I remember overhearing a conversation before I was a mom about if kids should wear deodorant. And how early was too early. I remember thinking that my child would take a bath every night and let me comb her hair everyday. Once I became a mom, I didn’t give much thought to these things. That’s the truth. I was too busy being a mom to make plans on how to mom.
JustaBXgirl has two boy cousins that used to spend a lot of time at our house. One is three years older than her and the other is five years older. All three of them loved bath time. Then somewhere around the time each turned six or seven something changed. It became a struggle. They were no longer excited when I said it was bath time. They would give me all types of excuses about why they couldn’t or didn’t need to take a bath. Then they would get in the tub after much persuading (cough, yelling, cough) and not want to get out! When this started with the boys, I figured it was just a boy thing. When it started happening with JustaBXgirl, I panicked. Why would my darling daughter that loved being clean and smelling good be anti-bath. I still don’t have the answer but after speaking with my village, I have realized that the problem is not just one in my home.
That made me think it was something that I should write about. Apparently, many families deal with the struggle but aren’t sharing their responses because they’re worried about being judged by their dirty, stinky children. I am not judging you or your little Pig Pens! As always, I’m here to help. See, even though my child fights me about the number of baths she needs to take a week, she loves looking at Youtube videos about life hacks. She loves playing in a bath full of bubbles. She loves trying out new hair and body products. So, I decided to share a few ways that we handle pre-tween hygiene at home.
Bath Pool – Some days, she is completely anti-bath. The thing is though that it is summer time and it is hot. While she might not want to be in the bath, she loves being able to play in the pool. Spoiler alert: our one bedroom apartment doesn’t have a pool. I let her put on a bathing suit. I fill the tub with cool water, grab her goggles and let her jump in. The only rule is that before she gets out, she has to take off her swimsuit and wash her body.
Bubble Baths – When I am desperate to get her in the tub, I go the bubble bath route. We usually have some Avon bubble bath around or I use some Oilogic vapor bath or we use her favorite Baby Magic.
Soap – Lately, I’ve been getting JustaBXgirl into the tub pretty easily by telling her that she can use her Crazy Cleanz 20 Second Soap from Compound Kings. They are individually wrapped soaps that are in different shapes with funny faces on each one. She loves them. We’ve also spoken A LOT about how important it is to wash our hands really well and for at least 20 seconds at a time. This is a good reward and reminder for the littles to adjust to the new normal.
Deodorant – I don’t recall at what age I started wearing deodorant. Do you? I don’t think it was as a pre-tween. Maybe as a pre-teen? Definitely as a teen. Either way, I know that last summer was the first time that I gave thought to JustaBXgirl needing it. I also made a switch to a natural deodorant last summer so it was really important to me to find her one as well. I was excited to learn about Starling Deodorant having a kid’s formula. In my mind that just seemed like a great way to put it and made me think that it would be powerful enough to put up with after school practices and summer fun! And with a stick named Birthday Cake we were here to give it a try. She still likes to steal my Shmidt’s sometimes but I know she really enjoys having her own.
Toothbrush – JustaBxgirl is pretty good when it comes to oral hygiene. She’s been brushing her teeth twice a day since before she was one. When she was tiny, I used an Oral B app on her iPad so she would know how long to brush. Now that she’s more independent, I find myself sending her back sometimes to brush a little longer. She gets frustrated with me, I get frustrated with her. That’s why we are both excited for her to check out Brite Brush, Brite Brush allows littles to be engaged with SEVEN different games (including the tutorial and practice mode). That’s one game for every day of the week!!! And ready for this? It has a parent check light that lets you go behind them and see if they really brushed and if they made a good effort, completed their task, or left the task incomplete.
These are a few ways that I work to make hygiene fun with JustaBXgirl. Yes, I could simply lecture her about the importance of hygiene but that’s no fun for anyone. Instead, I would rather find ways to make hygiene fun for her WHILE explaining the importance. I was going to include hair care in this post but then realized that it needs to be a post by itself so stay tuned for that one.
