to be shocked that SIL and her kids only bath / shower once a week?

[emilytankengine]

I have a shower every day, before work, sometimes twice if I've been to the gym or if we're on holiday / going out. I probably make sure the younger kids get a bath about 5 times a week and my teenage daughter has a shower every day.

SIL was outraged at this and says that she only typically has a bath or a shower once a week! She says that she has a wash every day with a face cloth (including her bottom :O - with a face cloth!!).

Maybe it's me who's odd but I was staggered at this

[tallulah]

supadupa I agree

I can't bear strong perfume. There is a particular kind used by.. ahem, older ladies (no idea what it is) that actually makes me heave.

[vmcd28]

Ho do you rise the soap off if you use a face cloth?

I feel absolutely manky if I dont have a shower and wash my hair every single day, so yes, I think SHE IBU.

[expatinscotland]

LeQueen, you're screaming into the wind here. A lot of people think they don't smell so are happy to be unwashed.

[crazynanna]

I hate the smell when I am on the bus in the early morning,and there is a hum of someone who was pissed the night before,and it is mingled with the aroma of having tried to get rid of it by teeth brushing.
Booze and toothpaste....yuk

[takeonboard]

I prefer to shower every day, I don't feel right otherwise, but I don't really mind what others do and don't feel they are dirty if they don't shower as often as me (unless they smell of course). My grandma used to strip wash and as I remember it took a lot longer than a shower, but probably saving water/money is the reason.
However I can't think of any child of any age who wouldn't be filthy if they only bathed/showered once a week.

[FakePlasticTrees]

The thing is with the whole 'strip wash is just as good' crowd, well, i suppose it is for the bits you wash, but people don't just sweat in their armpit area, feet and bum n' bits area. watch men in shirts on the underground in the summer and there's normally wet patches on backs/chests as well - ok, when it's that bad you can see it through a shirt you know you need to wash there too (I hope!) but you will sweat a little bit through normal days in those places too.

Re not smelling yourself, I really can't smell myself at all today, but I know I put on sented deoderant and perfume (which, granted is not supposed to be a powerful sent) and I washed my hair with sented shampoo, so i must have a smell to others (which I hope is nice!). It's a bit like when I started using moroccan oil on my hair, the first two days I could smell it all day, but now that's just part of what the world smells like to me and I don't notice it. These people who don't wash all of themselves regularly must just think that's what the world smells like, rather than realising it's them...

[TimeWasting]

The key thing here though is that the OP was shocked that the SIL only showers once a week, which seems to me to imply that she wouldn't have guessed this and therefore the SIL doesn't smell.
Unfortunately as the OP has buggered off, we'll never know of this is the case.
I suspect it is.

When I worked in a shop a few years back there were a couple of customers who's smell made us sick in our mouths.
Showering once a week would have made a huge difference to their personal atmospheric impact I can assure you.

[AllieZ]

I shower once in the morning when getting up; once before going to bed and often a 3rd time during the day e.g. after coming home from the gym. Also put on clean underwear every time, obviously. I think not having a proper thorough bath/shower before going to bed is unhygienic: you would take all the day's dirt and germs to bed and they would fester there day after day... I like to go to sleeep in a clean bed with clean sheets.

[d0gFace]

Ive always found I tend to smell stale if my clothes havent been dryed properly and they have like a musty damp smell to them.

The thing with people on trains ect they could shower everyday and still smell.

[ragged]

Is this still going? FFS, how much is there to say in astonishment about other people's hygiene habits?