I remember a friend of mine telling me that her daughter went through a phase where she hated baths. For some reason, I think my friend said she was about 4 when this happened.
N is having the same issue, at least when I try to bath her at night. It seems like when I bath her late afternoon she is better about it, so we might just be having a tiredness issue rather than a bath issue.
Anyhoo, baths have turned into skirmishes between me and her, and tonight it escalated to the point where I yanked her out of the tub and screamed at her that she could just be stinky and I wasn't going to bath her--a bit of reverse psychology that failed miserably since she didn't immediately say "No, no, I want to take a bath." I felt instantly sorry for yelling at her as well as stupid because I had gotten her out of the tub which is exactly not what I wanted to do, and she was perfectly happy with being taken out of the tub. I wanted her to be clean. So I went back into her room, apologized for yelling and then hauled her ass back into the tub.
I never like to think of these situations as winning or losing because even if I "win" it usually involves making her cry or be upset, so it never feels like winning. And sometimes my "loss" isn't a loss but a decision on my part to let the issue go. Tonight was just weird. Usually the reverse psychology thing works on her but her refusal to bite made me have to rethink this strategy.
But the guilt, the guilt. I hate the guilt I feel when I yell at her. I hate the guilt I feel getting so frustrated when she doesn't cooperate with baths. I hate it and yet I can't help but want to knock her teeth out when bath could be sooooooo simple and fast if she'd just quit fighting me. So chalk one up for me being a poopy, irritable mommy today.
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