bathing a child

[butter1]

At the moment I am currently living with my friend and her 5 yr old son until my property I'm buying is finished.  My friend is a single month and herself and the father to the boy share him everyother week.  One week he stays with her, the next with the Father.  The thing is, I've noticed that she will only bath in once in that week she has him.  Is this normal?  I don't have children myself but I would have thought that you would bath a child once a night - not once a week?

[blueeyedlass]

hello butter1 sorry for offending u but i just dont think its ur place to be telling ur friend how to look after her child.

[butter1]

that's ok blueeyedlass..  I know it's not my place to tell my friend how to bring up her child, and I wouldn't dream of doing so.  It's just I really wondered if bathing a 5 yr old once was enough?  I just didn't know?  I didn't want to ask her personal as I didn't want to cause offense.  My friend suffers from depression and other problems and her son has had to live with the father for long periods of time in the past... basically I was just thinking of the child.  I'm not saying my friend is a bad mother at all....I was purely curious.

[barender]

Like some of the others, we had a bath once a week when we were kids, as did most others, due to cost of heating water and it didn't do us any harm. Having a wash using the wash basin and flannel morning and night used to surfice. I agree that there's a lot of washing and applying of lotions nowadays! Unless the child is actually dirty/smelly etc. . there are more important things to bear in mind like giving love and affection and a good diet. 

Someone mentioned the cost of switching on the immersion just to bathe a child - does this mean that no-one else uses hot water?  Incidentally, it actually costs less to leave an immersion heater on all the time than to keep switching it on and off!