And that's culturally perfectly normal. From a Japanese perspective, together tub-time is good for family bonding. As children grow older, they'll start enjoying bath time separately. But the habit of sharing the splash can go till junior high or even high school.
Jenn Berman shared this advice with Parents Magazine: "Generally siblings of opposite genders should start bathing separately around the age of seven or whenever they start grabbing at each other, becoming preoccupied with each others genitals during bath time, or one asks for privacy."
Showering together can save water. People could scrub each others backs. If using handheld showerheads, they could help each other rinse off more efficiently. Sometimes people like to be naked in a hot place together for personal reasons best left to your imagination.
“Some four- or five-year-olds feel very strongly about privacy and some kids don't care about it until they are eight or nine years old.” Essentially, this is about consent. Once it's no longer comfortable for a child to share bath time, it's time for individual baths or showers.
In general, I would say that by the age of 8 or 9 years-10 at the latest-most children have developed enough of a sense of personal boundaries and body space that they no longer want to shower with a parent or bathe with a sibling of the opposite sex. But Dr. Rosenblum's query raises broader issues.
While it's not illegal for them to share, it's recommended that children over the age of 10 should have their own bedrooms – even if they're siblings or step-siblings. We know this isn't always possible. If kids are sharing, try to have regular conversations with them about how they're feeling.
For centuries, Japanese men and women bathed together in a shared space, known as mixed-gender onsens. In Japan, this concept is called Konyoku. Records of the Konyoku onsen have dated as far back as the 9th century, but many scholars believed it existed even way before.
From a Japanese perspective, together tub-time is good for family bonding. As children grow older, they'll start enjoying bath time separately. But the habit of sharing the splash can go till junior high or even high school. Japan has a long tradition of communal bathing with onsen and sento.
Many experts say that 5 or 6 is a good age to stop. Others say that parents should start being more modest when the child starts to be more modest, which is also usually around 6 years old.
The Japanese have perfected the art of onsen, or hot spring baths, for centuries. Traditionally, men and women would bathe together in the same facility, but these days the baths are segregated by gender. Today, konyoku (mixed-gender onsen) are hard to find, with places like Tokyo having bans on such establishments.
Most people in Japan think of the bathtub as washing away not only their sweat and dirt from the day but their fatigue, too. so it is typically custom to take baths every night.
It's good manners to avoid using onsens during menstruation, particularly on heavy flow days, even when using a tampon. Onsens, like pools in Japan, do not use powerful disinfectants, so it's not very sanitary for anyone involved.
In general, the Japanese enjoy taking baths together, and there are different opportunities to do so. It can happen while staying at a hotel together, for example, where the bathroom has a big bathtub.
One peculiar thing about this tribe is that they do not take baths with water. This is mostly because of their harsh climatic conditions. The Himba people live in one of the most extreme environments on earth with the harsh desert climate and the unavailability of potable water.
If space is limited in your bathroom, one way to compromise is to purchase a bath tub and shower combo, known as a “shower bath”.
Actually, experts approve of sibling beds, as long as everyone's happy and getting enough sleep.
The simple, clinical answer to the question is: Yes. A brother and sister can have a perfectly healthy child together. Children born of incestuous couplings do have an increased risk of presenting genetic defects and/or deformities. But the increased risk is negligible with first generation inbreeding.
Research presented at the national conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) found that children should be at least 12 before they should be left alone for more than 4 hours.
Can you sit in the bathtub too long? "When taking a bath, you should try to limit it to 15 minutes," Dr. Chimento says. "Anything longer than that will begin to strip the skin of its natural oils, leading to inflammation and irritation." Basically, when it starts to get cold, get out.
If you stick with daily showers, limit them to five minutes with warm water, not hot. This is likely fine for most people. However, bathing 2-3 times per week is also likely just as healthy and good for the environment too.