Maybe I'm not quite grasping the concept here. Do Australian parents really have so much uncommitted time in their day that they blow up a whole bathtub, fill it with water, empty it, deflate it, and carefully hang it up to dry mold-free every time they put the bub in the tub? Or is this Inflatable Baby Spa just for special, outdoor occasions?
Also, if I brought one of these Aussie tubs back to the US, would the water still go down the drain the other way?
Inflatable Baby Spa by Go Home, $AU40 [go-home.com.au via swissmiss]
I think the concept is that you can use it if you're away from home, somewhere with no bathtub. At least that's what I thought when I saw it. Over the past few months, we took a few trips where the hotel or vacation cottage had no bathtub. My nearly-two-year-old hates showers or any form of falling water. Something like this inflatable "spa" would be great, but I'd want a cheaper version (and a pump).
We use a small inflatable tub (not Australian, or a "spa", alas) because it uses less water than filling the whole tub. It has a suction cup that use to hang it up on the wall between uses, so it dries out just fine, no need to deflate and re-inflate each time.
there is a SERIOUS water shortage in Australia, they are about to start recycling waste water for domestic use. So maybe bathtubs aren't cool, and this is a sneaky way to have one. We spent a few months in a house with no tub with our 16mo old and it was treacherous. We had to go on holiday every weekend in order to bathe her. (ha ha)
We had a similar thing for taking away on holiday (vacation). No luggage space and no weight, but you can still bath the pre-6 month kids easily. Worked really well.
Six point plan:
1) Midnight at WinCo Foods
2) Accomplice
3) Walk-in Beer Freezer
4) 50 packets of Jell-O
5) No, not beer. A lot of water.
6) Pedal Powered Forklift Ride-on Toy and a truck to get everything home.
[A baby Jell-o wrestling ring?? DUDE, that's brilliant. -ed.]
Dude, don't perpetuate the drain myth... [snopes]
This sort of thing is also great when space is at a premium, as it is in our apartment. You can deflate the bath and hang it up when not in use. It is also softer on little heads than the plastic variety.