No B.O For Baby Girl

So Baby Girl has started Cheerleading and I can already tell that this is going to be a life changing experience. She is making new friends, gaining self confidence, learning new things, becoming more coordinated and above all, is taking quite and interest in personal hygiene,

Now, don’t be fooled, I don’t mean she has decided that bathing 3 times a day is necessary. Heck, sometimes I still have to fight with her to take 1 shower a day. She has also not come to the conclusion that writing on herself, wearing mismatched clothes or tennis shoes without socks just aren’t “right”. No, at seven, she feels that it isn’t necessary to shower unless she is completely covered in filth and she should be allowed to put tattoos on her face the morning of picture day. She also feels that she needs deodorant.

Baby Girl came home from her first practice the other night and she was very excited to tell me about all she had learned. Now, she couldn’t remember her coaches name nor the two new cheers they had learned but, she did remember the most important thing, “Mama, I need deodorant for Cheerleading”. Not, my pits stink and I need to start wearing deodorant because I don’t want the other kids to laugh at me – nope – we need it for Cheerleading.

I innocently asked her why she thought she needed deodorant – big mistake. She put her hands on her hips, rolled her eyes and huffs, “Mama, I just need it, OK”. Again I asked, “Is there a reason you think you need deodorant?” Well, you would’ve thought that I had asked her if she started her period in front of her 1st boyfriend. Her response was, “Can you just buy me some deodorant and not make a big deal out of it.”

So I thought about it. I thought about what it was like to be a little girl. I remember shaving my legs the night before I started 1st grade because I couldn’t “go to school with hairy legs”. I remember what it was like trying to fit in, going through those awkward phases and just wanting to be like all of the other girls. I thought long and hard and decided that she was still too young to use deodorant. I mean, not only does she not have a legitimate need for it, but I don’t think she is responsible enough yet. I caught her carving a bar of soap with a wooden spoon the other day and she still can’t tell me why. Last week she and her best friend were “laying out” on towels in the street on the “beach” that had been created by dirt and sand that had washed to the end of the road. And last month, she decorated her ceiling by smearing colored suntan lotion on her hands and putting prints around her light fixture. So in my mind, she’s not quite ready.

Yesterday was Mother’s Day and Baby Girl and I always get out nails and toes done. The nail shop didn’t open until Noon so we ran in the Family Dollar to kill some time. The first thing she spots is Teen Spirit deodorant in a lovely berry blast scent. She begged for a while and explained how she couldn’t be the ONLY girl not wearing deodorant. I finally caved and we checked out. She was soooo proud. As soon as we got in the car, she was smearing her deodorant on her pits. I took pictures.

Now, I haven’t read the ingredients on the label yet but I am fairly certain that there is absolutely nothing contained in this product that will prevent BO. It is merely a tube of white stuff that smells oddly like the most awful flavor of Bubblicious bubble gum that I have every encountered. But, she was happy and it seems harmless so I will deal with it.

This morning, she got up, put on her robe and made her 1st appearance in the den………carrying her deodorant. I tried to explain to her that her hygiene products should stay in the bathroom and she only needs to apply deodorant once a day. She again rolled her eyes at me and informed me that she was going to keep it in her room so that “nobody will see it”. Obviously, deodorant is one of those things that every girl wants but doesn’t want anyone to know they use. I am so confused, I could understand if it were a “feminine” hygiene product but deodorant??

I guess that every girl has different hang-ups. Me, I wouldn’t purchase toilet paper until I moved into my first apartment and even then, I would go the store in the middle of the night. I went through a phase where I would buy shoes 2 sizes too big because I couldn’t stand for my toes to touch and to this day, I can’t stand for someone to touch my face when I have on makeup. Hopefully, my child won’t be as neurotic as me. Although with my luck, she will probably develop some kind of horrible rash on her arm pits from this strawberry flavored deodorant and grow up boycotting all manners of preventing BO. Oh great, I’m going to wind up being the mother of the only 22 year old “smelly girl” at Harvard.