Teen Hygiene

When is it normal for teens to start taking personal hygiene more seriously?

Teen hygiene is a topic that leaves some parents holding their noses. Parents dealing with this issue today may want to take a different approach then their parents took with them. For example, shaming your kids into bathing is not a very effective parenting tool and it usually leaves you and your kid both feeling bad.

For most neurotypical kids, awareness about hygiene happens on its own. If your kid is not social or perhaps on the spectrum, they might have a harder time understanding the need for good personal hygiene. You may have to impose some motivation for them so eventually they’ll want to do it on their own. A good strategy is to create opportunities for them to be social and to get them out of the house. Getting a job, volunteering or joining a club are all good examples. Sometimes all kids need is to hear someone else say it instead of you.

Tips for Talking It Out

For very reluctant kids, having lots of conversations about why good hygiene is important to you may be necessary. Make sure you show them that you understand their perspective so that hopefully they’ll want to listen to yours. If you have to go with incentives, utilize the screen as a motivator to get them to shower, brush teeth, etc until it becomes a habit.

When it comes to teen hygiene, you need to figure out what works for your kid. We talk about it on this Tips on Teens:

“My son is on the spectrum so I’ve always assumed that an aversion to hygiene and lack of manners were ‘part of his struggle’ but I hear from moms of typical children that they also have this issue. While it’s kind of a relief to know that this may just be typical teen behavior, I’d like to know an effective approach to deal with it. My parents shamed me into acting a certain way and bathing every day, but I don’t want to do that to my kid.”