Is it generational or am I remembering it wrong?

Well I would struggle anyway to wash and dry ten towels a week as I have no garden or tumble drier . It is your choice but…why? Surely you are clean when you’ve showered ?!?!?

My son used to buy a loaf of sliced bread on the way home from school! He’s as thin as a pin now.

A lot of it is a boy thing but 15 yr old should not need telling to wash and clean his teeth, we didn’t have cans as they were expensive, maybe keep cans and buy bottles of diluting juice as this is more thirst quenching and healthier and cheaper.
If he needs more snacks , would he eat cut up veg say with some peanut butter as a dip or more fruit, at least that is better for him, messy room , plates and cups etc, I have to put my hands up to this one myself as a teenager but I did grow out of it, eventually

If he washed his body properly the towel wouldn’t be dirty! ?

I have 3 sons and the eldest took to leaving plates of half eaten food under his bed.
When he was at school I made his bed, but I scooped all the uneaten food complete with mould, onto the under sheet before pulling up the duvet.
He was horrified when he got into bed that night - and said I was a disgusting mother!
However, he didn’t do it again,

Good grief! Just glad I had 3 girls ? although one of them did hoard mugs glasses and bowls with furry bits. I have a friend who has 5 sons all now hulking great 6’++ and she made daily treks to the supermarket to stock up on cereals, bread and milk. As for shoes. They cost a fortune- all size 13 and more ?

Good point Luckygirl

What are the medical issues?
Apart from being depressed at being away from family, the medical issues could have a lot to do with how much he's eating!
Plus, as you say, he's never been away from home for much time so he could be playing it up to see how much you'll take before putting your foot down!!

Boys of 15 or so have always been able to consume enormous amounts of food - with girls it is usually in the sixth months prior to their first period that they eat like horses. But when we were that age, bread and butter was the most you could hope for over and above a meal.

The difference between now and when we were teenagers is, as you said, that we were not allowed snacks.

The received wisdom of our childhood was that children and adults needed three good meals a day Over and above that I remember being allowed 1 biscuit when the grown-ups had morning coffee if I was home from school, or one biscuit to eat with my free school milk, and if I was lucky a biscuit with the glass of milk drunk when I came home from school in the afternoon.

I would never have dreamed of helping myself to an extra biscuit or a bottle of pop, and I would have been in hot water if I had done so.

Chocolate or sweeties was a Sunday treat - the rest of the week such things were kept by my mother in a locked drawer, although we were allowed to eat any left over from the amount we had bought on the Saturday with our own pocket money.

Nowadays, children eat and drink non-stop. I don't know why their parents allow this, or how they afford it. It isn't particularly healthy as the number of overweight school-children clearly shows, nor is it good for their teeth.

No 15 year old boy I have ever known, washed, bathed, cleaned his teeth or changed into clean clothes unless forced, so your grandson is not odd there. It is normal to have to harry them until they go sulking off to the bathroom.

I would be concerned about the lying - he should not be saying he has brought his rubbish downstairs when he hasn't nor that he has cleaned his teeth when the fact of the matter was that his toothbrush was still at home.

I would ask for the clothes he takes off in the evening when he goes to bed and stick them in the washing machine. I would also insist that he washes or showers every day and I would provide one snack bag, as this is what his mother wants, but make sure there was no juice, cola etc in the house, and no biscuits, sweets or cakes either.

Hilarious thread - sorry, had to laugh !
Brings back memories I would rather forget. Mould in bedroom, shoes that could have walked out on their own the smell was so bad, a constant need for food, personal hygiene not a priority or even considered important.
Worry not, he will discover girls and the turnaround will amaze you !

Brought back memories of my nephew and my friend’s son at that age. Eat the family out of house and home, constantly hungry. No personal hygiene cares, no brushing of teeth unless forced. It’s a battle with boys- I remember listening to the mother’s grumbles. It appeared they had to do everything for them until it became second nature to the individual. Remove dirty clothing, hand them the toothbrush with toothpaste applied etc. I don’t know who the boy thinks he’s fooling by denying about the snack bags/boxes. Grandmothers are not idiots.
I wish you the best of luck and hope you both remain covid free.

My mother always referred to teenage boys as "Having hollow legs". It was the most reasonable explanation for the amount of food they can get through. Your GS isn't unusual. I would stop buying fizzy canned drinks for him, they are bad for you for so many reasons.
Just one warning about the shower- things will change and before you know it you will be complaining that you can't get him out!!

pooohbear2811 - typo here - I meant ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) not DDD

I had a friend whose teenage son would pick his nose and leave it on the wall by his bed?.
I think the rest of us got off lightly.

Lol did make me laugh, boys I found are like this but I also had grand daughters like it too, I was shocked when she bought 20 chicken nuggets as a snack. We were lucky to have biscuits to snack on when I was younger as husband said they never had biscuits in house just main meals no snacks couldn’t afford them, how things have changed.

