8 Year old...bathing Battle...

My 8 year old daughter is only allowed to take showers. This is due to the fact that she is able to wash herself properly while standing in the shower as opposed to soaking in the tub. That is not to say she isn't allowed a soak in the tub just for fun. What I've found has worked in giving her the desire to shower nightly is getting her her own bathing products. She has her own shampoo, body wash, body poufs and sponges that are made just for her because she picked them out. I've also taught my daughter the appropriate amounts of soap to use as well as the amount of time it should take. She sings songs or hums a tune to keep timing down.

Good luck!

Hahahaha.

My son is now 9, and gratefull over that phase (mostly)... but here is my 8 year old quote for the year:

"Soap's for losers."

There's just something about the age. I swear.

My kid loves bathing but is always hard-presed to stop what she's doing to get IN the bath. She'll whine and delay, but then have a grand time once the bath is underway! One trick that works with her is I challenge her to a strip-off. I'll tell her, in a sing-song voice, that I bet I can get naked before she can! And she'll be in the bathroom like a shot ripping clothing off her body in record speed. Of course I only manage to get one arm out of a sleeve. ;) (My kid seems to be very competitive... I don't know where she got that from at all.) This strat may not work for your kid. I don't know what makes yours tick but you do, so you need to figure out how to work that to your advantage.

Another thing that would make my child very excited to take a bath is having a special bath toy. Something she can play with only while in the bath. My daughter picked out some pool toys from Target, floating egg-shaped weebles-wabbles, but they don't fall down, animal themed creatures. She loves spinning them in the bubbles and pretends they are skydancers, dancing in clouds.

I wish you luck in discovering the trick that will get your girl ready to clean up. Perhaps a special washcloth and towel embroidered with her name? If she's a girly girl, maybe some special sweet smelling after bath lotion that she can only apply after she's clean? I'm sure you'll find the perfect thing to inspire her to clean up. In the end, peer pressure will get her to do it if you can't. Kids are honest to the point of being mean. It'll only take one of her friends to tell her she stinks to motivate her to clean up. ;)

Our son is almost 8 and we have the rule that he has to shower every other day. Except in the summer this becomes every day bc he loves to play hard outside and gets very hot and sweaty (and stinky). He can choose to take a bath or to shower. Maybe if you have a set rule that you NEVER waiver on (like having to bathe every other day) will make it less of a battle. Personally I would tell my son if he does not get upstairs to bathe by the time I count to 3 then he is going to be punished (usually he'd lose video game time or lose his weekly playdate with a friend). Once he got the punishment a couple times he stopped rebelling and now he just knows to go do it when asked. He will sometimes argue that he had one the day before (when he did not) bc he is trying to get out of doing it.

I'd compromise. If she doesn't smell or itch, bath a little less often. Just ask she soap up the important areas, rinse and be done with it. The whole ordeal could easily be under 3 minutes.

Hopefully, when she starts to notice the boys (or they notice her) she will be more interested in looking nice.

I think she's at the perfect age to reason with and have choices. Let her know that she must be clean every night, no option there. But she has the choice to shower or bathe. And as the other poster said, have her go with you to pick out her own shampoo and soap. And then come up with some fun ideas for her to choose- maybe she can play an iPod or the radio? Or maybe play with a few toys (if she isn't to cool for this yet!). Give her choices so she has some control, and ask her what would make it more fun. But let her know plain and simple that she must wash.

This is going to sound weird but give it some thought. When I was that age I gave my mother an awful time about taking a shower/bath. It was a fight and if I HAD to take a bath I would only put about 2 inches of water in the tub. The reason?? I had the most unbelievably active imagination at that age. I couldn't help it but whenever I would close my eyes to rinse my hair I would see a huge a shark and it was SO REAL in my mind that I would get an adrenaline rush and I was so scared to be in that bathroom alone. It sounds so stupid to me now typing this at my age but it was so real to me then. I knew logically that a shark couldn't be in that bathroom but between the intense imagination and the magical thinking that kids can be prone to I was just so anxious in the shower.
SO...could your child's imagination be running away with her? Does she take really fast baths/showers?
Or maybe she's at age where she would be happier with a shower than a bath. Perhaps buy one of those shower head holders that makes it easier for a kid to shower by letting you lower the shower head and then take her out and let her pick out her own bath puff and shower gel.
My mom made me bathe one or two times a week at that age--I eventually outgrew the goofiness over time. I would just try to be understanding and patient with her if that turns out to be the case.

My 9 year-old daughter bathes/showers about twice a week in the winter, almost every day in the summer. I haven't had too many battles, but I don't think bathing every day in the winter is necessary for kids or even a good idea. We get really dry itchy skin here if we shower too often. She gets the choice shower vs. bath. I usually keep her company part of the time, or read to her (she still loves to be read to) while she's in the bathtub.

By the time kids (especially girls) start "stinking", you'll be trying to get her out of the shower/tub before your water bill gets outrageous (I've raised two kids into their 20s already).