Mom Demands Her Stinky Seven-Year-Old Wear Deodorant So She Isn’t ‘Bullied’
Everything is great about these stories from The Daily Mail where a mom makes semi-whackadoodle statements and we all get to bask in their glory. It’s your favorite time, and it’s my favorite time, so we may as well all just get all cozy and enjoy the ridiculousness of ‘Why I make my seven-year-old wear deodorant’: I would hate my daughter to be the smelly child at school.’ – a very special after school special. OK, so it’s not an after school special but it should be. Jessica Valentine claims her daughter Josie, who is seven, started sweating at a young age and she makes her wear deodorant. Before you get all judgey on Jessica she realizes you are about to get all judgey on her so she states:
In fact, I am sure some who read this will be aghast. But I disagree. What sort of mother would I be if I allowed her to be singled out as the smelly child at school?
Are you all aghast? Pearls clutched? Good.
Josie had been playing with her sisters Sophie and Bella when she started to notice she was getting a bit whiffy:
”˜They feel wet, Mum,’ she told me. She was right. And when I playfully scooped her up into my arms and gave them a bit of a sniff, I discovered they also smelled of sweat.
I didn’t make a big deal of it and kept the conversation light, pulling a funny face as I told her: ”˜Yuk, they smell, we’d better get you some deodorant, but until we do you can use mine.’
I’m a very matter-of-fact person, however delicate the subject.
I am pretty sure all these sisters have the most popular names of the last ten years. And I know that there are some people who have medical conditions which cause them to be super sweaty, even at a young age, but after raising four kids I didn’t notice any of them needing deodorant until they were in the throes of puberty. I don’t even think I wore deodorant until I was older than 12, and I’m pretty sure I just did it because I thought the Smells Like Teen Spirit bottle was pretty.
Poor Josie does not get to pick out her own deodorant through:
Josie didn’t have a say in which deodorant she uses. I got it from an organic supermarket near our home in Brighton.
Well, la-deee-dah Miss FancyPants.
The author of the article goes on to yammer about bullying and how she knows all about it because she is a psychologist specialising in children’s and women’s issues and if Josie were known as the stinky kid the other kids would hate her, which is neither here nor there. What I do believe is that if your kid one day reads an article where you outed her for how stinky she is that may one day prove damaging. Ta-dah!
(Image: Horst Petzold/shutterstock)
