Baths are awesome, especially for little ones! At Goldfish Swim School, we may be a little partial to all things having to do with water – but did you know how much baths can impact your little ones? Here are some reasons we love baths:

Easier bedtime

Have you ever tried to put your kids to bed and they’re still asking for hugs and drinks of water a half hour later? They may be a bit too wound up (or even stressed) to go to sleep just yet.

After a full day of growing and learning, kids need some downtime, too. A bath is a great way to quiet things down a bit for bedtime.

Make bath time a nightly routine before bed – but make it a GOLDEN experience and something to look forward to doing, and not just something that has to be done. That way, no one will be rushing through it, and you’ll reap the relaxation benefits from it.

Have all your child’s nightly duties complete before bath time, including picking out clothes for the next day, grabbing pajamas, brushing teeth, tidying up their room, having a snack, etc. 

Feel free to use lavender-scented bath bubbles or oils for a relaxing mood if that’s your style. Maybe some ocean waves playing in the background can lend the vibe even more.

Whatever works for you, make bath time more about “unwinding time” than simply washing up and you just may see some extraordinary results at bedtime.

Time to chat

Sometimes, it’s easier for kids to talk about their day and figure out what’s going on in their minds when they are also doing something else. During bath time, kids are distracted by playing with toys and getting soapy — without concentrating too much on a particular task – so they can babble away freely.

Use bath time to ask questions and let the conversation flow. Talk about the best parts of your day (or your year), what you learned, what you laughed at. Celebrate the little things.

Even if it’s one of those days, you can still gab without getting too in-depth. Make up a story about the goldfish bath toys, talk about colors, or whatever objects are around the room. You may be surprised at where the discussion turns if you’re allowing it to happen and not focused on just getting out of the tub.

Bonding time

Kids don’t always need to be doing something to be having quality time together with you. Often times, it’s the little things that add up even more – like nightly one-on-one time away from the hustle and bustle of daily life.

Bath time presents a great way for multi-tasking parents (um, all of us) to get something done that needs to be done – a clean kiddo – while turning it into parent-child moments.

They tell us how important skin-to-skin contact is with newborns – but connecting by touch is still important as they grow into toddlers and beyond. During bath time, you get all that: Shampooing their hair, washing their body…and the hugs while you’re wrapping them up in a towel to dry off.

Don’t underestimate the power of bonding when you have 15 minutes or so of bath time with your kids. It will add up in their menu banks, instinctively.

Bath Safety Tips

Always remember these bath safety sips before you turn that tub water on:

  • Supervise. To help prevent slips and falls from energetic toddlers, make sure to stay an arm’s length away from little ones in the tub at all times.
  • Put away bath products. Kids are notorious for getting into things in the blink of an eye, so make sure any shampoos, razors, etc. are away and not enticing for curious hands to grab.
  • Non-slip mats. It may seem like a little thing, but a rubber bath mat inside the tub can help thwart slips on gobs of shampoo — and an absorbent bath mat just outside the tub helps prevent slips (for both of you) from splashed water pooling on the floor. 

(And remind new parents to incorporate these bath safety tips with new babies, so everyone can be safer in and around the water.)

Extend bath time with swim lessons

Check out your local Goldfish Swim School to sign your little ones up for swim lessons, where our instructors use integrity, compassion and trust to teach babies as young as 4 months old how to swim. Our WOW! customer service is only one of the reasons Goldfish Swim School is worth it.