Brother and sister in the bath...

giftgrub

Our two kids, a boy just turned 5 and his 18 month old sister take their bath together at night.

Its part of the bedtime routine and has always been a bit of fun for them.

However in the last few weeks he's been asking her to grab his lad, he thinks its HILLARIOUS and she's the same.

Now i know its probably nothing but I'm thinking about not letting them bath together anymore...plus he's getting big now and things can get a bit rough anyway sometimes.

Am I over reacting? I'm an only child so it was never an issue for me, my wife has a sister and they never bathed together.

thomas anderson.

Yes,

Its the "adults" that make things like this sexual.

On the other hand maybe its time to start bathing them separately

superelliptic

My sister and I were always bathed separately. Think it was a good thing too as it defined boundaries for privacy when we were growing up. Your call OP, but I'd bath 'em separate personally.

Lisha

My son is six and my daughter is 3.5years old.
Since he turned 5ish I started bathing them seperatly. They are so used to each other they never passed any comment on each other's parts at all.
But I just felt if someone else heard it they could find it wrong.

Sad I suppose really but has to be done.

They are so innocent though.
My six yr old nephew was with us in car yesterday and he said 'ha ha I've a wobbly willie' . Of course my daughter was in knots repeating it all day.

Lisha

superelliptic wrote: »

My sister and I were always bathed separately. Think it was a good thing too as it defined boundaries for privacy when we were growing up. Your call OP, but I'd bath 'em separate personally.

Yeah I agree that boundaries have to start somewhere .
Now that my son has friends over I've had to be careful about her using loo and shutting doors etc.

CrazyRabbit

At 5, he's old enough to understand the concept of inappropriate behavior. It should be explained to him that nobody should touch his 'lad' except mommy/daddy during bath time (i.e, during the normal course of washing).
And likewise, explain that he should not touch anyone else in that area.

No need to view this as anything other than harmless innocent behavior. There's enough hysteria in the world.

sari

There is absolutely nothing wrong with bathing your kids together. There is nothing wrong with your son telling his sister to grab it, it's normal behaviour.

The way we as parents react to it is what causes issues and is confusing for kids.
We can teach our children to be comfortable in their skin, to realise that we all have bodies, penises and vaginas, breasts. It's ok to be instereted in them, kids at that age are interested in leaning and touching all parts of their bodies and we do them no favours by teaching them we shouldn't talk about, look or touch these parts.
How easy is it for a pre teen or teenager to come and talk to a parent about issues with this part of their body, or about possible sexual abuse if we teach them from a young age not to talk, look or touch these areas. Just look at the way most parents react when their say 5 year starts talking about their penis, breasts or vagina!! Total and utter embarrassment, shhh now don't talk about things like that, it's not nice to, it's bold to. Of course not all parents are like this but most are, I see it all the time. Do you think that encourages normality and confidence in children to talk about issues? It doesn't, it can't and we have years of the worst, most extensive child sexual abuse with hardly any children able to talk about or tell anyone about it.

It's really sad that parents are thinking about and worrying about things like this.

Big Bag of Chips

Jaysus! Mine are still all bathed together.. they're at an age where my only concern is that it's becoming a bit of a squash!!

Moonbeam

I bath mine together too and it has not dawned on me not too,My girls are 5 and 3 and my boy 14 months though we are running out of space fast!!

Chocolate fiend

I bath mine together as well, boys are 6 and 5 and the girl is 2. She has recently started to say Penis and point and laugh, it cannot be good for the boys self esteem

They are only kids, I am more worried about how much water they slosh out over the side.

mark8511

They are just kids and it is just fun for them, But as all said above this may be good time to bath separate now

Penny Dreadful

Chocolate fiend wrote: »

I bath mine together as well, boys are 6 and 5 and the girl is 2. She has recently started to say Penis and point and laugh, it cannot be good for the boys self esteem

They are only kids, I am more worried about how much water they slosh out over the side.

My sister used to bath her two together when they were smaller (they're 15 and 13 now so no longer;)).
I remember visiting one time and helping out with the bath time and the little girl pointed to her brothers penis and turned to me and said "he's lucky its not stuck to his face isn't he?".

Jogathon

Two girls, we were always bathed together. Also, if the neighbours children (girl and boy) were in, or if I was in their house, we'd have been thrown into the bath together! Weird now, but back then was just totally normal. I used to run home saying I'd had my bath and mum was delighted because it saved her a job. I was about 6/7 when that stopped, but only because we got an electric shower installed!

lollsangel

My 4 year old twins bathe together. She used to be interested in his willie and her lack of one maybe 2 years ago....that's stopped now, I just thought it natural inquisitive behaviour

snaps

My kids are roughly the same age, boy 6 and daughter. We have the same carry-on as they are usually bathed together. The 2 year old is more relaxed when her brother is there.

Big Bag of Chips

Mine are at an age where they probably SHOULD be bathed separately, but they enjoy playing together, swimming/adventuring etc. Until one of them starts becoming a bit more "body aware" or shy of stripping off in front of the others (or they physically can't fit in the bath together!!) then they can keep having their bath together.

It'll happen naturally that they'll want a bit of privacy. My eldest goes swimming with school, and he'd already copped onto keeping himself covered in front of everyone... At home, he lets it "swing free" though!! He's secure at home. He/They knows it's ok, and know nobody outside of our house should ever have any need to see their private bits.

ectoraige

We've a seven-year-old boy, four-year-old girl, and a 1-year-old boy. They are all bathed together, and while occasionally there is talk of willies, peanuts, and chinas, it's nothing more than childish fun coupled with curiosity. We do tell them not to touch each other as they are private areas and they seem to understand this.

The two eldest have shared a room pretty much since she left ours, when we moved house 18 months ago we gave them their own rooms but they missed each other too much so they went back into the one room.

The four-year-old has now started to develop a sense of modesty, and sometimes she gives out that her older brother is "looking at her" when she's getting dressed, even if he's not. Other times she's doing cartwheels in a nightie having forgotten to put knickers on.

This summer we'll give her her own room, and move the youngest boy in with his older brother. I'd say the shared baths will continue for another while yet, but I expect it won't be long until modesty takes over.

irish_goat

Your kids in a few years.

Rubberchikken

just a quick reminder about his body should curb it.
there both still very young, and he's only messing.
maybe start to encourage him slowly to have a bath by himself.

my two were washed together (3 years between) until the eldest was about 6. just kind of happened that way.

silverbolt

my two youngest 5 and 4 are still bathed togehter they just enjoy bathtime theres nothing remotely wierd in it.

They can stop being bathed together when they get body conciouss

Femme_Fatale

IMO it's no big deal as he's still small enough not to be aware of the boundaries thing and she's only a baby, but that's just my opinion and I'm not a parent.

Me and the kids next door used to show each other our bits when we were small and find it absolutely hilarious. Once school started, or not long into school, we learned that these were our private parts and not to be showing them to just anyone. There was nothing repressive about it; it was just a social skill/something we needed to be made aware of. It is something that needs to be addressed gently eventually. Genitalia aren't something to be ashamed of but they're still our private bits.

Laughing away to myself at the cuteness of it all.

KCC

Of course it's all innocent and nothing to worry about but boundaries have to start somewhere. It was me I wouldn't bath them together and I'd casually tell the 5 year old that nobody is allowed to touch his privates but himself and he should also never ask anyone to do so.