Review: Matey Bath Book

When I was little we always  bought Matey bubble bath (except when there were other, exciting 'shaped' bottles available - Hero (/Ninja) Turtles and the like) because of its magical changing colour ability. The gloop is one colour and then, magically!, it changes colour once it hits the water. In the intervening years I've learnt how it not-so magically changes colour. While this goes to show my extensive education hasn't been a complete waste, it has taken the magic of the experience away a little.

We were sent this bathtime book from Matey to review. You will have to forgive the lack of 'bath' involved in this review as it has yet to hit the water, as it were. Once it arrived my 2 year old girl grabbed the book and it's been kept in her backpack ever since (along with a bunch of Megablocks, Jo Grant and Peri action figures and Blaster from Transformers).



She has read the book to me, however. She stars in it, apparently, along with me. We've bleached our hair in all the pictures, which sounds like something I really wouldn't do. But there you go.

During those ever-so short hours in which she's asleep, I did extract the book from her bag and have a proper look (ensuring it was replaced exactly as it was in her bag afterwards). The book is 8 pages long (including front and back cover) and features 4 short poems about the Matey characters (and none about me). The book is made of foam-padded plastic, which ensures that the book both floats and doesn't get soggy.

This is not my daughter. But he was more agreeable to posing for photos than she.

We've had a couple of books like this before and eventually the seem split, rendering them a bit useless. This was after extensive use and, unless I potentially waited forever to post this review, I have no idea whether this book's fate will be the same.

The poems were written by Emma Greaves, a mum of two, who won a competition. The book is being published as a limited edition and is being sent to mums people across the country.

Reading through the bits of press information that arrived with the book, research by Matey shows that 60% of parents believe that bathtime is one of the most important bonding experiences with their child*. I guess this is because the child is kind of stuck there, unable to escape and switch CBeebies on or run off to roll in some mud. The parent too can't escape to do housework, or similar, as they have to watch the child and ensure they don't drink the bathwater (28% of parents are concerned about this, it seems - another fact from my info sheet. It doesn't really concern me, I'd just rather they drank clean water instead).

- This is until Dad announces 'hair washing time!', gets too close to the bath and, before he knows what is happening, has been used as a ladder by a small girl to climb out of the bath and disappear to places unknown -

There are some facts regarding dads in the info, which drew my attention. 9% of dads get to bathe their children on average once a week (unless there's some kind of super accident, once is week is pretty much the most our children have a bath. Smelly kids!). 42% of fathers said they feel sad if they do not make bathtime more regularly as they miss out on a key bonding experience...and obviously dads love getting soaked as children decide that he needs a wash too.

The opinion is that the book will get water-hating children to look forward to having a bath. This may work until the child figures out that the book can also be read without getting wet.

Anyway, bathtimes are important. Smelly children (/people) are not nice to be around (I know this for a fact - I've been to comic conventions carrying cans of deodorant and kindly handed them out to the worst offenders.). An added bonus is that bathtime allows some uninterrupted parent-child time.

Plus it's always fun to make bubbly beards.



*Interestingly, Matey list where their research comes from. An online company surveyed 1,059 parents between 3rd and 7th October 2013. Many more people than the 80 or so (if you're lucky) that are surveyed for their opinions of haircare products.