My two year old adopted nephew must have had some bad experience while playing in the bubble bath because for two months straight he fought and resisted and cried whenever trying to convince him to get a bubble bath. His Grammy has been giving farmers baths with baby wipes this whole time.
Well today I (his favorite uncle) decided to try to convince him to once again get in the tub.
“Ooh stinky Ricky needs a bath, do you want to get one”
“No.”
"Awwh don’t you want to play with bubbles and draw on tub with crayons? What about TOYS? Do you want to play with uncle SmokeyDope while you take a baaath? Huuh?
His little mind takes a second to process the query
“mhm…”
“Oooh wooow! Alright let’s go play, let’s go PLAAY!”
incomprehensible shrieks of transcendent happiness “bye bye, bye bye, bye bye!”
He gets up and starts running to the stairs towards bathroom while gesturing me to follow. At this point Grammy and I are like “okay this is happening” so we got his little butt to finally willingly go for a bubble bath. I spent over half an hour playing with him like drawing on the tub, splashing him with water, making goofy noises that kind of thing.
This kind of thing is not really in my comfort zone I never gave him a bath before but im willing to try if it helps the situation. So today was a success but now were unsure whether he’s back on the regular grammy time bath routine or if playtime with uncle SmokeyDope is now a non-negotiable update in the terms and service agreements.
I don’t feel very good about myself most of the time so when I’m able to make change for the better in someone elses life or add even a little bit of positivity to a situation it makes me feel like im not wasting space. Today was a good day as uncle SmokeyDope :)
Do you want to play with uncle SmokeyDope while you take a baaath?
That sentence gave me chills, but still, well done!
Rad! Enjoy the success high, but you’re going to want to keep chasing that dragon. Don’t be bummed if it fails to work a second time. They adapt, and sometimes they are having a bad day and even the coolest uncle will hit a wall.
Helpful things for bath:
- toys that squirt water
- bath bombs with toys inside
- the drawing / painting stuff you mentioned
- hand mirrors for seeing themselves covered in suds
- cups and buckets for moving water around
- suction cup toys for the walls (water spout things, marble race courses, etc)
Also, if you’re new to working with kids, timers that visually count down (not digital, ones that have a colored wheel of how much time is left) are helpful for starting / ending tasks. Also tricks like betting them they cant wash their own hair, or you can finish a bath before the end of the timer can work well. And on nice days with a rain shower, go soap up out side. do it with them. clean off from the hose, they love it.
you’re doing great! keep it up!
Heck yeah, awesome uncling.
Every day I’m an aunt is a good day. Keep making a difference, pal. The little guys need extended family.
Given my experiences with kids, be prepared to be non-negotiable for awhile, but that’s not a bad thing. Says that the time with you makes the kid feel safe enough that whatever the problem might be aren’t bad enough to say no.
And if it is a trauma, you’re helping work through it, in a way. Maybe not the core experience, but at least helping disconnect part of the experience, reframe it as something not traumatic.
Dude helping little kids move past things like this is so rewarding. Good job dude, you’re a great uncle.
Crayons in the tub?
Yeah, I want to know more about this. Are there special bath tub crayons you can get, because that sounds fun.
They are more like water based paint sticks that they can draw with that can wash away (fairly) easily
“Easily” is definitely a stretch with the ones we were just given
Uncle Smokey Dope is the name of Op’s bong.
Well… It wasn’t. Say hello to the other newly christened Uncle SmokeyDope
Hello
Why two holes?
There’s three holes, achthually 🤓 Theres a 14mm and a 8mm intake joint that connects with the perc, and one 14mm output where the mouthpiece is slotted in. The 8mm intake can take native 8mm inserts like dynavaps but it gets used as a simple carb cap most often for easy clearing of the milked up glass. the 14mm intake gets the most use its where my vaporizers connect most often with standard 14mm glass male inserts. You can hit two bowls at once using both intakes at the same time. With the 14mm outtake I can swap out the glass mouthpiece for a hoohah hose.
Heres a video of me hitting it waterless if you want to see.
I just wanna hear OP’s nephew actually say “Uncle Smokey Dope!” I bet it comes out sounding hilarious from a two year old.
Great job! This is huge for the three of you!
Because you mentioned it,I suggest stocking up on toys and bath colors for when you want to remove yourself from the process. Crayola makes various bath color things. (Bath Dropz are great.)
