A little ingenuity goes a long way. If we all (myself included) stopped to think about the way we do things on automatic pilot we could get some serious change going.

Speaking of water, there is a post somewhere here (actually probably several) about using bath water, laundry water, etc. in the garden. It is called grey water and apparently is safe for the garden. There was one person who had all of their grey water redirected into a pond/holding tank dug in the soil and used for watering outside. How cool is that!

Quite honestly, I'm not all for that method. Besides the sloughed off skin issue, what if big bro' peed in the water, and now lil' sis is sitting/soaking in it? Probably not good, not matter how many rinsings - kinda defeats the purpose, no? Sorry to rain on your parade!

On the upside, though, there are ways to conserve with kids. Once my boys were showering on their own, I diluted the shampoo - little boy haircuts don't really need a whole palmful of product/suds! And I did keep track of how long they'd been in there.

Funnest thing was during the hot months in the summer. On hot days at home, in mid morning I'd run the garden hose to fill their rigid sided 'pool' which was great for cooling off and splashing. After lunch was naptime and while they snoozed, I'd skim off the tracked in grass and give the pool a squirt or three of Ivory Liquid, The sun warmed the water nicely.

Mid-late afternoon they'd be back in the pool, agitating up a storm - and the bubbles were incredible! They'd make suds mustasches, beards, hats, shrub topiaries and other creations all around the yard ...... I have some wonderful pictures and more wonderful memories.

That done, they'd don their pj's and settle down for supper - then into bed .... cool, tired and clean! Try it, it's really fun!

There was a time when children would all bathe together. I think your solution is an appropriate variation for the times in which we live. Nice job.

I am in favor of using water from the shower or the tub in a flower garden or on a lawn. Personally, I wouldn't use it in my produe garden.

When I lived in California there was a long-term, serious draught. I showered with a bucket beside me. The inconvenience of having the bucket there helped remind me to keep the showers short. I netted about 2/3s of a gallon of water per 3-4 minute shower.

I wouldn't bathe a child in used water. I see why you think it is logical. But to my mind it isn't fair to your daughter, and it isn't hygenic. Your son could shower with a bucket beside him to catch some water for another purpose. A bucket of grey water can be used to flush a toilet. Water poured directly into a toilet bowl flushes the toilet. Water could also be collected from the tub after your daughter's bath for the same purpose.

When running water, waiting for hot water to come from the spout, collection of water which would otherwise be wasted is relatively easy. And, it is clean water. It could be used to fill pet water bowls, in the garden, or for many other uses as long as one uses a clean jug for collecting. I save one gallon vinegar jugs and use them for collecting/saving water.

Lorna

Everybody I know who has small children bathes them together -- me included. Most don't do it for reasons of water conservation, although of course it does conserve water. Nothing bad has happened yet, as far as I know.

Bathing kids together strikes me as different than reusing water in which one person has already bathed. I used to get pretty dirty when I was a kid--left quite a dirty ring in the tub after a day of playing outdoors.

Recently I mentioned having taken a bath, rather than a shower, to a man I know when we were discussing preferences for bathing, shampoos, soaps, etc. His horrified response was that he would never allow water to touch his his face which had touched his a$$! He believes baths are non-hygenic. Somebody else overheard the coversation and contributed that they sometimes take a hot bath to soothe sore muscles, but never allow the bath water to touch their face and always finish off with a shower. I was stunned. Too bad I didn't think to ask either of them if they go swimming in pools! Maybe they would have said that is different because of the chemicals used in pools.

Lorna

Lorna, that's very interesting. It would have been insightful to see what they said about the pool. I think I would have been too surprised to ask also!

:)
Dee

Another suggestion I have, that I usually give to the parents I work with (I'm a therapist), is for parents to set timers for children who are able to shower themselves. It will help them get used to taking quick showers.

Lorna, I share similar thoughts at those two people you spoke to. Not so much that my butt is in the water, but that when I bathe I feel like I'm just laying in a pool of dirty water. It is different from swimming, b/c I don't expect to be cleanse from a swimming pool and always take a shower after swimming. Of course, another therapist may tell me I'm crazy.

Sarah

Sarah, I agree to a certain extent - it doesn't bother me that my butt is in the water, but that I feel like I'm sitting in dirty water. In my case, though, that isn't enough to stop me from taking a bath. I don't really take baths, but that is because I've got a small tub. I grew up in an old house with the original cast-iron tub that you could sink up to your neck in. Ahhhh. Now if I had a tub like that again, I'd take more more baths and not think about the dirty water, lol.

And to take it a step further, if I was worried about my butt being in the water, it would be even worse in a swimming pool - because everyone else's butt would be in the water too, lol! I'd rather just deal with my own butt!

