• On Good Things Utah this morning – If you’re tired of cleaning a filthy toilet pedestal, this article’s for you. I am thrilled that my high school kid takes showers with no prompting. I do not miss the days of having to bathe kids in a tub because bathtime is a poop show. But my husband and I made a mistake, I think, in figuring that our son would learn from our example about how to use and leave the bathroom. We thought he would at least realize that we hang up the towels. But no, when he steps out of there, even after simply washing his hands (bravo for that, of course), it’s clear he grabbed a clean towel to dry — and then threw it on the floor. After a shower, the bath mat is soaked, as if he left the shower curtain open. Sometimes, when I go to clean, I worry that he is perhaps… missing the bowl when he pees. It’s all just gross, and what is confusing to the rest of us is how he doesn’t seem to notice any of it. Help! Why are preteen and teen boys so gross?
    • For an explanation, I turned to pediatrician Cara Natterson, MD, author of a book I gave my son called Guy Stuff: The Body Book for Boys (published by the American Girl people). Dr. Natterson is also a mom of two kids, ages 17 and 19, and CEO of both Order of Magnitude, a company focused on puberty, and of the puberty-positive brand OOMLA. First, Dr. Natterson said, before we get all gendered about it, bathroom mess is possibly less a gender thing and more of a birth-order thing. “Those who believe in birth order being tethered to personality would say that firstborns are pleasers, and parents like the bathroom clean,” Dr. Natterson says. She ventures that subsequent children might care less about pleasing and are therefore sloppier — and, in fact, my messy kid is my second kid. But Dr. Natterson’s firstborn, a female, is both a pleaser and a total bathroom slob, so it seems there are no hard rules for what kid is going to trash your bathroom. Child athletes, too, have a greater amount of stinky stuff associated with them, and many kids who identify as male are into sports. “My son is an athlete and he comes home at the end of a practice and doesn’t want to put stinky clothes in the laundry basket in his room, so he dumps them in the bathtub,” Dr. Natterson says. “As if some magical fairy will pick them up.” Click here if you would like to read more: https://www.scarymommy.com/parenting/son-peeing-toilet-messy-bathroom-advice or tune in as our hosts dive into this messy Hot Topic and so much more on GTU!