Go Have a Bath
Today I was made redundant and it wasn't due to AI.
I thought it was going to be AI that would put us all out of work, but tonight I got fired by my six-year-old.
You see, this was the first time I just entered my request into her brain and she complied (well…) from start to finish. I guess it’s kind of like AI. I asked a command and she did it! (with a tiny bit of protest)
She’s been able to hop in and out of the tub alone and find her towel on the back of the door and wrap herself up, dry herself off and get PJ’s on.
That part was never the problem
The problem was the water in the tub. She was afraid of getting the temperature too hot and burning herself so in the past, I would get the tub temp and level correct. Tonight, she did all the things herself. She filled the tub with the right amount of water and most importantly turned it off before it got too high in the tub.
She did need a bit of coaching on how to change the temp, but I told her to just turn the dial until it’s warm. I went in to check just in case, and she had the water about the same temp as dishwater that’s been sitting overnight. Personally, I would like to have the temp a little warmer, but she’s her own person.
The reason a bath is so important writing about is twofold: First, is I was not needed. It’s only about 10 minutes tops, but it’s ten minutes I don’t have to worry or sit and watch her anymore. This doesn’t mean I don’t listen for her and make sure there’s the obligatory singing and splashing, but at least I can tidy up a bit while she’s in the tub.
The other reason she needed a bath was that today was field day at school. I’m not sure what exactly that entails but apparently there were four bouncy houses to play in and they watched the minecraft movie. The school year is pretty much over, I would say.
When she came home, she was exhausted and melted down she was so tired. She ran around all day and hopped up on pizza and freezie pops (two!) and with the weather here being all hot and humid she was literally a hot mess when she hopped off the bus this afternoon.
Even though tomorrow is a school holiday, there was no way she was going to go bath-free tonight and just go to bed.
So she can bathe herself from start to finish now. Next week, she’ll be driving.
Oh, the tooth fairy did show up and left four dollars because that’s how many dollars were in the coffee tin. When she woke up she found the four dollars and was a little disappointed she didn’t get five bucks. It seems the going rate is five bucks for a tooth so lesson learned. It’s a good thing there’s more tooth fairy visits coming so she can redeem herself.
This morning over breakfast out of nowhere she blurted “I miss my little tooth”.
It’s a good thing there’s a replacement on the way.
Keeping it clean,
Tidy Husband and Co.
I enjoyed this read. I find it both bittersweet and utterly rewarding watching my child learn or do something for themselves. It's such a rush of "hey, I'm not screwing them up too bad", along with the nostalgic but detrimental "they're growing up too fast" thinking.