Sixteen year old boys are disgusting!

The BBQ Pit
1

At least mine is.

We moved into our new house in October. There are three bathrooms. One downstairs, one in the master bedroom and another one upstairs. My son has the second upstairs bathroom to himself. However, a month after we moved into the house, my parents moved to our town. They stayed with us for several months until their new house was ready. In fact, they just moved out 6 weeks ago. Now, while my parents lived here, they shared Nick’s bathroom and my mom kept it clean. Since Mom left, I’ve been sending Nick, at least once a week, to clean his bathroom. However, because he is almost 17 years old, I haven’t been double checking his work. Big mistake. This morning, I went into his bathroom to drop off some clean towels. It was, as usual, tidy on the surface. The sink was clean enough, the toilet was fine – no surprise as I just sent him up to clean yesterday… usually I look no further than that. Today, however, I opened the shower door. Disgusting isn’t even the word. Is there such a word as fusgusting? Well, there should be. Nick’s shower was fusgusting! Mold, soup scum, some sort of mysterious greenish crud… it looked like trolls (not SDMB trolls, I mean under-the-bridge-dwelling, billy-goat-eating trolls) had been showering in there. This kid takes two showers a day - how the hell could he stand to get in there? Of course, the condition of the shower kind of accounts for the two-showers-a-day thing. I’m sure he’s been dirtier when he gets out of that shower than when he gets in.

So, I cleaned it up (which took some time, some elbow grease and a gallon or so of Simple Green) and headed back downstairs, weak, shaky and nauseous, wanting nothing more than a cold beer and a nice lay-down on the couch. However, on my way to the stairs, I passed Nick’s room, which was, on the surface, fairly neat. Now, I put his clean clothes away, so I knew that his dresser and closet are in reasonably decent shape. But, I’ve never looked under his bed. Loopy from cleaning-solvent fumes, I entered his room, dropped to my knees, and lifted the bedskirt. Well. There was a mountain of crap under there. I’m surprised the bed sits even on the floor. There were crumpled up homework papers, old tests and scraps of paper with phone numbers and email addresses. There were a dozen books under there – my books, BTW, one of which I’ve been looking for for weeks. 6 empty soda cans and countless candy wrappers and crumpled up potato chip bags. And (this is the fusgusting part) there were 8 pairs of dirty underpants. Now, if you don’t have a 16 year old boy, have never known a 16 year old boy or have never been a 16 year old boy, you might wonder why a 16 year old boy would stuff his skivies under his bed. I’ll give you a hint: The last thing I pulled from under his bed was a copy of Playboy, dated 1998 with a picture of Pamela Anderson on the cover. Eeew! Where’s a Hazmat suit when I need one?

16 year old boys are fusgusting.

Jess (off to have that beer and that nap)

2

Man, he should know at least to put it between the mattress and the box spring, because mom ALWAYS looks under the bed. Newbie.

3

I’ve always been facinated by parents who do their teenager’s basic chores for them. I was taught to do my own laundry at no later than 8 or 9 years old, along with that of my younger sisters. I put my own stuff away, and if it came down to it and I didn’t have any clean undies to wear to school it was my own damn fault. Maybe it’s different with boys, I don’t claim to know. But still–if it had been me who came across a shower in that condition NO WAY I would have cleaned it for him. He’s old enough to shower by himself, he’s old enough to keep the shower sanitary IMO. You’re a better woman than I for doing it for him.

As for the under the bed situation, well–I’m not going to say a word about that. I’m 25 and still shove stuff under the bed when I don’t want to deal with it. :o

4

Empty chip bags and pop cans? Well, at least he is giving the bugs something to munch on while he’s not in bed. How thoughtful of him!

5

Yes, but the problem is…what if he never cleans it and in 2 years or so he heads off to college, leaving Jess to deal with the unexpected. She coulda died if he waited that long.
That said (and IANAParent), I would have a chat with him about the shower…though I don’t know what I’d say about the underwear.

I’m 29 and still struggle with the cleanliness factor - beyond scrubbing the tub occasionally, what am I supposed to do to the shower?

6

ha ha this sounds a lot like my room :slight_smile:

As for the magazines, had he put them in a shoebox or neatly stacked with the rest of his other magazines, chances are you probably wouldn’t notice them :wink: Thats what I did, and I never had a problem with my mom.

7

Wow! Your 17yo reads actual books? That weren’t assigned? Way to go! You’re doing something right!

