Mom Stopped Reminding 15-Year-Old Son To Shower So He Got Mad At Her After Being Told He Smelled At School

Mar 21, 2023

If you ever heard someone say parenting is easy, then you probably talked to someone who doesn’t have any experience of what’s it like to be a parent. For one, being a parent entails sacrifice, which means one has to go all in for their child. Once a person becomes a parent, it is important to put in extra effort to give one's child everything they need in all aspects, including the mental, emotional, social and physical well-being of a child.

However, some kids simply won’t listen to their parents even with the best of intentions. In fact, a lot of them would rather wait until someone else tells them about a particular thing like their peers or strangers before listening to their own parents, which often ends up in “I told you so” moments. Well, it’s probably one of the biggest challenges of being a parent – and it just proves that looking after children isn’t easy. Take it from a mom who did everything she could for her own child to avoid getting humiliated, but somehow she still ended up being the villain.

In September 2022, a 40-year-old mom took to Reddit to ask if she was in the wrong for stopping to remind her 15-year-old son Mike about taking showers due to the many times he ignored her pleas.

While the mom admitted that her son is a good kid, it had become increasingly challenging for her to keep up with her son who needed to be reminded repeatedly about tasks he needs to do because of his addiction to video games. However, reminding him wasn’t the challenge but rather his reaction to it, which the mom said made her son mad.

An example she gave is when she would tell Mike to come down and eat but he would get mad every time he was called more than once. Still, Mike usually showed up at their table half an hour later. Then, he would get mad at his mom because the food would be cold already by the time he sat down.

Since her son’s video game addiction had already affected his grades, she decided to remove the console from him until he finally got his grades up. Since then, they had been doing well.

But then, the mother faced another challenge: Mike would often forget to take a shower because he couldn’t stop playing. But when he finally realized that he hadn’t taken a shower yet, he would “make noises.”

“We had an issue where he wouldn’t stop playing to shower (or at least take a break to do so) and he would be making noise at 10-11 PM when he finally realized he hadn’t yet. This was an issue for me as I have to wake up at 2 AM to get ready for work and I would always be woken up since my room shares a wall with the bathroom,” the mom wrote.

So what the mom did was set a time for when Mike should take a shower so he wouldn’t forget about it. But that still didn’t work, and only lasted for a while before going back to the same pattern even though she had reminded him about it over and over again. 

The mom said she was finally done. So, she stopped reminding him even though her son “stunk.”

“I wasn’t going to remind him 10 times throughout the day and left him. He did not shower for 4-5 days in a row. He plays sports. He stunk. He still didn’t shower,” she said.

By the time he reached his fourth or fifth day without showering, he got home from school very angry. Then, the mom found out the reason why. 

“Later in the day he blew up, yelling ‘Why didn’t anyone tell me I smelled bad!?’ He was very mad because apparently his friends had been acting weird and a girl he has a crush (on) ended up being the one to tell him he smelled bad and offered him deodorant,” the mom said.

So, Mike stopped talking to them because of the embarrassment he received from his peers.

“He was extremely embarrassed and hasn’t spoken to any of us after his angry speech he gave after school yesterday,” the mom said.

When the mom asked if she could have handled it another way, most of the people in the comments said it isn’t her job to remind her son about the things he should already know by now.  

“Sometimes it takes learning things the hard way for them to stick. Don't remind him at all anymore unless it's a family event that would reflect badly on you. He's 15 and it's long overdue for him to learn some self-care and hygiene,” one person wrote.

“Your son just learned what consequences mean. If you don't shower, you smell bad and if you smell bad the pretty girl won't like you. His priorities are messed up. Let him learn a few life lessons. It isn't your job to remind him of things he already knows he should be doing,” another person said.

What can you say about the mom being done with reminding her son to take a shower? Let us know what you think, and pass this on to people who might find this story interesting!