The Realities of Bathtime in an RV

We feel it’s important to keep some consistency in our kids’ daily life to ease the transition to life in an RV and on the road.

With this in mind, we’re trying our best to maintain our kids’ typical nighttime routine, but the realities of the RV make it difficult to keep the rituals entirely in tact.

You could literally use the toilet, brush your teeth, and shower all at the same time.

When you sit on the toilet, your knees tuck in under the sink so that you could lean forward and spit in the sink. Reach up overhead and pull down the shower faucet on a hose.

How disgustingly efficient!

Jane uses the toilet regularly, but Katie and I rarely do. We shuffle to the campground bathrooms. I suppose one day soon we’ll start potty training Wilson on that little toilet. That should be fun.

We barely use the toilet, but we never use the shower. We don’t have the water holding capacity to take a true shower. We’d have to take a Navy bath. Some call it a huzzy bath. Get wet, turn off the water, lather up, and then rinse off.

There isn’t enough room for two people in the bathroom, so if we tried to bath the kids in there we’d be sitting on the bed while reaching through the door of the bathroom.

We’ve never tried it. Instead, here’s our bath time routine.

In the evenings, when it’s bath time, we carry the kids to the bathroom for showers. We either walk or bike them over.

The kids despise showers so far, wanting for a tub.

Before heading to the shower, I usually put on my bathing suit and Keens. This makes it much easier when it’s time to wrap up a slippery toddler in a towel and carry them back across the parking lot.

Wilson is first because he goes to bed first.

I usually don’t let either kid touch the floor while showering. I hold Wilson in the shower, turning him every which way while scrubbing him as he claws at me to get out of the water.

It’s quick but loud. The squirming and screaming usually ends before some good Samaritan comes looking to see if someone is hurt.

I wrap Wilson in a towel, tuck him under my arm, and return to the trailer for Jane.

Jane is less combative, but she is getting heavy. Once she’s lathered up, it’s hard to keep her off the ground, especially if she decides to have an attitude and become dead weight. She can rag doll with the best of them.

After bath, it’s dinner, milk, stories, songs, and bed.

The fact that we have to carry or bike the kids to the shower each night for bath makes it a little difficult to maintain our typical bedtime routine, but we’ve stayed pretty close.