What it means: Don't be mean to your baby. Just kidding, it means that you need to keep hold of the necessary things in life when getting rid of unnecessary things. Where it comes from: Bathing wasn't an every day occurrence like it is today. Usually, most people would have one bath in the entire year and they still had to share the bath water with everyone else in their family. Then of course, there was the system that you had to follow. The father bathed first in the nice clean, hot water, followed by the rest of the males in the family. It would then be the women's turn and the last people to use the water would be the children and the babies. By this point, the water was filthy, dirty and cold, so women had to be sure not to throw out their children with the dirty water.
