With each passing day, I find myself trying to solve some new challenge with raising four toddlers, aka “quaddlers”.  They are a cunning lot who inspires a little ingenuity on my part (and George’s) just to manage day to day life.  While my ideas are born from being surrounded by four toddlers, I think many of them could be helpful to any parents of little ones so I’m sharing.

Last week, I shared my tip for holding off the pee pee flood gates in the bath tub.  Several of you noticed our huge bathtub mat in the picture I posted.  Which brings me to another tip.  When the babies transitioned from bath seats to sitting independently, it became apparent that the tub floor was too slippery for them.  I picked up a bath mat at Target, but was dismayed when it would not stick to the texture on our bathtub floor.  I tried putting a bath towel down, but it floated up and made a huge mess for me to contend with.

No matter how hard I tried, this mat would not stick to our bathtub and instead floated up, making an even bigger slip hazard.

That’s when the idea struck, I simply turned the mat we had so it stuck on the sides of the bath tub rather than the floor.  It worked perfectly!  However, it did not cover near enough real estate for multiple babies in the bath tub.  I picked up a second mat and now they are flush against each other, creating a large area.

What appears to be an oversize bathmat, is actually two identical bathmats.

Anna, from All Bad Things Must End, shared her favorite toddler bath tip and I gave it a whirl.  While the bath water was running, I attempted to sit the babies on the toilet (individually of course) without a diaper to encourage them to urinate on the toilet.  It didn’t go so well.  Rylin had a major meltdown complete with back arching and wailing.  The other three sat a little more willingly, but no action.  I’m not throwing in the towel on this one yet.  I will revisit this idea in a few months because I think it’s a brilliant way to begin the concept of toilet training.  I will also try it with a toddler seat, I think the seat would make a huge difference, but I just don’t have one yet.  Thank you for sharing, Anna!

What is your favorite toddler tip?

hugs,

Amber