Change your Underwear!

Warning: Discussions about underwear

Note: Names and gender withheld to avoid embarrassment

From Day 1, I have reminded my children to change their underwear every day. I'm sure I've said it thousands of times. Wearing the same pair of underwear for multiple days in a row absolutely grosses me out! 

Today, one of my children was out of clean underwear. In response, another child says, "I never run out of underwear. I have tons in my drawer." This got me thinking. Why do they always have "tons" of clean underwear. Now, if I didn't have anything else to do but keep up on the laundry, I could understand that. However, that is not the case, so I asked... "Are you changing your underwear every day? When was the last time you changed your underwear?" The response about killed me: "Oh, every time I take a shower." What???!!!??? How many times have I reminded you?

Ok, so the picture is cheesy but I needed a visual, and I'm not going to take a picture of my child's dirty underwear. However, I think I need a more stern look on my face!

Back to the above response. In the summer time when we do showers every single day (because I cannot stand sweaty and stinky children), I can go with the "every time I take a shower" reasoning. But, winter time is a different story. Three or four showers a week means only three or four clean underwear changes. Ouch! We quickly had a discussion about changing underwear every day. "Haven't I told you to change your underwear every day?", I asked. 

Child: "I don't remember you saying that." 

What??? Selective listening! I am a true believer in this concept. 

What do I learn from this? 

1. Check the supply of underwear in your children's drawers :) If there is a healthy supply but your dirty laundry is piled high, you know there's a problem!

2. Make sure they really know by formally discussing.

3. Realize that even with my consistent reminders, the child has to internalize and buy into the concept for it to really happen.

The reward for the day? The child without any clean underwear wore half-dry but clean underwear to school because the thought of wearing dirty underwear is "FOUL"! Yes, it matters! 

There you have it: wet but clean underwear shows buy-in and internalizing. Dirty but dry underwear equates to "I don't really care." 

Hopefully the I don't care attitude will dissipate and the dryer will perform faster next time. 

More to Come...but until then, Stick-to-it!