:)
Dee

I posted above, and just to clarify .... I do believe in not wasting water (as opposed to the water 'conservation' line of thought - they are different). What I object to is the mentality that to be 'eco-correct' one must revert to "Little House on the Prairie" standards.

We Americans subscribe to more fastidious standards than many cultures - somewhat because of the avalanche of advertising we endure - and that's not all wrong. There is a lot to be said for personal hygiene. That public scrutiny has finally forced manufacturers to produce low use toilets, shower heads etc is a good thing. Kinda like auto manufacturers are back to crafting gas economy in cars - flashback to the 70's folks! The cycle just keeps coming around.

In my area, drought and water use restrictions have been very real over the past year and what I see is this cry to conserve forced on minimal users (homes) while the major users (corporate, government, etc) get a pass on cleaning up their acts. Smoke and mirrors, anybody? Meanwhile, industry keeps building bigger resorts, hotels and even houses with more baths and - most amazing - multiple shower heads in sybaritic marble settings along with separate huge 'garden' tubs. I don't care how 'low flow' they are, it's total overkill!

But, I digress - :o) - sorry for the rant! Like a few above, I also disparage a tub full of water, soaking in such is just not my thing. I was advised to do so for medical reasons last winter and hated every second. Then I felt the need to shower off! As for swimming pools, most I've frequented were private - I have no interest in public pools ..... and the hot tubs in gyms etc. just make my skin crawl! And I'm not a germaphobe, just a fairly logical thinker - I think .... JMO

And just think about how unsanitary the ocean is!

:-)

LOL, Alfie! I so forgot about that ..... what with the cruise ships dumping stuff and all, not to mention all those fish pooping in it! Ewwww..... (insert grin)

I grew up in a coastal town with beaches to die for - ocean and bay (which got a little funky at low tide, but was all better 6 hours later!). Guess that's why community pools are outside of my thought process.

Rub-a-dub-dub, two kids in a tub is really just fine - it's the saved shower water that didn't set well with me. And, as I recall, 8 year old boys get pretty grimy - at least mine did back in the day when kids played outside in the dirt! Standing joke with us when they came in from play was "Whose little boy are you? Go shower and we'll find out if you get to stay for dinner!" Ah, the good old days! :o)

Not criticizing, but curious: Assuming she uses the water right away, what's the difference? Why is it OK if they bathe together, but not OK if they shower/bathe sequentially?

It sounds a little to me like people here are working on "grody" factors, with some odd little exceptions that make as much scientific sense as the five-second-rule.

Can you help me understand why one is icky and the other is OK?

***

On a lighter note, here's the grossest moment in a public body of water that I've witnessed: I was sitting in the gym's hot tub. (I know, I've lost a few of you already, but hear me out...) As I'm stretching and relaxing after my workout (and shower), a woman comes straight out of the steam room... glistening in sweat... and goes straight into the hot tub. Eeeewwwwwwww.... Needless to say, I got out and headed straight back to the showers.

The difference is in getting into a tub which has used (grey)water, as opposed to being the two kids getting into a tub of clean water. Would you have your husband take a shower, with the tub plug in place, and then bathe in the "cached" water? I've bathed with my boyfriend, but I wouldn't get into a tub full of water in which he already bathed.

I miss those Victorian claw footed tubs, too. Those are great!

Lorna

OK, I understand that difference, of course. But hear me out.

Two kids get into "clean" water straight from the spigot. Within minutes, the water becomes as dirty as greywater, and they are still in it. Each child is sitting in not only his/her own dirty water, but the dirt of the sibling.

Why is this better? Because of the initial clean-water entry? Because both siblings are sitting in dirty water rather than just one?

Sorry, but it still sounds like the same logic behind the five-second-rule. (Note: I am guilty of using the five-second-rule, so no judgment here, just an attempt to understand.)

Valid questions, Witeowl. Lorna explained it well and I'll try to take it a step further, based ONLY on my own experience.

For reference, I have two sons, 2.5 years apart in age (now grown, so I'm going on memory here). Rub-a-dub-dub, two kids in the tub in my house was two toddlers. Generally, toddlers don't attract as much grime as 8 year old boys (who can get realllly yucky!). These baths were totally supervised, usually included suds of some kind and always sported a regatta of boats & toys. And, there was the 2-fer time saver for Mom.

Once past toddlerhood, two don't fit in the tub at the same time, further they've learned to tag team Mom and turn the regatta into battleships, the bathroom into a swamp (and swamping Mom is great sport too!)

At this point, bathtimes are separated and the elder (who is already invoking his 'privacy privilige'), makes friends with the shower (which terrified him as a toddler). In very short order, the younger opts for private showers too ..... and the bathroom tile floor is saved!

Guess this is a long way of saying the bathwater grime factor is acceptable with the little ones, not so much as they get older and bring the dirt of the world and general tomfoolery to the tub.

