I'd tend to agree with him that he's clean after being in chlorinated water all day, but he really should rinse the chlorine out of his hair and off of his skin when he's done for the day. Most pools have showers, so maybe he is already doing that.

I think not showering on a daily basis is fairly common for teens. They are so busy they don't want to take the time, but eventually most of them realize how important hygiene is, both for themselves and for their social lives.

I always shower off that nasty pool water asap when I go to a public pool. I don't agree that the pool water is "clean enough". YUCK!!!!! The kid probably isn't into girl yet...HAHA!

Neighbor's boy is quite into girls.

My mom also battled with bro. There was no convincing him of the importance of brushing teeth and bathing. He was quite the ladies man and would douse himself in Tabac perfume. If those girls had only known....Curiously, he has perfect teeth and a beautiful smile. Or at least I haven't heard of dental problems. Go figure.

Actually, showering daily is generally not a good idea, though I would agree that it is better for your skin if you at least rinse off the chemicals from the pool.

Why not a good idea?

I was also a lifeguard and taught swimming lessons in high school and college. I ALWAYS washed off the chlorine. It's very drying. But it probably does remove the body odor and any dirt from his skin. Hopefully he is rinsing off the chlorine when he's done in the pool, but otherwise, I think he's fine.

He should not be in the water all day. He likely spends plenty of time in the shade of an umbrella, but still sweating...a lot.

There is a lot to be said in favor of exfoliating. Simply dipping in water does not give you any of those benefits.

There is also a lot to be said about urine and bacteria in public pools. Two words: Guh ROSS. His hair has to be icky.

Still I would not spend a lot of time worrying about him. If he starts to smell unwashed, then bring it up.

When I was in college in SoCal, my roommate was on the swim team as were about 10 guys down the hall. They showered, with soap, shampoo, and conditioner, after working out both morning and afternoon. They were the cleanest athletes I ever saw. The women's team even knew which shampoos and conditioners to use to keep their colored hair from turning green.

Does he actually stink, or is she just upset he's not showering everyday?

Many people that I know, myself included, shower every other day. Every day is too hard on my skin. Most of us live pretty clean lives, going from air conditioned homes to air conditioned stores or office jobs. Not a lot of opportunity to get really sweaty or dirty. Some people work really sweaty or dirty jobs, or work out hard, and I think that's different. I do agree that the chlorine should be at least rinsed off.

Of course many people prefer to shower every day as a personal preference and there's nothing wrong with that. But I don't think it's necessarily bad hygiene to skip daily showers. Depends on the person and circumstances.

Chlorine will of course kill any bacterias hidingbout on his skin, but its not actually going to clean any soils..just like ring around the collar on shirts there's ring around the neck line caused from sebum (body oils and soil)...when bleach is added to a washing machine its not actually cleaning its bleaching and disinfecting but still requires a surfactant(detergent or soap) to do the actual cleaning. so no I would say that this boy may be disinfected but not clean..he needs a surfactant (soap) to sctually remove body oils, and soils.

Does he stink or is she just aware that he isn't showering daily. If he doesn't stink I would let it go.

IDK if he stinks and don't want to know, ha. I love mamapinkys statement re: disinfected but not clean. I'll have to pass that along, ha.

I agree with Rose. At that age, pick your battles. When many young men do start dating they become aware of, and handle, the situation themselves.

As a parent one could buy youngsters deodorant and explain how body odor actually changes at a certain age.

Other than that unless for some reason there is a clear and overwhelming odor problem, I would let the young man decide on his bathing habits as a part of his independence and growing up.

I think it's a boy thing. When my son was in college and we went to pack up his apartment to bring him home, his sheets were disgusting. I asked him when the last time he washed them and he told me he never washed them! I threw them out. Believe me, I didn't raise him like that.

I have two teen boys. One will shower multiple times per day as time allows. I have daily discussions with the other as he thinks a weekly bath is enough.

Not showering afterwards won't kill him. I think rinsing off at the pool shower would better for his body. That hair will need more washing because body oils and pool water would leave it icky.

When she nags at him about it, his answer (after eye rolling) is
that as a life guard, he's in chlorinated water all day, therefore,
clean enough. Is that so?

To answer your question, no he is not clean or disinfected. Germs hide in body soil which must be removed first in order to be disinfected.

