Step son used my bath towel

[Green0911]

Want to gauge if IABU here.

My and my husband's towels are in the bathroom. Teenage SS keeps his in his room. We each have a hand towel and a bath towel. They all get changed every 3-4 days. When it came to changing them, I realised SS didn't have his towels in his room. He said he'd put them to be laundered a few days before. When I asked him which towels he'd been using in the meantime (he'd showered at least twice during this period), initially he claimed none, then admitted he'd used mine.

I blew a fuse. Couldn't believe he thought this was acceptable. Husband has laughed it off and is accusing me of being dramatic/blowing things out of proportion.

AIBU?

Yes, I 'm sure we can save the planet from natural disasters, climate change and wars, if we could only hang out our towels to dry.

As you are not meant to leave the house or sleep whilst washing machine and tumble drier are on, that is the time people are thinking about, not the actual time of putting items in the machines

I’m shocked that so many people are so obsessive about this.

(You would only share a towel with your DH in a dire emergency?? Yet presumably you are OK about you and your DH sharing bodily fluids…)

Bodily fluids yes. Arse bits no.

No one's saying hygiene needs to go out the window ppl are saying the op is being ott about it. She's the one who didn't wash his towels and he used hers instead. OK its happened now. She's literally made this into a massive issue when it is not. She's now decided to put her own towels in her room which she could have done anyway without any drama. That's what ppl are saying to her to get over herself.

I can clearly remember those days. I was the youngest and so had the first bath on Sunday night - it was just accepted that my brother would get in after me. I can remember getting into trouble when I was four or five and I did a wee in the bath, so the water had to be changed and was wasted 😆😆

High risk, high reward 😉

Surely not?! You mean they don't lather their legs at all? But that's ... well ... no, actually that's not really ... er ... did I wash my legs? ... Whoops!

I'm a bit taken aback by all this.

I wonder if someone could hazard a guess as to the proportion of people who don't share towels? I've never really considered it as a possibility; but then I'm getting old. When did the notion of personal towels start, I wonder?

Just to be clear (and, yes, I know, it seems to disgust lots of you (!)), we (my family and friends) use the nearest dry towel on the rail, hang it back on the (heated) rail to dry for the next person, or, if it looks at all dirty (mostly after a few uses, maybe a couple or three days), put it in the basket to be washed.

I've never really considered having a personal towel. (Although, come to think of it, it has happened when staying with some people (not that many), we have been issued with specific towels: "Your towels are on your bed," says son-in-law's mum ... we always considered this a little quirk of (probably bourgeois, class-based) light-hearted hospitality to be smiled at but not at all taken seriously.)

Really? Is having personal towels a common thing? Is it American in origin? Do any non-middle-class British people indulge in it? What about other Europeans? Other cultures?

You do learn lots of interesting things on MN. People are endlessly fascinating!

Until I joined mumsnet I had no idea families used different towels. My kids actually just put their dressing gowns on after their shower which I don’t get but we’ve never had separate towels. All my towels match, I would be more bothered about mismatched towels in my bathroom 😂

m00rfarm "I don't even like using a towel someone else has used even after it has been washed"

Now that is extreme!

I’m with you on this. It’s not something I’ve actually discussed with friends but I know in my family there are just towels in the bathroom for everyone. They get washed every few days 🤷

Heaven help you if you ever have any actual problems.

Insane over-reaction.

I might be going against the grain here, however myself and children shower regularly and are clean…. We use the same towels in the bathroom. We dont have individual towels. Thats really odd to me that you would be so strict over it! 😂

OP, did your stepson have any way of knowing it was your towel he used and not his father's?

I'm on page 15.

I wash all his clothes and towels regularly, dry them, fold them, and place them in his wardrobe/the towel cupboard. There are always plenty of clean towels available.

Also to answer the question re why he leaves his towels in his bedroom- I don't know. There is space for them in the bathroom but he's always left them on the edge of his bed. Not anymore of course.

The funny thing is my husband actually has a third towel for his face because of his history of acne. He won't even use his own towel for another part of his body, I can't imagine he'd be thrilled if his son used his face towel?

When you say 'not to be taken seriously' please don't tell me you ignored the towel given to you and used the closest one on the rail like you do at home??

My particularity around personal towels comes from my mum, who is German, so possibly more common there.

Can I ask about bed sheets out of curiosity? Do people who share towels also treat bedding in the same way i.e. not changing sheets between different people using the spare bed?

You assume he said those words specifically rather than 'i used that one' and it happened to be OP's. You are assuming that this teenage lad deliberately picked up her one. How would he even know which is hers, unless they are the MN mythical monogrammed ones?

There is some serious projecting on this thread.

I wouldn't like that OP

He's old enough for you to explain to him where the towels are kept or can you find space for his towel in the bathroom too?

I didn’t, I’m posting from beyond the grave due to them roller towels!

@BettyBardMacDonald do you live with people who don't know how to wash or are perhaps using towels to wipe their arses?

God only knows.
Underwear wasn't changed daily either.

@notyo nope exactly how we also approach towels for people living in the household now and when I was growing up.

Visitors of course get their own clean towel.

How do you know he had any way of knowing which was his dad's and which his stepmother's?

Even in heat waves by towels go in the dryer. Cannot bear scratchy towels

I have heated towel rails that come on when my boiler is on to heat the water morning and evening. Nice warm towel waiting in reach, no need to remember to take one from a pile in a different room and each room needing it's own pile. I shower, dry myself off, fold my towel and return it to rail where it then dries off ready for next time.

I have other methods to scrub my skin if I want, potential dead skin cells on towels is so far down my priority list in life. I have actual concerns.