Name: CHEC Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-12T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-14T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Denver, CO

Tagged: Health, Hygiene, Teaching basic care

This topic has 33 replies, 20 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 11 months ago by pangit.

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June 19, 2012 at 3:18 pm
LDIMom
Participant
On the pool, we got to my Mom and Dad’s pool. We use it and my sister and her children. That is it besides Mom and Dad. So yeah, sometimes they skip on those nights when we’ve spent the afternoon at Grammy’s pool.
mjemom, that is what my DH says about the 15-16YO and noticing girls. Then he says they will smell so good it will knock us down.
This is a funny. Our 9YO son likes to shave like Daddy. We have a fake razor that came in one fo those gift sets they sell at Christmas. It looks so real. DH has super-glued it so many times as the boys have all used it one time or another to shave like Daddy.
Funny thing though is that 9YO DS comes up to me a lot lately and says, “Mom, can you see my facial hairs? They are really coming in now that I’m shaving several times a week.”
He also likes to put on DH’s Old Spice aftershave. Now that might be an idea mjemom–aftershave does smell good. It also masks the smell, believe me, because 9YO DS is the type who “showers” (Mom, why do I need to use soap? The water washes everything off.)
Um, yeah. Notsomuch.
June 19, 2012 at 3:45 pm
crazy4boys
Participant
In church last Sunday my two youngest boys (ages 8 and 5) were inspecting each other’s chins, looking for “peach fuzz”. “Yep, there’s a hair there, I can see it. Oh, how many? Am I getting my whiskers?” It was so hard not to bust out laughing, especially since they were totally oblivious to me being able to hear them. And they really have no chance at a beard since my husband’s whiskers are pretty sparse and on my side of the family male facial hair is non-existant.
I wish I knew of some good books. The Personal Hygiene one I listed previously is the closest I’ve found, but I haven’t used it yet. My boys are really into science so maybe if I discussed the bacteria/smell relationship and other “gross” stuff about hygiene they’d take more notice.
June 19, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Lesley Letson
Participant
LDIMom – funny! oh, they like to use Daddy’s “man soap” and “man stuff” (aftershave) – it is cute. and my husband shaves his head, so they say they want to be bald when they grow up 😉 a bit OT, but my oldest fell in the shower a while back and busted his chin (stitch worthy, but we keep a large supply of steri-stips as to avoid the ER, so I put him back together for the umpteenth time) – his first response was “why do I have to use soap?! I hate soap!” – maybe that is his reasoning for not wanting to use it, hmmmmm….
I have the Pearables books – I should pull them off the shelves and look. I’ll look at that other one too. Any more ideas or comisserating stories? 🙂
June 19, 2012 at 6:33 pm
JennNC
Participant
Of my seven, four are boys, and I can attest to the fact that even when they are teens they don’t always grow out of it. Mine seem to only want to shower if it’s time to clean the kitchen. 🙂
June 19, 2012 at 6:57 pm
4myboys
Participant
I have 2 boys and the older (11.5) really stinks! He can’t understand why we make such a big deal about it and expect him to wah more than once a week (he figures if he showers before church that should be sufficient). He’s getting better at not arguing about showers after playing ball hockey Tuesday and Thursday evenings, but figures it’s not necessary the rest of the week. Usually he figures if he sticks deodorant on and covers up the stink he’s good. He also really hates to get his hair cut — but I think that’s more a sensory processing issue.

June 19, 2012 at 7:04 pm
LDIMom
Participant
Jenn, OK, I’m knee deep in planning (literally books swallowing me up here on the floor in our bonus room). Needed a mental break. Now I’m ROFL at your comment and yes I can confirm that here as well: dish duty will induce a sudden urge to shower here as well.
4myboys, don’t even get me started on haircuts. I’ll take fixing our daughters’ hair any day of the week over trying to keep the boys’ hair in shape. I also have so many different hair textures going on: 1 super curly, 1 wavy, 2 Asian with very course hair that I still haven’t quite figured out how to trim. I trim their hair myself as when I take them all even to the cheap place it is about $75.
*faint* forget that so I have clippers, but it takes me a good hour plus and not w/out some fussing and fuming to go along with it (the fussing by the boys and before it is all said and done, I am sometimes the one fuming).
What would we do w/out our boys??? Life would be boring and smell way too good!
June 19, 2012 at 7:09 pm
suzukimom
Participant
Just wanted to say – it isn’t always just boys……..
my one dsd we had to fight with her to take a shower until she was about 15 as well…. and don’t even mention trying to get her to comb her hair. She lived with a rats nest in her hair most of the time. There was no way I could make her do it, or try to do it myself (we didn’t have a good relationship at that time) – and her dad would try and would give up because it was just so bad….
and unfortunately, my 6yo girl doesn’t seem to know how to “wipe”… sigh….