8

Girls that age aren’t necessarily any better. Last week in my daughter’s room, I could see about 3 square feet of carpet in a 130 square foot room. Her prom dress (prom is Saturday) was in a bag on the floor. Her clean clothes were piled thither and yon. Her dirty clothes were in or near her laundry basket. And there were books, back packs, CDs, miscellaneous papers, pillows, afghans… :eek:

We did have a period of several months when her room was always neat and tidy. I think it had something to do with the TV we promised to get her if she kept her room neat and tidy. It’ll be interesting to see what her apartment looks like when she goes off to college. Oh well, as long as she’s not living with me.

9

Bah, what can you do? You should see my room…

10

Well, I happen to be 22 years old and am in no way embarassed that my mom still does my laundry for me :o However, do note this is more a convenience than a lack of ability. I am perfectly capable of doing my own laundry, and do so when she isn’t around. But if she is doing the laundry anyway, and asks me, “I’m doing laundry right now, so why don’t you give me your hamper so I can do yours as well” I’ll be more than happy to oblige :slight_smile:

11

Get him a laundry bag to put his skivvies in, that way he knows where they should be put.

12

Wierdo…

Nothing goes under the bed. EVER!

Mainly because I never look under there and anything sent to that hell hole will never be found.
About the shower thing… has anyone figured out what sort of cleaning stuff to use to get the tiles all smooth feeling again?

I’ve used Lime Away, Scrubbing Bubbles, Tilex, Comet and Forumula 409…

I also have 2 different scrubbing brushes.

NOTHING WORKS!

CRorex has a clean bathroom, but a kitchen that requires hazmat training to enter.

13

I was a horribly messy little girl from ages 8-16. I would put things on the floor when I was finished with them at night, promising to put them away in the morning. Never happened. :frowning: My room would get horrifically filthy and I would forever be cleaning it up, sometimes going weeks without doing so because it seemed like a futile effort to clean something that would inevitably get dirty again. My mother would always come in my room and try to clean it. I yelled, screamed, and pleaded with her to just leave my room alone, but she was insistent on doing it for me. And she wondered why I locked my bedroom door whenever I wasn’t around…

14

I can’t understand people who graduate from high school without knowing how to do their laundry. The door prize at the graduation luncheon my high school had was a box of Tide, ha ha ha, and we all got folding laundry hampers. One parent who was the head of the board (it was a private school) and who had a son at Florida who kept losing shoes, and she kept sending him money to buy new shoes. I mean, how ridiculous is that?

But I’m an anal-retentive bastard who keeps things spotless.

15

And sometimes the mold doesn’t respond. Our shower has Evil Black Mold that cannot be scrubbed or cleaned away. It’s just going to take over the world.

16

Umm, yes, 16 year old boys are disgusting. What’s yer beef? :stuck_out_tongue:

17

One of my best friends is a high school teacher. I swear her concept of Men is completely warped by the 16 year old boys she’s dealt with on a daily basis for years. I mean, her idea of what Men like, what Men think, and what Men feel is completely confused with what teenage boys do.

She confronts me with stories about Men being jerks. When I inquire “where did that slur come from?”, she rants on about the most insensitive, disgusting thing some teenager did that day.

I don’t know how any high school teacher can have a real life perspective on non-teenaged males considering what teachers have to put up with.

18

You could try Zap. It’s basically sulfuric acid in a spray bottle. Worked for me.

19

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up. Kid is 17 and mom is still doing laundry/cleaning up room/basic sanitation measures? Huh?

I’m with belladonna here. I started doing my own laundry when I was maybe 10 or 11. If I didn’t do my laundry, I had no clean clothes. I learned real fast not to just toss things anyplace. If my room wasn’t clean, that was my problem, and anything lost or damaged because of this was also my problem. I’m not the world’s tidiest person, granted. I’ve got books stacked in piles all over the house and I never make the bed, but what we’re talking about here is filth. There is indeed a difference. It is very possible to be messy without being dirty. This is called ‘cluttered’, I believe. But food bags and empty cans under the bed? Scum in the shower?

I say let him wallow until the grossness becomes unbearable. Then lock his door and declare it unfit for human habitation until he goes and cleans it up. Inform him this will keep happening. Declare the bathroom off-limits until he learns to police himself. Try having to explain to your peers that the reason you smell like fermented ape is because your mom said you can’t use the shower until you’re mature enough not to crap all over it. See how fast this situation turns around. (NB: This works on roommates, too. Believe me.)

Of course, I’ve always advocated draconian measures for dealing with recalcitrant children. This may be why I have none.

20

Jess, look on the bright side. It could be much worse.