Bath time for many children is an important part of the daily routine. It can be a powerful check-point that symbolises that this is the point in the day where we begin to wind down. The warm water, sounds of splashing and sensory aspects can work really well to help your child relax before bed-time. 

• Don’t put pressure on yourself to bathe your children every single day. It may be adding unnecessary daily stress to your life when it can be avoided. Bathing your baby or toddler 2-3 times per week is more than enough. You can use a cloth and some warm water to clean them daily in between. 
• This one may sound obvious but run the bath before you take the kids into the bathroom. It’s a simple logistic thing that makes things run smoother. If it is possible to leave the kids downstairs or in another room with the other parent who can undress them and put their clothes in the laundry basket. It means that when you take the kids to the bath they are ready to rock. Ten minutes of “don’t touch that” and “come back here” while you try to run the bath is a bit stressful to say the least.
• Lay out all towels, nappies/underwear, pyjamas, hair brushes and ointments so that it’s as quick and stress-free as possible when you take the children out of the bath. If it is a stressful “shouty” affair it will make bed-time a lot more difficult as they will be hyper rather than benefiting from the wind-down that bath time offers.
• When your kids are a little bit older you can use this time to clean the bathroom while they play in the tub. The steam in the room will make dirt and grime lift off surfaces a lot easier and you can supervise your children while ticking a household chore off the list at the same time.
• When your children are young get into the bath with them. It’s a lovely experience for so many reasons. You’ll leave feeling clean and refreshed and nothing can really beat that skin to skin contact with your beautiful babies. On a practical level, it also saves time because you’ll be much closer in proximity to the children meaning it’s easier to wash their hair and hand them their favourite bath toy.
• You may be spending a lot of time worrying about their safety so make sure that the bath time set up is as a safe as possible from the get-go. This will make things run smoother and save time at every bath time. For example, putting non-slip bath mats inside and outside the tub will reassure you more and make things easier when they are getting in and out of the tub.
• Make it a game. A “Simon Says” style works really well. Give each child a cloth or sponge and tell them where to wash next. They’ll listen eagerly and try to out-do each other. You’ll have clean and happy children at the speed of light.