I have just washed the face, hands and feet of a fourteen year old boy

Liz, I'''m sorry but I don't think baths should make any kid sputter, boy or girl. Maybe you can talk to DH about this?

Deny, perhaps it's GD's clothes and not her body? Anyhow, would her mother/your DD be ok with it if you spritzed GD with some kind of light body spray? You could make it a "beauty" activity that you and she share, as you could put some on, too, so she wouldn't know you think she smells bad.

Or hey, would DD mind if you bathed GD yourself? Have you asked?

(Square brackets needed for the emoticons. )

How old is GD? Is she old enough for a deodorant? Pit rock is effective and no nasties.

Whenever my GD comes to visit, she has a 'stale' smell about her.....I have told my daughter to bath her every day as she does sweat a lot, but it seems to fall on deaf ears.
I can't understand why she would let my GD be like this. I want to cuddle her but then the smell kicks in and I find myself backing off a bit. I feel sorry for my GD as it is not her fault, but how do I get my daughter to understand???
{hmm}

My grandad used to check my neck when we went visiting and many times told me that he could grow potatoes on it. It has stayed with me all my life and even now, when I shower I rub my neck hard. Maybe off my parents it would have been ok, but not my grandad, he was supposed to be for fun.

My grandmother, on many occasions, would spit on her hankie and try to scrub the 'dirty' mark off the bridge of my nose......it was freckles

I said to my 4 year old GS 'come on, wash your face before you get dressed' and he stared at me, puzzled, and said 'but I never wash my face in the morning'.

Funny, I was thinking the other day, GS never gets tide marks. My mother was very keen on not having a tide mark. Maybe the Clean Air Act is responsible.

Liz46 you are perpetuating sex role stereotypes brilliantly there!!

My husband baths our seven year old grandson when he stays with us. It involves singing 'the bucket of water' song and a large plastic jug. The poor little lad ends up half drowned. His sister and I were laughing as he spluttered away on one occasion. I wondered if it was time to stop so asked him if was ok. He couldn't actually speak but managed to nod that he wanted to carry on!
I bath my granddaughter and it is very gentle. I trim her nails, put nail varnish on and blow dry her hair.

Did you use a bit of spit and rub away with a hanky?

I'm just astounded that he let you do it and that you even tried! You must have a very, very good relationship, overall, or he really wanted to be cleaner and doesn't know how!

Unfortunately, I doubt the results of your handiwork will last all that long, LOL!

Hope you don't tell him you posted about it, LOL!

I can once remember my mother scrubbing my youngest daughter's hands with a brillo pad they were that grubby (not really recommended!). 20 years on and she's still reminding her grandma that she would have been within her rights to ring childline.

I remember how relieved DH and I were when our cousin (who raised 7! Kids and now runs three care homes for deeply disturbed children) laughed about his own 14 year old who would look at the bathroom fittings with complete bewildered bafflement sufficient to convince any impartial onlooker that this child had never been cared for or shown how to wash. Every night!

In the army, new recruits are shown how to shower by an NCO who strips off, gets into the shower and demonstrates everything from ears to foreskin. Then no-one can claim "no-one showed me" and no-one is singled out.

Both my two went through a very grubby phase, as did my siblings. We're the first DGP's for two generations so we've no idea if scrubbing teenage GC Is part of the job description, but we'd have been grateful for support "yes we can tell you've not washed".." Etc.

When DS was about the same age he used to have a bath regularly but I realised that he obviously never washed his neck when I noticed a tide mark round it

I have a 14 year old who empties the hot water tank and half a bottle of bubbles into the bath every night. He gets into the bath with his iPad and the water is let out about 5 minutes later. A soaked towel is found on his bedroom floor later. What happens in the bathroom is a mystery!

He won't dare tell his friends -
"Why are you looking so pale, .....(soandso)?"
"Er .... well, I have a date tonight "

Were you wearing Marigolds?

DS3 was caught out running the shower but not actually stepping in to it ! He was about 10 , when he hit 14 he was a shower addict !

Not unusual for a 14 yr old boy to need it but I don't think I would do it.
I think a lot of children don't get shown how to wash properly. GS (nearly 7) has a bath every night but whenever he's at mine I have to scrub his finger nails.

I thought that this was some sort of religious thing at first. You are very brave going anywhere near a 14 year old boy's feet IMO.

My grandson, 9, has a shower every morning, but last time he was over with us, I happened to look in his ears and was appalled at how dirty they were! You could have grown potatoes in there. I wonder if DD actually looks at them. She doesn't supervise his showering any more. I asked him if he ever washed his ears, and he looked totally bemused, as if this was an alien concept - which it obviously was! I then spent fifteen minutes chasing him round the house in order to sort the matter out. His idea of washing his hands is to squirt copious amounts of hand wash on and then immediately rinse it off down the sink without any washing action at all. I dread to think what he'll be like at fourteen!

Jings perhaps you are scarier than you think!

In many years to come, he will regale his own children about this, jingl. I do hope his friends were nearby..... !

Sounds a bit like Maundy Thursday!

I swear his face is several shads paler now. And not just from the shock of it.

He was surprisingly docile over the whole thing. I was amazed.