Parents don't shower often.

[pateandcheese]

Is this a generational thing?
My parents in their late 60's only shower once a week.
I wouldn't say they ever smell or look scruffy, but I find it odd.
I've obviously not lived at home in 15+ years so never really noticed before, but before lockdown we went away as a family for a week and they both showered once in that time.
Me, my DH and small kids shower or bath every day without fail.
They're both retired so it's not as if they're massively busy.
They're very house proud and everything is fresh and ironed and tidy.
I just don't get the showering thing.
But thinking about it when I lived at home I'd only shower a few times a week in my teens too. It's only since moving out I shower every day.

Growing up, you didn’t really find separate showers so much in houses, more often showers-over-baths.

My parents probably bath twice a week at most (in their 80s). However, if their in their sixties, I’d say that was more unusual.

I know a few nurses who’ve said as you get older you don’t really sweat so daily baths and showers aren’t needed unless there is toileting issues etc. I expect most have a bath every few days and wash in between. Also I imagine it’s a struggle getting in and out as you get older

It's unnecessary to shower or bath every day as it strips the skin of its natural oils. Every few days is quite healthy.

Getting in and out of a bath or shower is slippery and the more trouble you have with balance (such as blood pressure etc) the more you risk an injury.

We didn’t have a shower in the house growing up, my mum still doesn’t. Old people don’t sweat like teenagers and don’t have periods so don’t necessarily need to shower every day.

It’s not natural for the skin, and all that shower gel and extra water is also a disaster for the environment.

My grandmother who passed away at 95 this year just used a flannel daily, had her hair washed and set at the hairdressers weekly and bathed...we're not too sure. She was most put out at the very end of her life that the care home tried to shower her daily. It really upset her.

It’s not a generational thing.
We oldies were brought up with soap, baths and showers just like you. It’s not as though we were born in the 19th century.
HTH.

Hmm. I'm 60. As a child I probably had a bath twice a week and the rest if the time washed at the basin in my bedroom. It was the height of luxury then to have vanity units in bedrooms. Mine was pink to match my bedroom!

By about 12 I started getting sweaty so started showering daily and we were lucky to have a shower in the mid 70s. By my 20s I was living in London using the tube daily and if I happened to wash my hair over a white bath the water was grey with dirt. I continued showering every evening to wash off the day until lockdown.

When lockdown started and I stopped dashing about and interacting with others daily, I realised that I don't sweat like I once did and I wasn't going anywhere to pick up "dirt". My hair stopped needing a daily wash when we moved out of London and no longer gets greasy.

Post lock down I shower and hairwash every three days and can get two wears out of a dress. It isn't being dirty, it's about not getting dirty and certainly I no longer perspire as I once did. Obviously daily in hot weather.

To the people saying they shower or bath two or three times a week, but don’t smell, the chances are you’ve got used to that musty smell and can’t even recognise it. I bet other people don’t share your view.

There’s no excuse for anyone in this day and age to not shower every day. As for the twice a week people, that’s disgusting and unhygienic.

@Welcometonowhere

People get a bit defensive about this I find.

Personally, it’s a feeling as much as anything else for me. I’m sure I would not be dirty if I had a daily wash and a shower or bath say twice a week.

But showers and baths are the solution to life’s ills for me. They warm you up in cold weather and cool you down in hot. They are relaxing and make you drowsy, or wake you up and energise you. There are lovely products in a variety of scents that make you feel lovely. I can’t understand people standing over the sink when they could have all that. It isn’t a judgement, to me it is just like someone choosing to sleep on the floor when there’s a luxurious king sized bed on offer.

This is how I feel too. If people don’t smell it’s fine by me but daily showering is far preferable to me.

I'm not awake unless I've had my morning shower and I certainly don't feel clean.

Last year our boiler broke and we had to wait 5 days for it to be fixed. During that time I had to make do with a strip wash. It was such a faff and I didn't feel as fresh.

Growing up was a different story we had a bath once a week. I didn't start showering daily until I got my own house but I couldn't go back to the old days.

