I brought this subject up recently, and my husband was amazed that I remember being small enough to fit in the kitchen sink. Not only that, but I remember being bathed in the sink along with my brother, who was three years older.
Then, at some point, we graduated to the bath tub. He, being older, always got the deep end.
I’m one of those people who only remembers being very young as a few mental snapshots without much detail. I could have been bathed in a mudpuddle, for all I know. My oldest son remembers details from an early age, right down to the color of the shirt he was wearing.
Are you sure about this memory? How big was your sink?
Bathing your baby in a galvinzed tub was common when I was a kid. I’ve seen people bath their children in a sink, but can’t recall if I was. Would be suprised if I wasn’t as we often would wash our hair in the kitchen sink when we were little.
I don’t remember it, but my Grandmother took a picture of bathing me in the sink. She told me that the umbilical cord came off in the sink. That would be 1956.
We had a plastic tub that fit within the bathtub. I remember my sister being bathed that way, and presumably so was I.
I don’t remember it but my mom has pictures. Apparently I fit in the sink at my grandparents’ house.
Heck, I remember being bathed in a galvanized washtub with water heated from the wood (and corn cob) burning stove in the house that was built by my 2 x great grandfather, while visiting my 2 x great granduncle and his wife who lived there. The house had no electricity or plumbing, just a hand pump in the kitchen and kerosene lamps, and a radio run off a battery. This would have been circa 1959 I think. How’s that for old timey?
No, but I had a friend once who remembered getting her nappy changed.
My very earliest memory is from about the age of 2, rolling down a slope in my grandparents’ garden (dateable from the house they were in)
I don’t remember it for myself, but my folks tell the story of taking infant me on the train from NY to Boston for the holidays (1964), and carrying the plastic bathtub. My grandma was amused at the idea and I’m sure I used the sink there the next time.
I definitely bathed my own children in sinks when necessary, but we had a small tub we put in the bath most of the time.
I don’t remember being in the kitchen sink, but I do remember being bathed in the bathtub while wearing a baby shower cap like this one.
My earliest bathing memory is being in the tub with my sister (1 year younger) and brother (2 years younger) - I was maybe 4 at the time. I’m sure when there was just me, I was bathed in the sink because we lived with my dad’s parents on the 3rd floor and the only bathroom was in the basement. In fact, we lived there till mom was almost ready to deliver my brother, so more than 2 years of sink baths.
I bathed my daughter in the sink, and just a few weeks ago, did the same with my grandson. It’s a family tradition!!
I remember this. It’s a vague wisp of a memory, and I don’t have many childhood memories, but there is this one.
I have quite a few early memories. I have a clear delineation because we moved like a day before my fifth birthday so I know everything I remember of our old neighborhood is from age 4 or younger. The earliest memory in which I can definitely confirm my age is me skipping down our driveway holding up three fingers saying “I’m three, I’m three” in a singsong voice.
What may be one of my earliest memories is me making my mom mad for some reason, so she put me in a playpen while she laid down on the couch for a brief nap. I clearly remember looking round the old house and hoping she was no longer angry after her nap (she wasn’t). If I was still in a playpen
I figure I must have been no older than two. It’s possible though, since my sister was born when I was 4, that it was my infant sister’s playpen, and my mom just stuck me in there for a timeout.
My brother and sister and I were all bathed in the kitchen sink at my Tia Olga’s house. I have a vague memory of myself in the sink, but I mostly remember my brother because he would wet the bed and my Tia would threaten to use a clothes pin on his little pee pee while she bathed him.
We were all a bit frightened of her.
How young are babes when washed in the sink? No more than 2 - if that?
I’m dubious of most very early memories I hear of. My suspicion is that many of them reflect stories they have heard and/or photos the’ve seen. Possibly memories of younger sibs being treated in such a manner.
I have photos of me as a baby in the sink. Not sure I have anything I would consider a true memory younger than age 4-5.
I don’t remember, but I have photographic evidence. This is me around 1949-50 in the kitchen sink at Grant Heights, the military housing area in Japan where we were stationed.
I don’t know if this picture is permitted by board rules. It shows me just past babyhood bare from the waist up sitting in the sink. My knees are exposed. Can anyone tell me how old you think I am in the picture? I’m not sure.
I don’t even know if imgur will permit the picture to be left up. I’m going to spoiler the link. If anyone flags it, I guess mods can remove.
I think I do. At least, I have a memory of it, and no photos of it, so it’s less likely to be a false memory. It was a bigger sink than usual (as a child doing the dishes it was difficult to reach stuff at the bottom) so I was probably older than the average and I don’t think it was the norm, just a way of not tracking lots of dirt into the house.
You look between 3 and 4 in that pic.
The earliest bathing experience I remember would be from before I was 5 because it was at the old house. The second oldest is from the new house and I had just turned 5. I remember it because now we had shower but my mom wouldn’t let me use it because we had been in a car accident that day moving into the new house. I hit my head in the accident, and mom was worried I’d fall in the tub, and add to her problems.
My oldest memory is me in the back of our VW bug, standing up, looking at my mom holding my fairly new little brother in the front passenger seat, and thinking this was no good. I was 2, but I remember it like yesterday.
Does it get any more old-timey if I say I remember the same thing from circa 1975? The house did have electricity by then, but you still had to take the WW2 flashlight to guide the way to the outhouse. But(t) yeah, I remember galvanized tub baths. The other choice was Ivory soap, it floats, baths in the lake. Yup, still a hand pump in the kitchen. They did get an electric pump put in the well in around 1990. The cornerstone on the house says 1883.