June 19, 2012 at 10:17 pm
binky
Participant
I have six boys and I am just laughing out loud. My oldest is 20 and when he turned about 17 he started taking showers twice a day. As soon as the oldest two hit 16 or better my water bill skyrocketed. Now my oldest at home is 12 and he will come home with the bag of clean clothes from boy scout camp 🙂 my 8 yr old desperately needs the deodorant and my 6 yr old has the wiping problem (suzukimom I know how you feel!) I have been trying to figure out what is wrong but maybe this is more of a common problem than I thought. And yes it seems boys and men are just gross between the burps and the pooting around here the girls need a day out 🙂
June 20, 2012 at 1:50 am
Kristen
Participant
This is so funny! I can see I have a lot to look forward to. 🙂
I ask my oldest boy (8) why I only have one pair of clean (i mean freshly laundered) underwear in the weeks worth of laundry. HA!
And “did you use soap and shampoo?” As they come out of the shower.
June 20, 2012 at 6:40 am
chocodog
Participant
Yep!   I think the reason they don’t have to many books on hygene is because everyone knows they will grow out of it sooner or later. Why bother trying to push it. They won’t take a shower, change there underwear, change their clothes, brush their teeth, wash their face, comb their hair, or put any kind of soap product on their bodies unless you are giving them the death sentence. Even that doesn’t always work.
   I am glad I am not alone in this endeavor. 🙂    Now we could talk about shoes!   UGH!!! brand new shoes and they smell like boy! !000% stinky boy. Not sure what I should do about those. Did I mention they were new???
   Maybe I should load them down with old spice. 🙂 I had to smile @ the mention of old spice. That brought back memories. Every year I bought my dad something old spice. One year it was one of those mugs of shaving cream you make foam up with a brush. He loved it.
   I had to laugh about the shaving razor also…. Because just this evening my son 8 was asking me how to shave his face. My other son chimed in that he knows how to do it because he has been doing it for years. My husband and I had to laugh…. Years???? Where were we? It was one of those plastic razors that came in a scooby doo shaving kit… Razor is plastic and doesn’t have a blade! LOL..   So anyway, I had to explain tonight that my son doesn’t have whiskers yet so he doesn’t need to shave. 🙂   Maybe we will let him practice since he may develop those premature hairs on his chin…..   That maybe the only way to get him to wash his face… 🙂
What I have learned tonight. 1) Let children play with razors and shaving cream to get a clean face.
   2), Let kids play in the swimming pool and sprinkler and wash the car and dishes often. Provide a bucket and some super soaker guns just to make sure that the bubbles come off when you dump out the water. 🙂
3) Hide favorite stash of clothing and underwear when they are in the shower so they don’t put them back on. 🙂
4) Let your daughter remind the boys how stinky they are every day to encourage them to smell themselves.
5) start giving out deoderant like it is candy at an early age.
6) require less clothing when going on camp trips
7) Hold your breath when opening up camp clothing bags upon return.
8)require shampoo and soap at every bathing, use pump action dispensers and do a smell check to see if they used them
9) Ones attitude does reflect ones hygene and that even the best of mothers can’t do much about it.
#10) Boys will be Boys no matter where they are, who they are they won’t change until they are interested in girls!
      Thanks for all the laughs girls. I sure did enjoy reading about all of your wonderful boys
BTW When I was in High School there was a classroom of kids that gave a jar full of toe nails and toe jam to one of the teachers for Christmas… I guess they meant to send their very best!   🙂
                           BLessings!
June 20, 2012 at 6:44 am
missceegee
Participant
Chocodog, you made me crack up in the wee hours when I couldn’t sleep. Thank you.
June 20, 2012 at 6:49 am
chocodog
Participant
🙂 up late too huh?   glad I could make you chuckle.. Tehe he
Had to give everyone a haircut yesterday just so I could get them in the tub…   That was another one I forgot… 🙂
June 20, 2012 at 6:56 am
chocodog
Participant
Today, I enjoyed watching my stinky little boy build his own pool. Yes, he did. Boy, was I proud to see him stack tires, get out the tarps, flood my yard and get totally soaked using his scuba mask. 🙂 He was cleaner.. Even though my yard was a muddy mess. I must learn to exchange one mess for another though. 🙂 Tomorrow is Library day. So, I can get him to take a shower by telling him we can’t go until everyone is clean. 🙂 Bahahaha ha!!!
                                  Blessings!
June 20, 2012 at 11:33 am
Evergreen
Member
Oh my, this is so funny, I love the list. Five of my six kiddos are boys and I am right there with you all! Regarding underwear, I only recently learned my youngest layers them. So he is putting on clean underwear – over another pair. Or two. Oh my. We’ve corrected that. We did find that putting a “cool” brand of very fragrant deoderant – a different scent for each – in the stockings a few years back helped tremendously with the current teen and preteens, but we do still need to give shower reminders. One thing I noticed: at a certain age, grooming starts to happen independently, and it seems to correlate with a secret interest, perhaps someone at youth group. Just sayin’. 🙂
For those whose bathrooms start to smell like the restroom behind the gas station from all those boys, I mop the floor with a half-bucket of hot water with 1/2 c of vinegar and 4-8 drops of tea tree oil. When we had a puppy and I learned that vinegar neutralizes those wet accidents, it occured to me that it would work for those of boys as well.
I have digressed greatly from your original question, sorry, I have no suggestion as to resources either!
Blessings,
Aimee
June 20, 2012 at 11:39 am
JennNC
Participant
Aimee, I’ve been thinking of using vinegar as well but haven’t done it yet because I so despise the smell. Does the tea tree oil help help with that?
Jenn