I've showered daily most of my adult life, but in my mid fifties and working at home and not doing much, it seems too often so I've gone to every 2nd or even 3rd day with a wash in between. I can see that being fine to reduce as I get older unless I have any issues that would mean I would smell or be unhealthy. It's not necessarily good for your skin to shower in hot water everyday.

Years back I remember my grandfather announcing that old people didn’t sweat and didn’t need to wash as much - unfortunately he was wrong with regard to himself and really did need to wash more often. This was in a visit to the UK too, can’t imagine what it was like in his very hot home country!

My parents are in their 70s and flannel in the sink most days. I was the same until I got to uni. Never ever smelt.

Partly for me it's the pain of having to dry down the shower afterwards = lazy arse!

My parents are 69 and 70. They aren't particularly appearance conscious, my mum didn't wear makeup for work, for example, only for special occasions. But they are always clean and tidy, with a daily bath or shower. They would expect this of visitors, ie always made a shower available to us when we stayed over.

There’s no excuse for anyone in this day and age to not shower every day.

Actually, yes, there is. DH has a very rare skin condition resulting in extremely dry skin. His consultant has told him not to shower every day. Eczema is another skin condition that can be aggravated by excess showering.

I'm 65 and bathe/shower daily. We were bathed every night as children and continued this as teens - my parents didn't have a shower fitted until much later.

My mother would bathe daily but my father twice a week - he used to go swimming once a week and would shower there, so that was 3 times.

They told me about when they were children in the 30s and 40s and how there weren't really bathrooms but they kept clean by having strip washes at the sink. My mother had to go to a relative's house on her wedding day to have a bath because she didn't have one at home.

They were always clean and never smelled.

I don't shower everyday. Never have. But I don't have a physical job or go to the gym or get dirty so I have never needed a shower everyday. I always have clean underwear on and strip the bed and wash towels once a week.

I think my nan (83) showers possibly twice a week. But she has sink washes everyday.

I am finding that a shower every other day keeps me clean and non-smelly, and on the alternate days I wash my face, pits and bits using a flannel and shower gel. I have been showering in the evening as my hair takes so long to dry, and I have stopped using a hairdryer as it was damaging my hair.
I don't smell and feel clean and fresh.

My Mum is 74 and has a bath once a week.
She washes her hair separately in the kitchen at the sink so she can bend her head over the sink. She cleans it out well first.

My Dad (81, who sadly passed away in July) was not allowed to use the shower (by my Mum because of water marks!!! Her OCD! ) so had a wash in the sink with a flannel ! The shower has been used probably 10 times in 20 years. I really felt for my Dad as he was in the RN so was used to having daily showers.

I bathe at least once a week and shower every other day.

I don't think it's odd for their generation... my Mum thinks if you shower everyday it dries your skin out!

@Lavendersfieldsofprovence your ableism is showing.

Im 60 and shower daily. Sometimes twice especially in summer. I get awful hot flushes so sometimes need a wash at the sink throughout the day in addition. Most of my friends and family who are older than me and also shower/bath daily.

It was the next generation up that I worked with who for various reasons (mobility, pain issues, growing up with the tradition of a weekly bath) who often seem to get by with a wash at the sink of pits and bits.

I was brought up on a bath a week in the1950s . I now do a shower and hair wash every other day and just a shower in-between. We have 2 big none slip showers with grab rails . I'm very unsteady on my feet but I find showering easier than messing about with a flannel at the sink.

Used to shower every day but in my 20s my skin became so cracked, sore and dry had to see a dermatologist.

He recommended reducing showers to every other day - unless doing sport.

I worked along with moisturising my body every where. Days I do not share pits and bits get a flannel wash and moisturise.Having said that when I was flat sharing I did sit in the bathroom with a book pretending to shower so my flat mates never knew!

And to the poster - no I do not smell musty - family knew my problem and I was quite clear that they were to tell me if I smelt and used to ask them aswell.