Parents of the Unwashed Masses; are your children filthy people?

Question

This would be for parents with older children; it hit mine at 9.
Perfectly normal well behaved little girl suddenly became the filthiest human being I have ever met in my life. The girl (she's 12) lives like a wildebeast if I don't nag her constantly. Shuns bathing and most personal hygiene, yet becomes highly offended when I inform her that she stinks.
I was ready to take her to see if she had developed some kind of mental problem until her fifth grade teacher told me it was normal.
She's a really good kid otherwise; her crimes are all filth and laziness related.
So when exactly do they grow out of this?
Anybody find anything to break the curse a little sooner?
She put laundry in her desk drawer! I mean like towels, a couple of outfits - she had to work harder to stuff all that in the drawer than it would have been to walk ten steps to the hamper. I'd appreciate anything you can tell me about this phenomenon

Answer 1

Oh, I can answer this one from PERSONAL experience. I cannot tell you why this happened, but when I was a kid in the 7th grade, I did the same thing. I can remember just not wanting to bathe. No particular reason, just did not want to fool with it. I guess I was lazy. After all, I didn't offend ME. I can tell you when it stopped. One day I came in to homeroom class after the tardy bell. I sat down at my desk and I heard the sound of "sniffing" from the guy sitting behind me followed IMMEDIATELY by the word "DAMN!" and the screeching sound of him scooting his desk backward to get away from my stench. I was so embarrassed. I started bathing again that night, and have been a squeaky clean daily shower girl since. I think that LOTS of adolescent girls go through that "wildebeest" stage. Ever noticed how many adolescent girls have greasy hair? (evidence of the wildebeest stage). Your girl will grow out of it. In the meanwhile, I don't know what to suggest that you do. Sorry. My daughter is almost 11. I guess she will start getting funky soon too. YUCK!

Answer 2

lol - this is too funny - and too true! But she really will grow out of it. Counting both my own and my step kids - 3 have successfully survived to become young adults and the last 2 are 13 and 15. Every one of them has gone through this or is currently going through it. You'd think that water touching anywhere on their body was actually painful, the way they carry on! And I swear, I've actually gone and bought a new t-shirt to "trick" my stepson into putting on something CLEAN. But I do realize that this "dirty stage" will pass - usually when they start to really take notice of the opposite sex (so boys seems to take a little longer to grow out of this). So take a deep breath - and know that there may actually come a day when you long for your grubby, sweaty little girl who used to be in and out of the bathroom in 5 minutes or less.

Answer 3

Mine would be nasty if I didn't nag him. My son must like yellow scummy teeth because I'm always making him brush. As far his smell, I know he does have a shower every morning and uses deodorant, but he can really smell bad when he gets home from school! I think it must be hormones. I can't figure it out. But I know he's not the only one.

Answer 4

well, keep working with her, it takes time, have her help you with laundry, get new hair products that might excite her, try a new outfit, and stay on top of how she treats it, buy her new sox, the teacher is right it will pass, it's her age, it should be almost over but each child is different, i don't think i would say you stink, but maybe new shampoo or body wash would excite her

Answer 5

Oh mercy. My son is 11 and really he hasn't been as bad about his hygiene as I feared he'd be. My aunt said one of my cousins (girl) improved her hygiene when the other students commented on it, so maybe you could engineer some peer pressure.

Aren't kids great?!?

IF she has other symptoms of anxiety, it could be OCD related, but I think it's just the normal silly kid stuff.