Baths are Torture

My child is working my last nerves on this whole bathing thing. For the past 6 months or so, getting Charlie to take a bath or shower is worse than pulling teeth! What is it about little boys and not bathing?

During the summer I make Charlie bathe everyday but during the winter his skin is so dry we switch to every other day. This has been the pattern since Charlie was a baby. It used to be that Charlie loved taking baths and would stay in for hours if we let him. As he has gotten older the bathing has become more and more of struggle.

For the past 2 years I’ve worked on Charlie bathing himself and introducing him to showers. Charlie doesn’t like water getting in his eyes so it has been somewhat of an uphill battle.  It didn’t help that Robert babied Charlie and insisted on “helping out”. Of course Charlie took full advantage of this.

So all I’ve heard is “baths are torture” or “I’m not sweaty” or “I didn’t get sweaty today” for months. Along with other excuses along the same lines. My favorite was “But I took a bath last week!”

I’ve also heard “FINE. I’ll get wet but that is all”.  That particular sentence was met with a stern “You will use soap and shampoo little man” followed by loss of technology privileges for a week. Lately he’s been using just enough to barely pass the Sniff Test so I’ve sent Charlie back for another scrubbing, this time by me.

Friends tell me this phase will soon pass and I won’t be able to get Charlie out of the bathroom or shower.  I don’t know whether or not to look forward to that or if I will miss this phase.

Does or did your little boy fight bath time?