Why Bath Crayons are a Bad Idea

Not long ago, I purchased a brightly colored, fun-looking package of bath crayons for the babies. What a great idea, right? I mean, who wouldn't want their child to have fun in the bathtub, drawing all sorts of cool gadgets and trying to spell his name? And in a bathtub? Where the mess will basically clean itself? Count me in.

Or not.

Even if we totally ignore the fact that these devices teach kids it's okay to write on walls, the mess doesn't end in the bathtub. Oh no. The water splashes over, the crayons fall apart, the wax gets on your clothes. Let's take it from the beginning.

We start with Dulce ecstatically tossing the bath crayons into the tub of water. They're in these plastic casing contraptions so that you can click the waxy part up, and hold the plastic, like a marker with a tip. However, this ingenious idea only works if the crayon isn't wet. Within minutes, the crayon wax had melted enough so that the crayons slipped out of their containers and would not stay back in. I took them out and lined them up.

Of course, just touching the crayons was a very messy business.

Thankfully, there was a tub full of water right there, so no harm no foul. We ran into trouble again right away though. Now I had two kids in a tub, struggling over each other to get at the line of crayons I'd made. The casings slipped off and into the tub, the crayons fell on the floor making a waxy puddle of mess and getting on the towels, the babies were fighting over the purple. My idyllic mind scene of a peaceful drawing session was thrown out with the bathwater, so to speak. There was more color on my babies than on the walls of the tub. Last time I checked, baths were for getting clean. I am not impressed.

After I finally managed to get the soppy mess back into its container, never to be released again, the babies found at least one viable toy in the bunch. The duck-shaped sponge turned out to be a lifesaver.

 

For about five minutes that is. It turns out that one sponge to two toddlers who haven't quite yet learned all the subtleties of sharing is not a particularly wonderful ratio. And if they're both in a 2x5 ft. space, well, mommy can't get to the sponge quickly enough.

He's now "in the workshop" getting "fixed."

So, from now on, it looks like we're back to being a squeaky-toy, watering-can, bucket family when it comes to taking baths. Which isn't so bad, really. I quite like my watering can arm cleansings.

Bath crayons: only do it if you dare.

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