On the other hand, he may be clean 'enough'. I have never been able to figure out teenage boys so I try to choose my battles. LOL

Chlorine does disinfect..it just doesn't remove the soils after disinfecting

Reality #1: eat your veggies, brush your teeth, wear clean underwear are standard Mom speak/nag

Reality #2: Teens tune out 90% of Mom speak/nag

she didn't ask my advice and I'm not telling her to ease up on nagging. Besides, I was truly curious as to whether pool water really gets him clean enough.

Dchall said: Two words. Guh ROSS.

HAHAHA!

I remember when my sons, now adults were young boys and early teens I had to chase them to the bathroom lol...now they both have a strange habit. They shower every time they go #2..I ask them so what if you go 3 times a day..they said they would shower 3 times than. Yes they use toilet tissue but both feel the need for a shower anyway..this is silly buy a pack of wet wipes lol.

Sheesh I grew up in the 50's/60's. We spent a lot of time at rivers and lakes. After a day of swimming the mantra was "you don't need a bath, you've been in the water all day". However did we survive? Some places didn't have bathing facilities. We shampooed and bathed in the river or lake.

My DS went through a period of not bathing, changing his underwear etc. in his early teens. By age 14/15 he was doing the cover it up with cologne thing. That led to super hygiene by the time he was 16. He spent more time in the bathroom than his sister. I used to tease him about being such a metro-sexual. To this day he's more put together than the women in this family. He cleans up really well. ;-)

Now DD went through that teen girl thing of spending half her life in the bath tub. Sometimes 3 times a day. Now as a busy mom she's happy to get a real shower every third day. LOL

Daily showering is really a modern thing. I no longer shower daily. Every other day or sometimes even every 3rd. On the other hand if I have been really active or out in the elements I will shower daily. I know when I need it and my skin is much healthier for it. I wash my hands all the time and I never ever go to bed without washing my feet well during sandal season. I know people that will shower daily in the AM , wear flip flops or go barefoot all day and climb into bed at night without giving it a thought. ICK

Here is one of many articles and doctors who all seem to agree that we as a society bathe too frequently.

http://time.com/4259559/shower-soap-hygiene/

mamapinky0 Tell them to get bidets lol :)

She should count her blessings. We had two 30-minutes-in-the-shower-sons and the water and electric bills to prove it. :)

There are several articles, in addition to the one Texas_Gem provided, that support the don't-shower-daily mantra:

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/wellness/how-take-shower-according-dermatologists-n740526

http://www.today.com/health/daily-shower-may-be-bad-your-skin-docs-suggest-soak-2D79325796

http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/daily/tips/daily-shower-skin.htm#mkcpgn=twdh1

Just tell him that kids pee in the pool all the time and he really should rinse off the crap.

You just have to think about what's important. The kid's a lifeguard, so he has a level of achievement his mother can be proud of. Don't sweat the small stuff, mom. Lots of these issues solve themselves over time.

The other side of the coin though is parent teaching life long grooming habits, bathing, shampooing and brushing of teeth. Does this boy also not brush his teeth because this could affect his oral health his entire life not to mention moms wallet.

Mom can nag til she's blue in the face but teen boy knows everything. Then teen boy that stays in pool water all day and doesn't wash it off wakes up one morning with a nasty rash all over his body. Goes to the doctor and finds out he has a bacterial infection all over his body from some kid going number 2 in the pool. Mom never has to tell teen boy to shower after pool again after the doctor gives the boy a run down of all the bacteria there are in the public pool. Boy never swims again...The End

HAHA!

For a child, yes, it's important to keep on top of them brushing their teeth, etc. They don't know any better.

A teenager is able to understand why he needs to brush his teeth. Nagging isn't going to help if he chooses not to. There are natural consequences to neglecting hygiene and sometimes people need to figure it out the hard way.

The hard *and* expensive way. A friend of mine was exceedingly lax on brushing and flossing her teeth, then decided (like her teeth weren't already struggling enough) to smoke non filtered cigarettes. She's had dentures since she turned 30.

