It’s Easier to Pull Teeth with Barbed Wire than get my 8yr old to Wash.

My kid must be allergic to water or soap or maybe both. I can’t think of any other reason. She has the fun products to use in the bathroom. The bubbles for the bath or the shower gel when she’s feeling in a more grown up mood. Nothing is helping.  I coax, I bribe, I yell, I barge in and do it myself. I send her back 10 times. It’s exhausting AND not working.

Why is this so hard?
What is it that causes her to so much angst that she does not want to wash? She’s reached the age of getting quite smelly but she doesn’t even care. She would never remember to brush her teeth or hair if I didn’t tell her. She looks like a ferrel and I am at a loss. I’m tired of the reminders. By 8 she should have this down. It drives me crazy.

Here’s the hard part though, teaching her to think about it herself rather than telling her to do it everyday. We’ve tried charts before. They don’t work. I’m looking for the right incentive that’s not bribing. Punishment probably won’t work but that doesn’t mean I won’t give it another good hard go 🙂

Perhaps someone she really respects telling her she smells, might do something. A bit of shame therapy. I’m not against that in the right context.

The Stinky Crew
It’s not a unique problem but it’s gross. I hear many stories about other kids but this is my kid and I need her not to stink. I’ve explained the need for personal hygiene and she has the girl ‘Growing UP’ books which will reinforce it. ‘They’ say kids grow out of it but in the meantime we have to deal with it.
I’ve talked to her about the effects on others and how kids won’t want to be around her, being the stinky kid but she doesn’t seem to care!

An Action Plan?
I have got to figure out the right incentive. There will be one, she wants to please us. She has a sweet heart. It’s just finding it. It will of course be the last thing I try…. because that’s how discovery works. At some point I know things will click over and we won’t be able to get her OUT of the bathroom. That’ll be a whole other problem 🙂

However, we have had a hair breakthrough. She’s at least putting the detangling product in and combing each day so she doesn’t look like this.
She’s been consistent since we got home.

Supervision is still required because she’s just dobbing it on the top of her head but baby steps, right. Encouragement seems to be the key. Positive reinforcement….. isn’t that what all the books say?

Where’s the book that just tells you how to make it happen without the hard work? Where’s that MAGIC book. Wouldn’t life raising kids just be awesome with that book. We would all be perfect parents and sipping cocktails by the beach.

Oh, for that day to come…. but then we would miss the rigours of child-wrangling. Wouldn’t we?