Bath Time

I begin by telling you that I do take daily showers, no worries. But it has been years since I last took a bath (you know, the sybaritic, candle burning, magazine reading kind). I guess I always feel time-crunched. By the time I have a free hour to soak, I’m too tired to pour in the bubbles. And it’s a shame, because I really used to love baths.

Ad worthy? We thought so!

 My childhood memories include taking a bath with my sister Mo in the kitchen sink. We have an adorable photo of Maureen with Aunt Betty, which we always meant to send in to Johnson and Johnson for use as an ad, so prominent was the baby powder in the pic. A top treat was spending the night at Nana Cunningham’s. There, we would bathe in her old claw-footed tub. Afterward, Nan would bless us with holy water from Lourdes, France. 

I enjoyed the tub, but I enjoyed my children’s enjoyment of bath time more. It was a much-loved nightly ritual. If I let them, they would've stayed in there splashing till the water was cold and their skin was shriveled. They had fleets of toy boats, waterproof books, plastic cups for pouring. The kids had a ball. Even drying off was great; they would run around wrapped in their fluffy towels, whooping with laughter. I remember hoping those happy days with them would never end—even as I knew they would, sooner than I wanted.

Later, they all went through a bath-hating period, and it was a struggle to get them to clean up. But when middle school rolled around, they all fell in love with showers. Our water bill skyrocketed as Seyfried after young Seyfried stayed under the spray for easily 20 minutes or more. For the boys, the crowning touch was a liberal dosing of various Axe products (shower gel, deodorant, etc.) While they no longer smelled sweaty, they now reeked of manufactured “masculine” fragrance. I think I liked them better sweaty. 

Now it is Aiden’s turn to cavort in the water. Aiden calls it taking a

Bath time--the next generation!

“lala” (a word from a Chinese song). Watching him, it is as if the years have slipped away. Though I am not nearly as comfortable getting down on my knees with the washcloth as I once was (never mind getting back up!) I am still delighted to be part of bath time again with my family. 

Slowing down to take a bath once in a while would, I know, do me a lot of good. So why am I always in too big a hurry to indulge? The world will wait, and I don’t have to be on duty 24/7. So that settles it—tonight I will bring out the bath salts and light a candle. I will read a guilty-pleasure magazine and set no alarm while I soak.

How about you? Doesn’t a nice, hot, soul-soothing bath sound wonderful? Why not go for it tonight? After all, there really is plenty of time.