The crayola bath color crayons were what we were playing with, they’re great. Thanks for the advice!
Congrats, that’s a big step! My kid loved (well still loves even as an almost teenager) things you stick to the side of the tub and pour water through.
Similar to this, if you don’t have anything like it yet for bath time. Great to do together and something he can do on his own too.
Convincing a child to do something they don’t want to but need to is a skill to be proud of. One mine hit 6-10 months they started to have their own opinions. I’m super proud to be the master of putting them to sleep, as difficult as they can be.
Nice job! Super smart to make bath time fun time
Grammy has been giving farmers baths
What’s a farmer bath?
Aka a whore bath, a sink/basin bath, a wash-up, hittin the high spots, wiping up, etc.
There’s all kinds of variants on it. I spent twenty years bathing, or helping bathe, people. You’d be amazed at the variety of ways folks will build up terms for such minor tasks that are regular and repeated that “need” a distinction from a more common thing
Once the default form of bathing turned into tubs, it was inevitable that bathing via a basin or other container develop its own nomenclature. Same as it became inevitable that once showers became ubiquitous that you’d run into distinctions between that and a tub bath.
Since the oldest form of bathing inside a house or structure was the one that lingered most in rural areas where indoor running water was last to appear, farmers were one of the last groups to take that kind of bath daily. So that’s the terminology that stuck in places where that was a factor.
However, the term “whore bath” preceded it by a good margin, going back to somewhere in the 1800s iirc. Since prostitutes got sweaty and sticky multiple times a day, the need for a quick bath of the “important” parts was a bit of a meme. When the daily bath for everyone started switching to tubs post piped water, the term got expanded into the fuller basin bathing methods that were used daily.
Mind you, daily bathing practices varied a lot everywhere. Some places and times, people might default to the bare minimum of hands, face, crotch, and ass. Sometimes not even all of that. I can’t recall the sect, but there was a religious group back in the 1700s that considered washing anything but the face, feet, and hands sinful.
The typical actual bath by farmers was fairly complete though. The more common farmer’s bath was often referring to the quick wash up they’d do while coming to a meal or otherwise taking a break. Hands, face, sometimes some water poured over the head, and more rarely an extra scrub at the pits. Again, the exact methods would vary a lot.
Talking to older folks from before running water was a thing was always interesting. We tend to forget how damn amazing it is that we can just turn a knob and get water. It’s something that has never been common everywhere. And, it hasn’t been so widespread before the last half of the last century. There’s still places all around the world where it isn’t even reliable in some cities, and many rural places don’t have it at all.
So you still run into a lot of farmers worldwide where a daily bath is a rag and a container of water.
I didn’t think I was going to read a well written five paragraph essay deep dive on the nature of bathing slang across culture from an expert in the field today. Well, here we are. Thanks for the great response southsamurai!
Farmers baths are when you wash up without running water or a shower. A pan, water, soap, washcloth and lye is all that most people had to work with before modern plumbing. For a toddler this means lots of baby wipes maybe a touch of soap around the stinky and dirty spots. For an adult it means baby wipes and definitely a touch of soap round the the stinky and dirty spots, followed by a spritzing of distilled white vinegar or alcohol for sanitizer, followed by another application of baby wipes and soap.
Sounds similar to a navy shower:
- turn on water just enough to get your body damp, then turn it off
- lather up your washcloth/loofah with soap, then lather yourself up
- turn water back on just long enough to get the soap off
We call this a camping shower.
Washcloth/sponge and a bucket of water, typically. Soap optional.
Couldn’t find anything, and I was intrigued too. My imagination is running amok.
Aww this is so sweet! Being the favorite uncle is quite the honorific. I have a 2 year old of my own and with daily parenting I try to be conscious whenever we have family and friends over that a baby is a bit foreign to them and they don’t know always know how to interact with him/ react to him.
Best advice is let the little one lead the way with things and encourage them always with what they are doing (as long as it isn’t dangerous!).
The other side of the family want nothing to do with him sadly so im left as the only uncle he knows and therefore favorite by default ( hey ill take it!) Thanks for the advice 👍
you’re a good uncle and he’s lucky to have you, thanks for sharing your story
I read SmokeyDope’s lines like he was a Mr. Meeseeks. I think it was the “stinky Ricky” that made me think of Rick and Morty, then the “Awwh” and “Oooh wooow!” that cemented it.
