The family decide that the best way to keep people from coming in the house to get relief on the long stretch of road they would take turns outside. It was just Sara's bad habit of getting bored and wandering off that needed to be fixed.
Your new step-mother insists that the best way for you two to bond is to bathe together, "like a mother and son should". She wasn't wrong, and now you really are starting to get to know her better.