Bath time
I remember bath time when I was a kid. There were five of us - five little boys who regularly needed bathing before bed. We couldn’t all fit in the tub at the same time, but at least three of us could. In those days we had a big, red plastic boat bath toy. We thought it was big, anyway. By adult standards, maybe it wasn’t quite so big after all. Every bath time we tried to sink the boat by putting water - always cold water - through a little hole at the top (a hole left over from the manufacturing process). We could never sink it, but playing with the cold water in otherwise hot bath water was very exhilarating!
I remember Mom kneeling next to the tub bathing us. She knelt on a small, awful-looking, old foam mat. Sort of brownish. It was not comfortably, luxuriously thick, either. It gave her knees almost no protection at all, actually. Some time in middle school was the last time I saw that mat. It was probably dirty as hell. I remember it as a simple set up. I suspect that today there is a ridiculous selection of fancy bath equipment and accessories for parents to use and young children to enjoy.
I wonder if Mom enjoyed watching us play in the tub? Or, was she more occupied with pain in her knees?