We are not typically a “bathe our kids every night” family.
Given the effort involved, combined with our full evenings, we just never got into the routine of bathing our kids every single night.
Things change when your boy turns seven and runs hard at recess every day. I can’t imagine sending our eldest to school without a bath at this point, I don’t think his classmates could make it through the day. He can shower completely on his own now, and it’s a nightly ritual we don’t skip.
I’ve noticed on my late-night rounds, tucking & kissing the slumbering children, that Bran smells of lavender shampoo – clean. It’s a wonderful smell, and I go to bed feeling that somehow, deeper sleep and sweeter dreams come with freshly-washed bodies.
So last week was a rough one with this little guy. In a nutshell, Bran is giving us opportunities to pull in the reins of discipline a little more tightly. Not fun, but necessary. I had to follow through with some difficult consequences one day last week, and within minutes of executing them, the “old Branson” I hadn’t seen for weeks reappeared.
That night I sneaked into his darkened room well past midnight, checking to make sure he was snuggled under his covers. No bath that evening. But as I stood on my tiptoes and stretched across the top bunk to kiss his cheek, somehow he smelled cleaner and fresher than he had in months. He was clean from the inside out, and it smelled beautiful.
