At what age do you feel is appropriate for a child to bathe themselves?

Question

I know someone who still bathes their child who is 11. I think this is way, way too old. Any comments?

When I told my friend I thought her child would be able to do this alone, she told me that she doesn't wash her hair properly. I think this is just bizarre.

All four of my children were about 6 when they starting bathing themselves.

Answer 1

11 is way too old to be bathed by a parent. She obvisouly has issues letting go.

Answer 2

Well I think in this situation it could depend on if the child has a mental handicap of a certain age, kwim.

If this isn't the case, I would say 7 or 8. My friends 5 year old takes baths with his little brother, and she does help him wash his hair because he can't seem to get out the soap. And her little sister hit her head in the tub once and almost drowned and that freaks her out, because she was 6 when it happened. As for washing themselves I would think 4 or 5 they should be able to do it again depending on the kids mentality. Washing their own hair 7 or 8. I had long hair and I was a tomboy and my mom always had to help me because I could have cared less about it when I was 8 lol.

Answer 3

I have a six year old son and he has been bathing himself since he was four years old i sat in the bathroom with him to make sure that he was no in any kind of danger and then if he wanted my help i would give him my help but i started letting him help me to wash his body and hair when he was three.
At four he started wanting to do it himself and now he even turns on the water for himself. i check the temperature of the water and i stay real close by just in case he needs me but at the age of 11 that child should even be able to dress themselves i feel that that child's mother is having a problem with letting that child grow up and be independent.
The mother wants to be the only one to be able to do for this child.
That is not a good thing for the child to have to deal with when that child becomes an adult.

Answer 4

Way too old, regardless of the reason.
Does this mother bathe her 11 year old when he/she has friends on sleepovers? Did the mother's mother bathe her until she was that old? I doubt it. If she's concerned about how the child washes her hair, she could be in there and observe and if there's a critique, give it, but she needs to cut the cord!
My son is 6 and he bathes himself now. This mother needs to realize that her child will start puberty very soon, too. That's too weird.

Answer 5

As soon as the child is old enough not to drown themselves accidentally in the water, they are old enough to bathe themselves. Eleven is WAY too old to have Mommy or Daddy bathing you.

It would vary from child to child the age when they are responsible to bathe themselves alone, but only if the child is handicapped would they need to be bathed by a parent at age 11.

Answer 6

My 9 year old [almost 10] likes me to wash her hair - she uses head and shoulders [lots of dandruff and she used to cry about it all the time when the kids at school made fun of her and the doctor okayed it] but she HATES getting it in her eyes. She did once, and her eyes were beet red [she also takes allergy eye drops so it really irritated them]. So I wash her hair. Otherwise I leave her alone in the tub.

My 7 year old has really long thick blond "princess hair" and can't wash it herself. She has a few times, but can't rinse it out all the way or seem to lather the ends properly. So I hang out there a bit for bath time too.

Every kid is different for reasons parents don't always share!

Answer 7

My son is 6. He has been bathing himself since he was about 4.
This mostly has to do with the fact that he decided he prefers showers.

When he started bathing himself, I would check in on him and make sure he was washing his hair. I still do that sometimes.

Answer 8

ya it is way to old 11 yrs old is to old

my daughter is 8 yrs old the only thing i do is wash her hair she can do everything else i don't need to be right there watching her i keep the door open tell her to make noise and tell her to tell me when she is ready to have her hair washed
i think by 6 or 7 they should be able to wash themselves HAIR is just a whole nother story girls with long hair as a parent you just want to make sure that all the soap is out my daughter doesn't like shawers so she is baths all the way

Answer 9

Yeah I also agree with you that is very old. I bathed myself when I was like 9 meaning totally by myself. Up until that point my mom would just come in to wash my hair since I had really long hair. But other than that I probably washed myself since I was like 5.

Answer 10

Well, if you have 4 children, you already have an opinion, which is all it is. My eleven year old doesn't bathe as thoroughly as I'd like, but he is of an age that he is embarrassed for me to see him nude. So I let it go, but scream in there to make sure to wash certain parts.

If this mother feels like her daughter needs help washing her hair, who cares? God knows it isn't weird, she's a good mother. Better that than never having her bathe, right?

Answer 11

I think they should be able to wash themselves at like 6 or 7 but if the child really isn't washing her hair properly that is a legitmate reason. But she should get her daughters hair cut until she learns to take care of it.