I think we are finally coming to the end of the bathroom wars now YSS is properly growning up. And I'm so thankful.

Like lots of OP on ST, it started with hideous hygenie when he hit puberty. DH would fetch him for visits and the smell would waft into the house ahead of the boy. I'd never understood the cartoon character pigpen until I experienced this. He was literally surrounded by an invisible wall of smell. DH and I would have to hand him a towel and order him into the shower. Then he'd come out clean and try to put his stinky clothes back on. I ended up having to have a few chats about how the smell is caused by bacteria and applying deoderant over a bacteria colony doesn't get rid of the stink. Not to mention putting a bacteria infested t-shirt back on clean skin just accelerates the regrowth of the colony. He had a lightbulb moment at about 16 and got that people don't want to hang out with you when you smell.

The teeth brushing was never that bad but recently he's massively improved his dental hygenie. (Not true for MSS. I don't know how he has a girlfriend. But he doesn't live with me so not my problem)

But the one that took the longest to crack was getting him to flush the toilet! Seriously! He was never trained to flush. He would put the seat and lid down but didn't follow through with a flush. Everytime I found an unflushed toilet I'd make him stop what he was doing and go and flush. Cue: Screaming, Cursing, Accusing me of being lazy for not doing it for him, lying and blaming me and DH for the present in the toilet :jawdrop: , etc, etc

I'm probably going to be judged for some of this but at the worst point, I calmly told him "Yes, I am trying to train you", "Yes, it is like training a dog if you want to think of it like that" and "You do realise don't you, that all your collegues are talking about the fact that they have to share an office with someone who doesn't flush? Do you want them to think this about you?"

I think the last comment really hit home because there has been some real progress. I haven't been subjected to an unflushed toilet in weeks. Fingers cross we have retrained him and peace will reign.

So for all the STalkers out there with their own little pigpens the light a the end of tunnel isn't always an express train.