Is this boy SMELLY? Greasing looking? Hair grungy looking? Unless or until; STAY OUT OF IT. To assume one HAS TO shower DAILY just on your own habits/sensibilities is crazy. Perhaps his body type, oil production does not warrant a daily shower. Most pools require a shower before you go in and yes I too would assume a lifeguard KNOWS he has to rinse off the chlorine or his hair would be green and his skin flaking off. Some decisions in life really can be made according to your own PERSONAL NEED/experience. Many skin care experts/doctors will tell you DAILY soap/shower is the cause of many skin issues. Find something REAL to worry about mom!!!

We are a lifeguard family and at our pool/high school, the showers are walked through on the way in the locker room. The kids always at least rinse off and I will bet he is doing the same. He may not be using shampoo since the crazy swimmer/surfer hair is stylish at our school (we live at the shore).

The best feedback for a teen boy and his hygiene will be the girls, not the mom lol.

Within 20 minutes of showering, all the bacteria is back on the skin (over 300,000 per square inch). We can't live without the bacteria in and on our bodies so the idea of disinfecting yourself is really bizarre.

Don't nurses disinfect wounds?

A wound is an opening into your body.

Actually, they clean out a wound with tons of saline but don't disinfect it as it damages the tissue and kills infection fighting cells. That's why you are not supposed to use peroxide/betadyne in an open wound.

Intact skin is a barrier itself and thus does not need disinfected unless you are going into surgery. (I am an MD).

As far as disinfecting...what I said was chlorine will disinfect but not remove the grunge. Lol.

There are people that do to health reasons must take bleach baths.

mamapinky-Totally-my daughter had crazy eczema till 3 and we were almost to that point.

My 19 year old daughter told me a gross thing this week at the pool (my 5 year old just started swim team). When he got out of the pool a few times to go to the bathroom during practice, she said the older kids (high schoolers) used to just urinate in the pool because the coach didn't let them get out. How gross is that? I am hoping she was talking way in the past since she has aged out of swim team now. I am going to talk to the coach about it since he is the summer and winter coach.

Although urine is sterile, I certainly don't want him to swim in it. Another reason to rinse off. And they shock the pool after the last practice. But still gross.

It's a parent's job set an example -- and to be the broken record on a LOT of things. A teen's mother may think she's not being heard, but it's registering.

Adolescents are usually 'stinky' in general. They may need to wash more often because of that, but most humans don't *need* to bathe or shampoo daily unless they exercise extensively, do heavy manual labor, or live in dirty/polluted environments. (The pool would count as the latter, IMO.)

Adolescents often have uncertain feelings about their changing bodies. That can result in paying too much attention to their appearance (grooming) or trying to ignore the reality of impending adulthood (including responsibilities).

Could be an old wive's tale, but I've heard (from what I believed to be a reliable source), that urine is sterile.

Well ... maybe just when fresh ... until the nasties contaminate it.

As a busy kid on the farm, I was 10 when World War II started and the hired hand went off to war, what Dad and this 10 - 16 year old and a couple of younger boys got done (which included cleaning out the cowbarn, the horse stalls, pigpens and chicken house ... got done: and the rest didn't.

We bathed in turns, youngest first (no sisters), using a round washtub, back of the kitchen range, on Saturday nights, and none of our friends chastised us as being smelly or avoided us.

ole joyful

mamapinky0 - Hep C and HIV are transmitted through direct contact with blood that is infected with either of the diseases.

ETA - If something sterile was contaminated with "contagious things" it would no longer be sterile. And no, urine is not sterile.

mamapinky0, your comment is not only inaccurate but also misleading. Where did you get your info?

I deleted the comment

Hep is not in urine or semen??

Hmmm. So much for your statement an other post that you don't mind answering questions.

It's a parent's job set an example -- and to be the broken record on a LOT of things.

I never got a handbook saying what a parent's job should be. I think we all parent the best we can, some of us follow our own parent's parenting style. My parents didn't do a lot of reminding.

And children are all different as well.

Showering every day is bad for your skin. It dries it out and you lose the natural oils your skin needs to stay healthy. The water has chlorine in it, and since he works at the pool, I'm pretty sure he rinses off the chlorine in the showers when he exits the pool area to change into his street clothes.

Irma..I wasnt ignoring.there's a large older poster hanging in the nurses lounge talking about body fluids, urine is mentioned in the list..I'll try to get a pic next time I stop in there.

Sounds to me the neighbor, not the kid, is O/C and needs help. And sounds like the kid knows it. He'll deal with her and hopefully get her the help she needs.