Chip Chick
This 33-year-old woman has an 11-year-old niece named Breanna. Breanna is growing up, and over the past few months, she has reached the stage of her life where she needs to shower regularly and start wearing deodorant.
Her 35-year-old brother Kyle and herself both struggled with personal hygiene growing up because it’s not something that their parents really taught them how to manage.
This led to quite a bit of bullying toward her and her brother, and one time, a bar of soap was left on Kyle’s desk, along with directions on how to use it.
That childhood memory is something that has stuck with Kyle ever since and caused him to be super vigilant when it comes to teaching his children about cleanliness. However, sometimes, she feels that Kyle’s approach is a bit harsh.
“He tends to shame his kids a lot when it comes to this stuff. [His wife and I] have talked to him about it, but he says he’s just protecting his kids from going through what he did,” she explained.
One weekend, she, her husband, her 2-year-old daughter, Kyle, his wife, and his kids all went out for lunch together. When she greeted Breanna with a big hug, she noticed that she smelled pretty strongly of body order, but she didn’t say anything and just gave her a grin.
Breanna sat down between her and Kyle, and she wondered how Kyle hadn’t noticed anything before then, thinking that perhaps the car ride there was just a warm one.
Soon enough, Kyle noticed the smell and loudly asked Breanna if she had put on deodorant that day. Clearly embarrassed, Breanna mumbled and said that she had forgotten about it. Kyle sighed out of annoyance and told her that it was disgusting.
“His wife told him to cut it out and said they could discuss it with her later. I rubbed Breanna’s arm and whispered it was okay. Sometimes we forget these things; it’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” she said.
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