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QUESTION:
"What do y’all feel is the appropriate age for a child to bathe/wash their hair themselves? My granddaughter will be 4 next week. From my reading (and experience with my three kids) the age is between 6-8. My former son-in-law told my daughter that my granddaughter should be doing this herself (I don’t agree) and said when she doesn’t wash her own hair, he pours cold water on her (which I find extremely cruel). Just looking for others opinions. Thanks!"
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TOP ANSWERS (AS SELECTED BY MODERATOR):
The following top answers have been selected by a moderator from hundreds of responses to the original question.
"My son was 6 when he started washing by himself. She’s definitely too young in my opinion."
"She could start learning now but still need an adult to do it afterwards… Sounds like dads just lazy"
"Daughter was 6 when she started washing her self she is now 8 an I still wash her hair sometimes to make sure the shampoo an that is all out"
"My stepdaughter just turned 7. She basically bathes on her own, I pop in every 5 minutes to check in and will put body wash on her scrubby, she washes and then I come in to wash her hair for her… and showers to rinse off"
"I am in the process of teaching my 4 year old boy to bathe himself (been doing it since he could understand) and he is pretty good at doing it himself. But the cold water thing is not cool. Washing hair is definitely a parents job at that age"
"My son started at 6 but I’d still have to go in like once a week and do a good scrub down."
"That’s abuse, he’s abusing your granddaughter…because she needs help washing her hair…a 3 year old…DISGUSTING that no one has put his ass in his place already! I had to help my daughter wash her hair til she was 8-9 years old, she was able to bathe herself at 5-6, but it’s hard for girls to do their own hair that young."
"That is horrible. My daughter is 7 and occasionally needs help getting all the shampoo out of her hair"
"4 is way too little to be in charge of those things. They don’t know about hygiene"
"My daughter was 7 when I had her wash her body by herself and shes 8 1/2 now and she just started doing the full shower alone but I still have to check her hair to make sure she did it right."
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