Im curious to know what do you still do for your child and what they handle on their own? Kaitlyn just turned 7 and even though she will always be my little girl I feel like I dont want her to depend on me for everything, but dont want her to grow up faster than she should. KWIM?

There are days that I still help Kaitlyn get dress. She can fully get dressed on her own, but it just gets done faster when I help her and weekdays im pressed on time. I still clean her and dry her off after bath and dry her hair. Sometimes, she will get a head start and start the dryer on her own.

My kids are pretty independant. Brooke will be 8 on Dec 30th. For the past year at least she has taken a shower alone, washing her hair putting conditioner etc in it. Braedon is 6 and he does it all too.

With 3 kids and so many activities they have to get use to doing stuff on their own. I don't mind helping them do things but they need to learn to do it in case I'm not able to help, they want to spend the night away etc.

Both of my kids have tender heads so they've been washing their own hair since at least 8yo.

I don't remember when I stopped but now neither of them will let me help them dress or brush their hair. They are older than your girls though (almost 13 & almost 11).

Leanna still likes being babyed and sitting in my lap (mommy-uppie) and she won't go to sleep unless I sit in her room for a few minutes at bedtime.

My two are pretty DEpendent. Ilijana has issues with water, so while she may wash her own hair in the shower, she never gets all the soap out so we have to darn near get in the shower with her to help her rinse it all out.

She also just recently learned to dry herself off. Seriously. She is in gifted in school but cried for an hour the first time DH didn't dry her off. She didn't know you had to use the towel and couldn't just hold it around you and then hop in to clothes. LOL! Seriously, it drives me crazy.

Milo does a good job but only when he is alert and focusing. He can be told 6 times to wash himself and finally after the 7th time he will start. He'll just get caught in a gaze or play in the water and forget to wash himself.

Last month DH was giving him a bath and DH fell asleep in DS's bed. Milo just sat in the cold tub water waiting for DH until finally he screamed down "is anybody going to get me out of this tub?". He is in gifted too. LOL!

So basically bath time is a big pitb here at our house. As much and as often as we try to foster some independence in them, it just isn't happening yet. I dread that part of our evenings. I usually have them take a tub/shower every other night just to avoid it for one night.

Nights DD has dance or like tonight DS has hockey, we just have to give them a shower before bed. It is something I slightly dread all day long. LOL!

In their defense, our new house has one of those old claw foot, straight out of 1880 bath tubs. It is hard to turn the faucet on for us adults, and the other bathroom only has one of those tiny corner showers. We also have to take the tubs/showers one at a time. In our area the water pipes/heaters something only allows one source of water to be used at a time. If you flush a potty or run a faucet while someone else is showering, they will get burned by suddenly scalding water. It stinks.

Can you tell it is a sensitive subject for me? LOL!

I'm thinking of making DD cut her hair shorter just to see if she can manage her hair alone then. Right now it is so long and she just can't get the soap out easily.

I have both girls in the tub at the same time and dont even trust my oldest with turning on thh water. She understands which one is hot and cold, but still dont feel comfortable w/ that....Since my 4 yr old is in there w/ her, I feel like I need to help her, but since my oldest is there, I just do her as well.