I am a neat freak. With two dogs and two kids, I’m constantly vacuuming, sanitizing, wiping or washing something. So you can imagine how difficult is is for me when we are camping and dirt is….all around, all the time. While small dirty hands and sand stuck under my finger nails still make me want to run for the nearest HoJo to get clean, I have learned to relax, let it be and scrub them like crazy when we get home.
Campers generally come equipped with a shower, but they also have limited supplies of water. While I could probably rinse my kids off in the small tub that generally holds a bag of our dirty laundry, I opt for the public showers instead.
Insert screech of a record here, right?
I have found a way to give my preschooler a shower in the public showers without dying on the inside while I do it.
First, organization. Pack the shower back with the clothes on top and the toiletries in the bottom. When you get to the shower, take the clothes out and hang them on the available hooks with the clothes you need first (underwear) on the top. Also, wear sandals, enough said.
I do recommend using the family or handicapped showers if you can. It does give you a little more space, which is helpful.
We have one of the contraptions to the right. It’s a shower deck. I take it to the shower, put it right in the best spot and then stand my little girl on it while I shower her and shower myself. She stays off the gross floor and out of the reach of any walls and I don’t have to hold her the entire time. She stands on it and washes her body while I wash the both of us.
When we are done, I move the shower deck out of the shower (while holding my daughter) and place it in the good location for dressing her. Once her pants are on, I put her sandals on her and she is free to move around as long as she doesn’t touch anything.
To keep myself free of the public shower grime, I wear Crocs or flip-flops.
We can get in and out of the shower pretty quickly together. The most challenging part is putting a diaper on her while she is standing. But we are working on that….with potty training!
