Charlie was never fond of taking baths and he's very tentative about getting his face wet, but over the past few months this issue has escalated to crisis-proportions. It will take a half hour of coaxing to get his feet into the tub, much processing to ease him fully into the bath, and then come shampoo time we're back to panicked protest. We have one of those water scooper thingies with the rubber lip which facilitates pouring the water over a child's head without getting it into his eyes. Removing this item from the cupboard prompts immediate wails of resistance. No amount of emotional validation, no washcloths to cover his eyes, no carefully modeled and practiced instructions to keep his head tilted back, no playful banter about washing the dirt off his scalp to keep potatoes from growing there or heart-to-heart talks with the firefighter washcloth puppet--nothing has worked to take the stress & trauma out of bath time. We both end up frustrated: Charlie in tears and me mopping up a mess of splashed bath water with a sigh. At least I'm relaxed enough about hygiene that we do not go through this every day, but summer's great for sweaty messes, so the need is there.
When conflicts like this arise, the times I can tap into my sense of humor and creativity are the moments when I feel at my best as a parent. (Wish they were more often!) Last week, while coaxing Charlie to allow his hair to be washed, I recalled the cartoon "The Rabbit of Seville" in which Bugs Bunny gets silly with elmer Fudd's scalp. My boy loves him some silliness, so we got through that bath with his curiosity piqued while I sang the "doo-doo-doo do-do" music and described the scene, which we watched right after he was dried off & in jammies. Next bath around, we did a fun reenactment: no coercion, no tears, no exasperated sighs, just good time play. Amen.
This clip did not allow embedding, but here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j97EJQ1z7nY
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