Way back in the olden days (even before MY time, so that's olden!), when water was bucketed in from the well out back, heated on a wood stove and families took the weekly bath all in the same tub water .... well, that's like my "Little House on the Prairie" reference above. It's just not necessary now what with indoor plumbing and all.

Before I'll compromise personal hygiene for the conservation cause, I'll need to see my City shut down the (name brand) drink bottler who sells water worldwide in pretty bottles which is drawn directly from my City's water supply - right thru a documented drought - and while they're at it, they can stem the tide of new construction w/sybaritic indoor plumbing accoutrements. I could go on and on ....and, of course, these measures will never happen ..... sorry, rambling once more.

So, what was the question again? :o)

They didn't all take the weekly bath all in the same tub water in Little House on the Prairie. Re-read the books :-). As I recall, there's a very detailed description of the Saturday night bath process in Farmer Boy (which I don't have a copy of).

LOL - Alfie, quit nit-picking! I was just trying to reference a time frame, not demean the Ingalls! Actually, I've never read the books .. just tv shows way back when (which I don't much recall) and the occasional rerun lately.

:o)

I'll admit you have a good point with the toddlers vs. 8-year-olds.

And yeah, it is a little frustrating that (here in NV), casinos and tourists get to use all the water they want, but residents are asked to limit water usage. (Not to mention the continuing construction.)

Maybe it's worth considering that two wrongs don't make a right and refusing to reuse water in reasonable ways (clearly defined by individual beliefs) because others are wasteful really doesn't help anything.

Yes, I know that's not what you're saying. I'm just thinking out loud while working through how far I want to go with my own conservation efforts. (Thinking about installing diverters for grey water from washing machine, etc.)

My mom came from a big family, same tub of water for 8 people, she being the youngest was last to go in, sometimes the water was cold. Was better than nothing, I suppose.

Water conservation awareness, not just the advertising, but actual conscious awareness, is what I'd like to see in people around my area. We haven't experienced a type of drought where residents have been asked (or forced) to limit water usage, many people around here use it like it's free, there's a cost, but obviously not that much when the hose can run continually while the owner is soaping down an already clean camper-trailer.

This is precisely where the expression "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater" comes from. Waaaay back in the day,... Dad bathed first, then Mom, then oldest to youngest kid. By the time the baby went in the water was so dirty, you might have missed him. (I would think the poor baby would come out dirtier then when he went in - yick)
I bathe my kids together on occasion, more often I bath the baby first and let the 3 yr old stay in and play with toys.
I can't imagine needing to take a shower after having a bath... how dirty are these people? Do they not use toilet paper? what is the big worry about the same water touching your butt and your face? Unless you have a compromised immune system, you should be ok.
I cannot remember the last time I was sick. My 3 yr old has had one cold in her whole life.

Could everybody please READ the Little House BOOKS? They did NOT all bathe in the same water. I also have serious doubts about that origin of the baby-bathwater saying. See, for example, the link below.

(Mxbarbie, does your 3-year-old go to preschool? My older daughter had had no colds at all until she started preschool. Then it was a cold a week -- for all of us -- until after Christmas. Yikes.)

Here is a link that might be useful: baths in the bad old days

From alfie's link: "There is no evidence to confirm that peasant families bathed serially in the same bathwater..."

I find that statement a bit perplexing. All I had to do was speak with my father to find that at least some people did this (although, clearly, he grew up in a time when people weren't considered peasants). As he recalls, he (as the child) would actually be bathed first, followed by his father, and his mother bathed last. (For those worried about her health, she lived to a ripe age of 86.)

On a different note, he also informs me that the local farmers would come about once a year to collect their outhouse "leavings" for spreading direct into their crop soil. What time of year they did it, he can't quite recall, so I'm not sure whether there were active crops.

He grew up in Germany, for the curious.

Dang, I didn't mean to start such a melee - maybe I should have referenced "Gunsmoke" or "Wagon Train" or The Great Depression or .......never mind.

I just hope Finnbiker hasn't quit this group over this. :o(

Witeowl, I agree - I've heard the stories in my family about the siblings at least, if not the parents too, taking turns using the same bath water, and my grandparents were born in the 20's and lived in a city, lol! Could be they were doing the "in my day..." thing, but I recall it had something to do with coal and conserving it???? And they grew up in Connecticut, lol.

:)
Dee

I have read the little house books, all of them, a couple of times : ) (they were favorites of mine as a child)
And yes, my 3 yr old started preschool last Sept and also goes to gymnastics and swimming lessons. There are many, many snotty and/or coughing children at all of those places, but thankfully we all have very strong immune systems. Thanks in part IMHO to the lack of antibacterial soap, and disinfectants in our house.

