters. The third stripped bare and demanded to join her brother. Even though she is less amicable to actually being cleaned while bathing. The second pushed me to the side and attempted to pet her brother on the head and just make a general nuisance of herself.

The bath itself should have lasted a few minutes for cleaning and a few minutes for playing. Perhaps 15 minutes total, including drying and dressing. However, hampered so by my other children, my son's bath stretched into 30 minutes or more. He certainly didn't seem to begrudge the extra playing time however!