Mommy Musings Monday-teaching kids hygiene

Toilets not flushed. Underwear streaked. Teeth not brushed. Fights at bath-time. Dirty hands at dinner.

It is life as a mom.

One of the responsibilities you have as a parent is to teach your children proper hygiene. It is something that you tackle young and hope that your children "get it" by the time they start school and you unleash them, and their dirty ways on the world.  Unfortunately it doesn't always work that way. It appears that reteaching and relearning is a daily process. We are doing that right now. There has been an influx of unflushed toilets, dirty underwear, teeth so gross they have grown orange gunk...need I go on?

The question comes on how do you drive home to older children that this is important stuff? That is the challenge that now faces our household.  We have tried reminders. We have tried punishments. Nothing has worked. Last week we stumbled onto something though.

James is a horrible teeth brusher. Just bad. Kids have come up to him at the store and said "you're teeth look gross." and they were right. He told us he was brushing every day and we believed him. We thought the discolored teeth came from a fall he had a few years ago that seemed to loosen some teeth but not enough to pull them out. Then came the day in May when I realized James had been lying. He hadn't brushed his teeth in over a month. He didn't know where his tooth brush was and had just been going into the bathroom during teeth brushing time, turning his timer over, and waiting. When we found out there was the dreaded punishment of dad brushing the teeth. We watched him like a hawk and found he was no better at teeth brushing and there were more times of dad brushings. He went to the dentist last week and our hygienist painted his teeth to show them how bad they really were. It was bad, but it shocked James enough that he was scared what would happen to his teeth. So far so good. over a week later he has pearly white teeth and is flossing- all because he got scared.

So tonight we are having a Family Home Evening Lesson about hygiene. We are going to talk about what happens to you body if you don't wipe well. Or if you don't wash your hands. It is going to be the scare tactic.

I don't know if it will work, but it is worth a try. I guess all we can do is hope.

What way do you teach your kids about good hygiene?