My two year old adopted nephew must have had some bad experience while playing in the bubble bath because for two months straight he fought and resisted and cried whenever trying to convince him to get a bubble bath. His Grammy has been giving farmers baths with baby wipes this whole time.

Well today I (his favorite uncle) decided to try to convince him to once again get in the tub.

“Ooh stinky Ricky needs a bath, do you want to get one”

“No.”

"Awwh don’t you want to play with bubbles and draw on tub with crayons? What about TOYS? Do you want to play with uncle SmokeyDope while you take a baaath? Huuh?

His little mind takes a second to process the query

“mhm…”

“Oooh wooow! Alright let’s go play, let’s go PLAAY!”

incomprehensible shrieks of transcendent happiness “bye bye, bye bye, bye bye!”

He gets up and starts running to the stairs towards bathroom while gesturing me to follow. At this point Grammy and I are like “okay this is happening” so we got his little butt to finally willingly go for a bubble bath. I spent over half an hour playing with him like drawing on the tub, splashing him with water, making goofy noises that kind of thing.

This kind of thing is not really in my comfort zone I never gave him a bath before but im willing to try if it helps the situation. So today was a success but now were unsure whether he’s back on the regular grammy time bath routine or if playtime with uncle SmokeyDope is now a non-negotiable update in the terms and service agreements.

I don’t feel very good about myself most of the time so when I’m able to make change for the better in someone elses life or add even a little bit of positivity to a situation it makes me feel like im not wasting space. Today was a good day as uncle SmokeyDope :)

  • MNByChoice@midwest.social
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    19 hours ago

    Great job! This is huge for the three of you!

    Because you mentioned it,I suggest stocking up on toys and bath colors for when you want to remove yourself from the process. Crayola makes various bath color things. (Bath Dropz are great.)

    • SmokeyDope@lemmy.worldOP
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      18 hours ago

      The crayola bath color crayons were what we were playing with, they’re great. Thanks for the advice!

      • ChaosCoati@midwest.social
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        16 hours ago

        Congrats, that’s a big step! My kid loved (well still loves even as an almost teenager) things you stick to the side of the tub and pour water through.

        Similar to this, if you don’t have anything like it yet for bath time. Great to do together and something he can do on his own too.