Most people begin and end their day in the bathroom. We usually head to urinate as soon as we wake up, and clean up last thing before we go to bed. This ritual may have come from the way we were brought up, starting perhaps from the time we were being trained by our parents when we were once young on how to take proper care of ourselves. Potty training can be moments for both bonding and disciplining between parents and children. It can be time to form trust, and an opportunity to teach kids about personal hygiene. These are things that a child will carry with them through life and as they mature into adults.
So if you need to potty-train your child, here are some basic bathroom habits to teach your kids and also some etiquette that you should make sure you pass on.
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Always Wash Hands After Using The Bathroom
This might seem very obvious, but there are plenty of bathroom things that will shock you, so it’s well worth making sure your children know and learn from you the absolute basics. Various kinds of germs that can cause diseases thrive in the bathroom. A child should learn to wash their hands before they leave the bathroom. Washing their hands will not only protect them from acquiring these nasty germs, but it will also stop those germs from spreading to other parts of the home and other family members.
Keep The Floor Dry
For safety reasons, the bathroom floor should always be kept dry. Since bathroom floors are often tiled, they can be slippery when they get wet. Slippery tiles are dangerous for the whole family, but especially for children who might be moving around quickly and not looking where they’re going. It takes just a spill or a splash for anyone in the house to slip over on it.
Always Flush The Toilet
For the sake of both hygiene, and politeness for the next person to use it, the toilet should always be flushed, freeing it from any sign of being used before. Make sure your children are remembering to do this. We try to remind our children of this when we hear them going to the toilet as sometimes they forget to do this at home.
Be Mindful Of Resources
Every child needs to learn to be mindful about their use of water, tissue paper, and soap. Talk to your children about these important resources, and help them to understand the importance of avoiding wastage. Have a conversation about how they can help to protect the environment by not wasting water. There are lots of videos on youtube for children so they can get a visual on how the way they do things can protect the environment.
Keep Everything In The Right Place
To keep everything in the bathroom tidy and well organized, you should also remind your children to put things back where they should be after they’ve used them. Soaps should be put back in the soap dish, and the tissue should always be in the tissue holder, for example. Dirty towels and flannels should be put into the washing basket.
As parents, we all want our children to be responsible and self-reliant. Apart from teaching our little people how to use the toilet properly, we also need to make sure that they know how to keep the bathroom clean and safe, and pleasant for the next person to use. These habits and etiquette will be needed when your child starts school, and will make the family bathroom nicer too!
Laura x
Nice tips here, the flushing is one of those that you’ll have to repeat over and over again!