Here is a link that might be useful: the baby and the bathwater - a 2nd opinion

Alfie, in "The Little Cabin in the Big Woods" they did all bathe in the same water, they even give the order in which they did it. I'm not sure what the other books said because I haven't read them enough to remember... but that one was a favorite of mine growing up and I remember it well... lol

Not that it is really relevent anyway at this point.

Ok... well, I don't have kids so until I do it is a mute point for me. But I do a couple of things in addition to taking shorter showers. I do use the bucket/pitcher next to me and then use it to water plants (I also use natural and bio-degradable soaps etc). My routine also involves cleaning the shower every time I use it (saves on having to waste water just to clean it except for occasionally).

I hop in the shower and take down the head (I have the kind that has the hose and can be handheld) and I rinse down the whole tub while I'm waiting on the water to warm a bit. At the end of the shower I spritz everything down with either a homemade or eco-friendly store bought shower spray. This keeps soap scum, mildew, and all sorts of nasties at bay... and I don't have to turn on the shower just for scrubbing every week like I used to. It works :)

Sorry, its "Little House in the Big Woods"

They lived in a cabin, but I wrote the title wrong :/

and here's a link to the text from the book :)

http://books.google.com/books?id=b-M-qjbur7AC&pg=PA84&lpg=PA84&dq=little+house+in+the+big+woods+bath&source=bl&ots=CB1MzPjDDD&sig=KaJ8i7AiCvpsYZF_ST1aOJKUCRc&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result

Here is a link that might be useful: Bathing Text

Wow, what a discussion. My kids take a shower bath. That is what they call it when one wants a shower and the other a bath. They actually do it at the same time. Sometimes, after I turn the shower off, they both play in it for quite a while. It never occured to me about the germs. They both end up clean and are hardly ever sick. I'm not a germaphobe and I hardly ever get sick. My hubby is (and he thinks the shower bath is a great idea) and he gets sick way more than the rest of us. I have a kindergardener and first grader, so they are around other kids.

We have a serious water shortage where I'm at in Texas (going on for several years now) and water is extremely expensive. I need my kids to take baths together. Sadly, they don't even get a bath everyday (unless it is summer and they've been playing outside and are sweaty, but then our little kiddy pool comes into play).

Well, back on the farm in Missouri, when I joined the family......they did, indeed, all bath in the same water. In a laundry tub. In the dining room. If you have a house full of six or seven kids, and a wood burning stove, how many days do you think it would take to heat up enough water to fill it ten times?

As a guest, before I got married. I got to go first. It didn't bother me too much, because I have lived in countries where communal bathing was not out of the ordinary. It's done all the time.

Nobody ever got sick, and routinely let my kids bath together when they were toddlers and pre-school. They started taking separate baths when modesty set in.

Way back in the ancient days when I was young, when a woman had a baby, if she had it in hospital, then nobody was even allowed near the mother or child for a week until she was dismissed. Germs! Thing is, people in the same household, share their germs routinely even with the best of housekeeping. Until a family member dragged home a bug from the outside world, you usually didn't freak out too much. When my g'kids were born, the whole family was let in and out of the same room in which the baby was delivered. Before and after the birth. It's because it's now just understood, that unless a family member is ill.......you can't keep a kid in a sterile environment. And the germ killers in all our soaps are probably doing us more harm than good.

Times have changed, and I have hot water and plenty of it now, and inside plumbing. But, I can tell you for a fact, if you're under fifty.......bathing kids in succession in the same water was not an oddity at all, irregardless of how the Wilders did it.

Now maybe its because I'm in Z5 pa too, but my kids take baths one after another UNLESS of course someone is so totally grime-y that the water is dirty. Which I'm sure Finnbiker wouldn't bathe her daughter in water that was "ring around the tub" filthy.

I think my kids, like lots of other kids today, have days where they really don't get too dirty. Sad but true. So why not? Myself and all of my siblings (8 of them) have all survived sharing bathwater without any suspected illnesses or deaths caused by it. And everyone of us I'm certain smelled and looked better regardless of how many times that bathwater was used. As long as its still hot and not too filthy....why not? It saves a whole tubful of water. We also share the same furniture and throw blankets and "yikes" sometimes even the same food!

Of course too, if you're bathing an incontinent baby, I hope that there is very little water in the tub, that it will not even be an issue of saving it for someone else to use.
DRAIN IT!

Back in the 60s, when I was teaching school in upstate NY, I had a child whose family was still living in a log cabin - with no running water. He had to carry water from the spring a half mile away every morning and evening. They had a big tin box next to the coal burning stove which held the coal they picked up along the RR tracks.

Once a week they shoveled out all the coal, wiped the coal dust from the inside of the box, and filled it with water heated on the stove. Well, not filled, but about 3" deep. The parents and ten children all bathed in the same water starting with the father down to the smallest child. John was number 7 to use the water, and believe me, he was never clean, nor were his clothes which were washed in the same water.

It amazes me what people can live through and still turn out pretty well.