What Women Want Part 2

What Women Want Part 2:  Song of Solomon 1:3

In last weeks blog we established that King Solomon obviously knew how to treat women right if his love said he was, "more wonderful than any other." (Song of Solomon 1:1 NLT)

If we as men and boys want the ladies in our life to think we are more wonderful than any other we must have three things: a personal relationship with them, pleasant hygiene, & a pleasing name.

We have already taken a look at the first thing on the list, a personal relationship, and today we will look at the second thing--pleasant hygiene.  In Song of Solomon 1:3, Solomon's love says his cologne or ointments smell good or pleasant.

If advice from one of the wisest men to ever live isn't good enough, here is some advice from Ben in Grade 6, "Personal hygiene is very important because no-one likes to be close to a person who stinks and is dirty.  So, whoever you are and wherever you go remember:  Wash your hands before you eat and your feet before you sleep."

Kids with poor hygiene can face medical issues like a rash or infection or maybe even more detrimental emotional issues like being called "the stinky kid" at school.  That kind of reputation can be hard to shake and damaging to our children's self-esteem. 

So as a parent, it's our job to help our kids understand the importance of pleasant hygiene. But where do you start? What do you discuss with your kids about hygiene and what will they figure out on their own?  How early should you start talking about it?

When your child is in pre-school and elementary school you must teach them the "basics"-- washing hands, covering their mouth when they cough, brushing their teeth and having regular baths or showers. 

You might think this comes naturally but it does NOT!  When I first started teaching Joel, our 6 year old,  to wash himself in the shower I would tell him to "wash his whole body" and leave him for 5 minutes or so and come back to ask, "Did you wash your whole body?"  and get the answer "Yep."  I was only naive enough to believe this answer once.  The next time I was curious so I followed up my first question, "Did you wash your whole body?" with a second one, "Did you wash your feet?"  to which Joel responded, "Oh I forgot."  This got me curious so I asked a third question, "Did you wash under your arm pits?"  to which Joel responded again, "Oh I forgot." So what DID he wash you ask?  To this day I still don't know, but he sure did NOT "wash his whole body."

According to the experts, and as of right now I am going to have to trust them since I don't have a teenager yet, good hygiene habits in childhood are a great foundation for good hygiene in the teenage years. And if you have open, honest communication with your child, it SHOULD make it easier to talk about the personal hygiene issues that come up in adolescence like body oder, acne, and puberty.

If your child is not resistant to basic hygiene right now there will more than likely be a time when they will--especially boys!  So, WHEN your child becomes resistant to basic hygiene -- like showering, brushing their teeth or using deodorant this is great advice. 

Dr. Charles Wibbelsman, MD, chairman of the Chiefs of Adolescent Medicine for Kaiser Permanente of Northern California and co-author of The Teenage Body Book says, "Don't just nag or plead explain that taking care of himself is a responsibility, and start treating it like his other household chores. Just as he is supposed to take out the trash and keep his room clean, he now has to look after his hygiene. If he doesn't, there should be consequence, like revoked privileges." 

  

A couple of thought provoking questions:

Are you a good example of personal hygiene for you kids?

Do you have open and honest communication with your child so they can feel comfortable talking to you about hygiene issues?  If not how can you start to fix it today?