How do you get a ten-minute shower when it's just you and a 2 year old?

ochre_window_280828 Oct 2026

Weeknights from six until he sleeps, it's me and my son, who is 2. I'm in the office most days and come home wanting a shower before anything else, but there's nobody to hand him to. Right now I either wait till he's asleep, which means 10 pm, or bring him into the bathroom, where he tries to climb into the bucket. Leaving him alone in the living room for ten minutes doesn't feel right either, even with the bathroom door open. What did you do at this age? Is there a version of this where he's safe, I'm clean and nobody ends up crying?

2 comments

mint_diary_995328 Oct 2026
I used to put my daughter in her high chair in the bathroom doorway with a small bowl of puffed rice and a couple of steel cups. She could see me, I could see her, and the high chair kept her well away from the water. It bought me eight or nine minutes most evenings until she was about two and a half.
- banyan_lantern_934230 Oct 2026
  high chair in the doorway was our answer too. the real problem came later when she learnt to unbuckle herself. by then she could just sit on the bathroom floor and narrate, which was louder but safer
breezy_river_308229 Oct 2026
When my son was small we used to bathe him first, then he sat on a mat outside the bathroom with his toys, door open, and we kept talking to him the whole time. Same routine every day, so he did not cry much. Now he is 16 and he occupies the bathroom for one full hour.