My girls take entirely too long in the shower. The other night they used all the hot water and their 3 yr old sister did not have water to take a bath. I have tried an egg timer, rewards for quick showers and nothing seems to help. The only thing that I do that works is sit there in the bathroom while they bathe. As a mother of 3 and multiple jobs I cannot be idle during this time at the end of the day. Am I being unreasonable to think that an 8 1/2 yr old and a 7 yr old can shower w/o supervision? And is there a product out there that we can install that will shut the water off after a set amount of time? That would be wonderful! If it is not out there than I will invent one. TIA for all the advice.
Well I guess that I am still going to be on some sort of shower duty for a little bit longer. And I have no idea why I did not bathe the 3 yr old first, big oops on my part. I like the idea of keeping a shower record. That may work for me b/c my girls are very competitive and we are water conscience so I think that it would create a healthy competition. I guess I am going to rearrange my chores and plan to work upstairs while the girls are showering so I can monitor and keep track of time. Thanks for all the wonderful advice.
8 & 7 are a little young in my mind to truly keep track of time... I'd bathe the 3 year old first and then put the older two in together, sitting there for 7 minutes (or how ever long) if you have to. Instead of limiting the time, you might try timing them - with a target time of 8 minutes, or whatever - then keep a record chart of the fastest showers..
S.
when i was growing up there was a 15 min shower rule that we had to abide by, if we didnt then we didnt get a shower the next day! (there were 6 of us kids so it was probably necessary) i'm not sure if you feel that this is necessary or not. do they shower efficiently if you sit in the bathroom with them? if so then maybe they do still need some guidance?...
Set an alarm clock. When it goes off shower is over. If they can't get it taken care of in 8 minutes they'll learn really quickly how to. Good luck. P.S. bathe the 3 year old first. Then you won't have to worry about running out of hot water.
I have 5 kids, I hear you loud and clear!
My oldest 2 are 14 and 10, sometime sI stick a 4 year old in with one and a 3 year old in with the other and they shower their buddies, haha!
Anyway, we bought a timer that was safe in the shower and would set it for 5 minutes, showing them how long 5 minutes was and then they had about 30 seconds after it went off to get out for the first few showers. After that they had to be done in the 5 minutes.
It works pretty well and if they aren't my threat was to come in and wash them. They scared them, haha!
Of course they are all boys so it would make then thinks twice before they would want mom to come it.
Another thing you could do it come in after the time you have alotted with a pitcher of ice water and toss it over the top :)
Tell them if they aren't out in ___ minutes they will wish they were. hehe!
I Don't think you are unreasonable about wanting them to take short showers. Just remember to allow for a long tub bath once in awhile for fun.
I don't have any suggestions. But remember this time in your life. We went through the early teen years with one of our daughters NOT showering.... like 7 days in a row. NO you cannot MAKE a 13 year old shower. You might think you can, but wait till you get there. I was not alone in suffering through this stinky time. Other teen moms told me they had the same issue with their own lovely teens.
Now she showers regularly, though still not every single day. My other daughter makes up for it by showering twice a day sometimes.
And boys are an entirely different story, but you don't have any, so I won't scare you with those stories.
So just remember this time, jot it down in your diary (right next to the day they told you "You are the best Mom in the entire world!") and look back on it when they stink and roll their eyes at you.
One thing we did is we set the time limit and then when the time was up came in a physically took them out of the shower - even if they had shampoo in their hair (the main excuse). We gave them plenty of warning, including 2 minutes, 1 minute, 30 seconds, etc. to get rinsed. I know this is labor intensive to do, but it only took a few nights before they got serious about their time limits. We would rinse their hair in the kitchen sink and they hated that. Anyway, that may sound a bit extreme, but we had a big problem with shower time (that we no longer have)!
If nothing else. . . and this may be too harsh (I would really have to think about it before making it a rule). . .you may want to go with that shower record but say that they have 10 minutes each in the shower each day (or whatever your shower time is. . 10 works best for this description). Well that equals 70 minutes a week. If they go over, then they take away from another day, and they'll have to shorten their times. If they use them up, then they use them up and no showers until the beginning of the next week. It probably would only take one or two days of missing for them to get the point. The negative is that they could run out on day 2, and that would not work. One or two days without a shower isn't pleasant, but it could work. I don't think I could let them go longer, so you definitely use your best judgment on that.
I found this website while looking for options for another friend. They are so popular, they are on backorder, but constantly improving their product due to high demand. Perhaps something to look into...
While you get your shower invention... Quick suggestion, bathe the 3 yr old first =)
good luck! I'm having similar problem w/ my 6 & 8 yr old. thank you for asking this question, frankly it didn't ocurr to me to ask here. =) ~C.~