I have two grandchildren… boy 14 and girl 9.
They have thier three meals a day and a snack before bed if they request it. No fizzy drinks or squash or juices until they are 10. The lad now drinks very occasional coke when out with friends( keeping face)… and at home only milk ( some times flavoured)or
water. They are healthy and slim…. and my grandson at 14 is just about top his dad at 6 foot! He’s already topped his mums 5’10”. The granddaughter is a small 9 year old but loves her MMA classes! And apart from asthma remains very healthy. As for messy bedrooms…. yes I’m afraid ‘par for the course’…. in my experience for both my different sex kids and my grandchildren. The personal hygiene thing was no problem as I would not allow it with my own or my g/kids! Nor will their mum. Although dad is a bit lax on hygiene!

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

He's just a teenage boy!
The toothbrush thing - he was probably embarrassed that he hadn't got one ! sounds stupid, but whenever anyone visits, whatever their age, I always put out the basic toiletries - soap, flannel, toothbrush, toothpaste , towels as I know from personal experience that however good you are at packing, there is always something missing!
The not showering/ tidying bedroom etc is very much a teenage thing and you either put up with it, or put clean clothes out etc. A laundry bag/basket in their room sometimes helps but not always.
The snacking - seems par for the course for teens these days! You are doing the best of making him snack bags, but if he eats two in a day - don't make a big thing of it - they have absolutely no sense of nutrition or how much things cost, so maybe if you go grocery shopping, take him with you, give him a fiver and tell him that he can get what he likes, but once the money is spent, that will be it until the next time you go shopping and he must understand that he can only take anything from the fridge/storage cupboard if he asks you first. If he does help himself, just subtract it from his share of the menu and see if he notices - especially if it's something he likes!
Always remember that there may be more going on than you realise. Teen boys are horrendously bad on communicating what they are thinking. He is probably worried about the rest of his family as well as the thought of catching Covid himself or even you catching it. If he's not used to spending time away from his parents, he may just be homesick. Treat him with a bit of understanding and kindness - the rest of it really doesn't matter. He needs support, not condemnation!

My eldest DGS was a bottomless pit at that age. He had always been a little lad and I think that he was growing. I know my DD said at the time that she couldn't keep up with him, he was always so hungry.

One of my DGDs is only 11 but she too is ravenous all the time. She has also shot up and is now much taller. I do think that kids are prone to snack all the time when they are growing.

As for messing up their rooms, I am afraid that we have had several very untidy kids in our family too. Most of them have been keen on showers, though.

Pooobear282 you say your GS has medical issues. Is this also part of his problem or is it really "just a teen thing?

Funniest thing my teenage boy did? Hubby and I had been to a restaurant with friends. I collected all the leftover meat to take home for our cat. I left it in the fridge overnight. Next day it was gone. Son admitted he'd eaten it. He didn't really care it was off four different plates. He still laughs about it now!

You say he’s kind, caring and compassionate- well that’s a wonderful start! In my experience, boys that age have hollow legs and would eat all day, as well as sleep. As for washing, if you didn’t nag them they wouldn’t wash for a year. But wait till he has a girlfriend, you won’t be able to get him out of the bathroom and will have the ‘scent’ of lynx pervading the house. Enjoy each stage for what it is.

I've been laughing all through this thread and can totally empathise! We've just had our 16 and 15 year old GSs stay with us for a week whilst DD and SIL have taken a well deserved break in Spain.

They are going through everything mentioned here. I have to restock the fizzy drinks, cakes and snacks every other day. GS1 spends half an hour every morning in the shower and makes sure he looks cool. GS2 is a grunge skateboarding dude and even when he has a shower doesn't comb his hair (which falls right over his eyes) saying 'can't be bothered'! They come in for dinner, then are either out with friends or shut up in their smelly and very untidy bedrooms. We insisted they stayed in on Sunday and had a game of cards and a catchup. Yup, that's boys for you.

I'm sure DS wasn't as bad, even though I thought he was a git at the time.

I'm now watching the Flight Tracker as DD is on her way home. Much as I love them I'll be glad to get back to some kind of normality!

I think you are just dealing with a typical teenager. They eat non stop and their personal hygiene can leave a lot to be desired, particularly with boys. I don't think we can expect them to be the same as we were at that age. Times have changed and so have lifestyles.

My son was always hungry again within an hour of any meal as a teenager. He’d eat a generous amount, but was never interested in dessert. I always made sure we had plenty of bread, sandwich fillings, cereal, milk and apples/bananas in and he knew he could use these as required. Also always bought some Mars bars and a multi pack of crisps a week (he learnt to ration them, lol)
Got fed up of him spending all his money on snacks at school, so sent him with a big packed “lunch” for break time then he had a canteen lunch too.
He cost me a small fortune in food, but was very sporty & rarely sat still so I was feeding a furnace on at full power, lol
He’s now a healthy, 6ft3 lean 25 year old!

I trawled his room once a week for crockery/cutlery, but he knew that if he wanted his clothes washing he had to put them in the laundry basket!
He too had to be forced into showering until he discovered girls! ??