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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask why the hell teens use absolutely MASSIVE portions of everything?!

62 replies

Lex345 · 06/12/2024 18:51

Mainly light hearted but they are driving me mad!!

HUGE bottle of shampoo-gone in 4 days
Toothpaste, must be be hoarding a great white shark under the bath the amount we are going through
Seasoning-Salt Bae the crap out of it all over the kitchen. Do not even want to think about what happens to ketchup.

It cannot just be mine that are doing this! And to add insult to injury they put the EMPTY bloody containers BACK!!!

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Yellowbananasarebetterthangreen · 07/12/2024 21:17

I imagine they do this because they know that if they carry on doing this you will nag them but basically "let them" carry on doing it. They obviously dont think being nagged is a problem so they carry on.

Hankunamatata · 07/12/2024 21:16

We also have back up soap and block shampoo when all the nice stuff they prefer runs out

Hankunamatata · 07/12/2024 21:15

LaPalmaLlama · 06/12/2024 20:10

Lynx Asphyxia

Omg it's so true with the lynx and the bloody dry shampoo one uses could gag you

cardibach · 07/12/2024 21:13

Thishouseisafckingprison · 06/12/2024 19:52

I have an answer to the shampoo/shower gel/conditioner one!
Buy bottles from amazon etc eg 3 black pump dispensers, labels come with them, and decant into those. Have to pump quite firmly to get product out (so 10 pumps ish is about the right amount to use)
I've found stuff lasts way longer doing this
Originally bought the bottles for bathroom aesthetics and this was a side effect :)

10? What sort of dispensers are these? My pump dispensers it varies between 1 and 3 depending on how rich the product is!

Bobbybobbins · 07/12/2024 21:13

My mum used to buy the cheap own brand huge bottles of shampoo and conditioner - if we wanted nicer we had to buy it ourselves. She bought better for herself and kept it hidden.

Hankunamatata · 07/12/2024 21:12

I'm debating with sauces and squash for pump bottles

Hankunamatata · 07/12/2024 21:12

Iv put washing up liquid in a pump bottle and it's lasting much longer

Hankunamatata · 07/12/2024 21:11

I brought pump bottles for shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and refill them. It's cut back massively on waste. Same for toothpaste I buy the one in vertical tube so they cast squeeze it all out.

User820825 · 07/12/2024 21:08

When my dd was about 15 I seriously considered doling out conditioner like they do pills in prison. In little paper cups.

In the end she had to have her own conditioner bottle and I wrote the date on that I would buy a new one with permanent marker and that seemed to do the trick.

BlastedPimples · 07/12/2024 12:00

The more you buy the more they use.

I just don't buy more once it's all gone until I am ready to.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 07/12/2024 11:55

LaPalmaLlama · 06/12/2024 20:10

Lynx Asphyxia

😂😂😂

Elsvieta · 07/12/2024 10:20

Lex345 · 06/12/2024 18:56

If there is a way to not allow them to do it, I am all ears, because I just feel like I am nagging constantly :(

Don't nag at all - tell them the rules once and then introduce consequences if they're not followed. Loss of screen time is very effective on most teens.

I don't think it does kids of either sex any good to be taught that anything that comes out of the mouth of a woman is just white noise which can be safely ignored. Oh that's only mum - always "nagging". Tune it out.

Squidlette · 06/12/2024 20:54

Ds thought you were meant to just squirt the shampoo on your head.

He is 15. Has long, long hair but doesn't know/ care how to look after it. He's recently discovered the magic of my hairdryer. If he ran out, he wouldn't care. Probably use hand-wash.

MrsSkylerWhite · 06/12/2024 20:24

SmalllChange · Today 18:54

Because we allow it I guess.
My parents had 5 kids and very little money, so we couldn't have got away with it.
We had to be mindful of everyone else in the house getting their share.

Not sure I agree. Early 60s child, older brother just 18 months ahead of me. Mum single parent by the time we were 10 and 11. My brother still drank the week’s milk and left us without, time after time. Ditto cheese, bread, whatever. Mum didn’t “allow it”. She was out of the house 14 hours most days working, couldn’t stop him.

TroysMammy · 06/12/2024 20:21

Give everyone their own bottle of shampoo, toothpaste, shower gel etc and if they use it all up before a given timescale then they either top it up out of their own pockets or go without.

AtleastitsnotMonday · 06/12/2024 20:19

With pump bottles if you put an elastic band slightly below the pump tap it reduces the amount you can press it down and therefore the amount that comes out.
With loo roll if you squash the roll slightly it doesn't spin as easily on the spindle and they are therefore likely to use less.

But to be honest, I'd just be glad they were clean and not the shower dodger type of teen.

ThatPunnyPeachFatball · 06/12/2024 20:16

Give them their own bottle of shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant etc etc and once they’re out they’re out. It might teach them not to be wasteful.

StormingNorman · 06/12/2024 20:14

LaPalmaLlama · 06/12/2024 20:10

Lynx Asphyxia

😭😭😭

StormingNorman · 06/12/2024 20:14

Give them each a “hygiene allowance”. All shower gel, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, conditioner etc comes out of it. When they’ve run out of money and product they are just going to have to ming.

Should teach them the value of these things and how to make them last.

LaPalmaLlama · 06/12/2024 20:10

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 06/12/2024 19:20

When the dses were teens, the worst thing was the industrial quantities of Lynx that they used every morning. So much that you could slice it, from three rooms and one floor away from the culprit.

Weaponised fragrance, I called it.

Lynx Asphyxia

Anonym00se · 06/12/2024 20:09

When DS was a teenager he was getting through gallons of shampoo so I bought an enormous pump bottle. After only a few days he told me that he was running low. I asked him what the hell he was doing with it, a bottle that big should last weeks. He looked at me like I was in idiot and said “Well I don’t just have hair on my head, you know!” Turned out he thought that you were supposed to wash all your body hair with shampoo too, which was pretty much his entire body by the age of 15!

MothToAnInferno · 06/12/2024 20:06

Lex345 · 06/12/2024 19:05

Omg yes loo roll! It wouldn't be half as bad if it was at least flagged when things are running out

This is my issue. Tell me when things have ran out. I don't automatically know, I don't particularly care that we are out if you tell me so I can buy more of it before it's needed.

StrawberryWater · 06/12/2024 20:04

Back in the day I used to hurl half a bottle of dewberry musk on my fruits of the loom sweatshirt each morning and go through 8 cans of hairspray a month (I was probably flammable 😆 ).

Not much changes down the generations lol.

Lourdes12 · 06/12/2024 20:02

Because they don't pay for it. If it was their money they would use a minimal amount

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