Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water

Handmade bath bomb, 7 x 7 cm.

Ingredients: dirty bath water, receipts, egg shells, journal pages, leaves, letter from school, credit card statement, egg box, NHS letter about overdue smear test, letter from council about unpaid bill, unsuccessful scratch card, to-do lists, pet hair from the floor, melted snow, mud from son’s shoes, hoover dust, tears, tampon string.

Are you tired of being told that the answer to soothing the structural inequalities in society is to just have a bath? This ‘bath bomb’ was made to look like a Lush product but is filled with the dirt and debris of my daily life and unpaid labour as a single mother. The ‘self-care’ industry is pretty toxic and perpetuates a culture of victim blaming. Rather than try to solve the structural inequalities that continue to oppress us, the responsibility for wellbeing is placed back on the individual.

This work was made as part of a collaborative project and ‘moanifesto’ produced in collaboration with five other single mother artists. You can read the full moanifesto here. The project was produced with support of Magnetic North Theatre in 2022 - 2023.