lifeguard of the bathtub

[psocoptera]

Over on Captain Awkward someone has written in about a husband so addicted to games he even plays them on his phone while bathing the kids. In fact if you read the whole letter the gaming sounds way out of balance, I don't mean to trivialize it, but I was surprised by how many people seemed to see the bath thing as the most excessive of the excesses. Because kids! can drown! in the bath! Which... seems excessively paranoid, to me? I don't ever *leave the room* while my kid is in the bath, and I would not be happy if I saw a lifeguard at our local pool playing games on her phone while on duty, but a lifeguard might have a dozen people all moving around doing complicated things. It just does not require as much processing power to tell if a kid in the bathtub is okay or not; if you're sitting there and not, like, asleep, you can tell.

But I am curious what y'all think about this, and so, a poll! (A fake poll, as I don't have a paid account.) Which of the following do you consider unsafe to do in the bathroom while supervising a kid's bath?

- play games on phone
- text on phone
- talk on phone
- knit
- read a magazine
- brush your teeth
- poop (yes, sorry, ew, but it's a thing you might do in a bathroom that is harder to instantly put down than a phone)
- hold another kid/baby (another thing somewhat harder to instantly drop)
- breastfeed another kid/baby
- anything whatsoever other than remaining crouched in a ready position next to the tub with both hands free

Comments

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

I don't do Junie's bath very often, Josh does it, but when I do, there is the "toys" phase where I'm just watching and then the "washing" phase where I remind her to wash things and shampoo her hair.

Quentin goes in the bath with me and honestly a third hand would be useful there. He is a long way from being able to sit on his own in the tub without me holding onto him.

[irilyth]

She's gotten somewhat more involved in her own washing when I do it, although I usually retain control of the bottle of soap. (But I'll often squirt some on her hands or a body part, and then she'll scrub it.) I still do hair, and have no idea when she'll ever want to do that herself. :^p

Quentin is only barely/recently able to sit on his own on the *floor* without someone holding on to him. :^)