We are going out a little now because the baby has settled into a routine and we can put her to bed before a babysitter comes and still catch a movie at a reasonable hour. Number 1 son of course, has been easy to parent for some time. He does his homework without too much argument, he can get his own breakfast, he can wash himself... or not.
I may have mentioned before that my boy is not that interested in being really clean. He comes by this honestly, in as much as we have never worried too much about keeping him really clean. When he was an infant, we'd bathe him a couple times a week, but not stress about the daily dunk unless he smelled. My mother took to calling me and asking if he'd been bathed that day, as she has a fetish about clean children. Anyhow, seeing puberty on the horizon, we started emphasizing the daily shower as soon as he was old enough to shower by himself. It's been going pretty well (except for a hiccup here and there) we thought, but two things have occurred that make me realize that shower time might need more parental supervision:
1. He ran out of soap. For Christmas, I gave him a large bottle of Chocolate Mint shower gel, which he loved. Apparently, it doesn't last forever, because he told me last week that he has run out of it. Okay, I'll get him some more, but in the meantime he can use some regular bar soap, like the one that's been in his shower since we had guests during the holidays. He said he didn't realize he could use that, didn't see it as real soap, blah, blah, whatever, he'll use it. Just from curiosity, I asked him when he ran out of the special gel, and the answer was: February. It's May. My son, who has not been using the bar of soap in his shower, has not had any shower gel in the bottle for 3 months. To re-state, and allow you to absorb the full horror, that's 3 months without soap on a dirty, sweaty little boy. He never smelled that bad or anything, but I did think once or twice that he was a little musky maybe.
2. Having solved the soap problem (which wasn't a supply problem so much as an application error), I was gazing at my boy yesterday with pride and delight. What great hair! Such a beautiful eye color! What finely shaped ears- wait, what's that behind his ear? Is that a rash? A scar? A bruise from some untold story of school bullying? You probably don't need me to tell you it was none of those things. Turns out there is a reason mothers are always telling their kids to wash behind their ears. I have conveyed this information to him before, but not with any special emphasis. I admit this was a mistake, because it turns out that my kid was harboring ambitions to collect dirt behind his ears. Not just any old dirt, this stuff did not come off with a wet paper towel. It didn't come off with serious paper towel scrubbing, or nail scraping, or a judiciously uttered profanity. I had to break out a sani-wipe with some sort of crazy solvent before this junk finally gave way to serious swiping.
This may all seem like a serious digression, considering I started with Brad Pitt and a war movie. But it's just that when I get to this movie, I won't just be admiring the scenery, I'll be comparing the relative filth of the soldiers and my child, and hoping that my child is cleaner.
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