Thank you, Prep U for sponsoring this post. I received product and compensation in return for my honest opinion. Every opinion stated here is 100% mine.

“Personal Hygiene” Shouldn’t be Foreign Words to Your Tween!

It had been a long day for all of us. The kids had soccer practice straight from school, then followed by homework and dinner. Our family was a hurried mess. The optimal bedtime came and went without us having a chance to execute all the routine tasks necessary to get the kids ready for bed.

Finally, all the kids were in bed. Ahhh, a sigh of relief! As I did my rounds from bedroom to bedroom, singing “nighty night” songs, kissing foreheads and tucking blankets around long and lanky bodies, I noticed something strange in the kids’ rooms.

There was an odd lingering smell in the hallway and in at least one of the rooms. It was hard to pinpoint the source of the smell, but it was a distinct stench that stayed with me for a while. At first I thought I was going crazy, until… I bent down to kiss one of our tweens goodnight.

His bangs were wet and sticking to his forehead. I desperately hoped his hair was wet from the shower he took before bedtime, after playing soccer for 90 long and hard minutes. But no, his hair was delightfully soaked with tween boy sweat.

(Note: tween boy smell is NOT the same as the sweet smell of an infant – not at all!)

There’s nothing stinkier than a tween boy covered in perspiration after a long day at school and sports – rolling around in his sheets that probably are just as clean (or not) as his body.

“Honey…” – I approached the topic ever so gingerly. “Uhhhh honey, did you not take a shower before bedtime, like I asked you to do (36 times)?”

He rolled over in bed and looked up at me with his big hazel eyes. “OH! No, I forgot. Sorry. I will take a shower tomorrow after school. Good night, mom. I love you!”

I knew the next sentence would be met with a good amount of eye rolls and objections, but NO – there’s a limit to how much of an assault my nostrils could take.

“Honey, no. You need to get out of bed and take a shower NOW! Wash your body and your hair – WITH soap! THEN you can get back into bed and get a good night’s sleep!”

I was right, cue eye rolls and objections, but shower, he did – and our family lived happily ever after!

The very next day, I made this printable sign and framed it in the kids’ bathroom. I also sat down with all four of them after school and went over the basics of a good (acceptable) personal hygiene routine!

I am not sure WHEN the kids suddenly became allergic to baths and cleanliness, but it was most likely a gradual progression.

Going forward these are our personal hygiene rules/ guidelines for all four kids, whether they like it or not… their friends and future partners will love me for it!

Daily personal hygiene routine for tweens:

Brush and floss your teeth, twice a day!
1. For some reason, the kids thought they only had to adhere to good oral hygiene routines on school days! Don’t ask me where they got that crazy idea!
Comb your hair!
1. Our kids love to roll out of bed and that’s as far as their hair styling goes. They rock the bed-hair-chic look, until today.
Wash your face!
1. Pimples are slowly making an appearance, so I want them to have healthy habits before the teenage years hit hard.
Shower, using body wash and shampoo – every time.
1. Maybe it’s just our kids, but they managed to only go through ONE BOTTLE of shampoo over the course of ONE YEAR! I had to explain to them that personal cleaning products is NOT something we need to skimp on – not now, not ever.
2. (I may very well live to regret that statement when they get older and use a bottle of shampoo per shower, but for now I will do whatever it takes to rid our house of *THE* smell!)
Wear deodorant!
1. For the love of all things good in this world, please wear deodorant!
Put on CLEAN shirts, socks and underwear!
1. I won’t name any names, but several of our kids thought it was perfectly fine to wear the same shirts, socks and underwear for an undisclosed number of days in a row.

Parents of tweens remember: unless you SPELL IT OUT for them, they don’t instinctively know these things, apparently.

The Best Personal Hygiene Products SPECIFICALLY for Tween and Teen Boys:

And now to the hard part, as parents, how do we navigate the sea of personal hygiene products?

Do we pick the products we used as tweens and teens?
Do we let the kids pick the products they see on TV and social media?
Or don’t our kids deserve that we do a little research and find the products that use high quality natural ingredients?

When it became inevitable that our active tween boys both needed deodorants and face wash, I set out to find a solid brand using natural ingredients.

I wanted a company that:

makes our kids’ safety and health an uncompromising priority.
understands boys and young men.
encourages our boys to be the unique and intriguing beings they are.

Prep U is exactly the type of company you and I are looking for when it comes to our tween and teens’ hygiene products.

“Chemical-free body care for an all natural clean” – you just can’t argue with a slogan like that!

Our kids LOVE the Prep U Charcoal Deodorant:

The scent is pure essential oil Citrus Mint.
No harmful chemicals or synthetic fragrances were used.
GQ called the Prep U signature scent Trident Fresh.
This deodorant is an award winning product: 2018 Eco Excellence Award Winner for Best Skincare of Kids.

When I first showed our tweens the Charcoal Deodorant from Prep U, they starting arguing over who should get it – thank goodness, I had two!

Problem solved!

With high-quality ingredients like: