To think you shouldn't be able to smell...

[Motheroffeminists]

...fried food on the clothes, hair, and belongings of your children unless you fry everything and that your house must smell like a chip pan too?

It's vile. Surely the house must stink? I have a very sensitive sense of smell and it knocks me sick.

Thankfully I've been directed via the housekeeping board to white vinegar in the washing machine to get the smell out of their clothes. Otherwise I have to wash their things twice and separately as the smell contaminates the rest of the wash. Dd1's hair still smells after a thorough wash but I don't want to put vinegar on her hair! It's seriously grim. Poor kids. I feel like they need decontaminating when they come home

sorry, just needed an opiate induced rant

Where are they going?

It's usually households with deep fat friers with rarely changed oil I've found from past experiences.

Those things are rank in general.

I don't fry with any oils (Seriously, the JML Cooperstone pans are a-muh-aaaazing!) but I love to cook and no matter what, by the time I'm done my clothes stink to high heaven.

If I fry chips (maybe once every 6 months) or something deep fried like tempura the whole house reeks. So no. I don't think you must fry everything for clothes to smell.

I sympathise OP, except it’s friend’s houses with plug-ins and fragrance sticks that do my head in. I feel like I can’t let them go to bed and breathe that in all night, so have to wash their hair however late it is.

Sparklesocks their dad's gf's house.

If I do roast vegetables or potatoes my clothes smell of cooking as does the house but it washes out of my clothes easily and the smell doesn't linger in the house.

Even the carrier bags stink. I have to put their clothes from there outside or in the garage if I can't wash them straight away. It's pungent.

Those plug in things are awful as so strong. My previous neighbour had one and as soon as she opened the front door it hit you like a freight train.

I'm not a fan of strong smells. I have asthma and my chest seems to clamp shut if I smell anything "heavy" or strong, especially in small spaces. I love wild garlic though as I walk through the woods and that's pretty strong. It's fresh though and I'm surrounded by fresh air and space. Artificial smells are horrible.

I used to work in a chippy and a couple of hotel kitchens and the smell from deep fryers really clings. A lot of people don't think to change the oil in domestic fryers very often and that does make it so much worse.

Is this to do with contact visits? It could be that the person is cooking chips every time to either give the kids a treat or because they don't know how to cook much else. It still stinks though!

Sorry I missed your post while I was typing (slowly!). Yes, it does sound like there is a very limited diet on offer. Frying chips etc in lard rather than veg oil would make it worse still, is there any chance she's doing that?

I think as pp said it's down to not changing the oil often enough. I knew someone who roasted their potatoes in the same fat/oil without ever washing the oven tray, it was the most disgusting smell. When I used to smell it my stomach would heave. It's vile

We got rid of our fryer for this reason. It really does cling. What about putting their clothes in a bag with bicarbonate of soda to sit for a couple of days?

🤮 l can’t bear the smell of fat and grease. They do cling so much

I bet my house reeks of plug ins, air fresheners and fabric softener I am trying to cut down but I can't stand the thought of it smelling "bad" so end up over compensating

I rarely close the windows though, so it might not be that bad?

Yeah yeah. Your XP's new partner is a lazy chav who doesn't understand how proletarian it is to fry things rather than feeding your little darlings quinoa and couscous...

If you need an opiate induced rant the smell is surely the least of your worries.

I use to work in a chippy and the smell does stick.

I did notice on Amazon white vinegar shampoo, might be something to look at

My DS used to stink when he started school and was eating the rank pre Jamie Oliver school dinners. This rancid fat smell seemed to permeate his whole being. It was very disconcerting when I gave him a cuddle.

A switch to packed lunch sorted him out. I’d check what your kids are being fed.

I find my clothes smell after I've made an omelette. I use very little oil. I don't have an extractor fan, but try to open the window and it still happens.

I wouldn’t put the blame on the new girlfriend, as it is more often than not the parent who, having a short/limited time with their kid, doesn’t want to upset the kids trying to feed them strange foods so they go for what they like, what they were used to eat at home before the split or let the child eat a la carte (therefore ending up with a crap diet of pasta with no proteins, pizza, frozen chips and fish/chicken fingers most of the time) with girlfriend or without.

So I would say that it is more a lazy parent problem than a girlfriend problem. And it is not always the sole problem of the parent with contact... the amount of times I have seen kids refusing healthier food to insist they don’t eat anything but the above at mummy’s, which is a lie of course but if as parents you are not communicating, what do you expect?

I don't believe I said it was the gf who cooks? She doesn't. Their dad cooks because apparently the gf burns everything. He's a good cook, or was, but now it's just burgers, chips, sausages, chips, omelet, chips. They don't like the food there very much and there's not much of it so they are really hungry when they come home. I didn't say the gf was a chav either

I have to take opiates for a couple of chronic conditions. At night I have to take extra and things that annoy me that I suppress normally come to the surface.

The vinegar shampoo sounds interesting, thank you.

It's frustrating having to start washing uniforms late in the evening because they smell so bad. Even if they wash them they need rewashing. I have a good supply of white vinegar

I know the smell you mean, it's foul. Even worse than people who smell of curry on the train, I just want to scream 'can you wash your clothes you minging bastard'. I guess they don't realise. We cook a lot and i am obsessive about shutting the doors in the house opening the kitchen window and saving my bath for after a cookathon. It helps if you wash up immediately too. I'm always paranoid that me or my house smells it's my worst nightmare

Having an extra set of uniforms makes a big difference, no hurried washing in the middle of the night.