Smelly Cat

By the looks of this sweet looking girl, you would never expect that she would be capable of developing the craziest phobias that seem to turn our lives upside down.

If you knew my daughter, you'd be well aware of her very picky attitude towards things that you and I wouldn't give a second thought to. I of course blame her father because neither of my other two children have ever been like this and since he did not father them, I think I've got a case here.

Lately, her bug up her butt is over soap. She does not want to use it because she doesn't like her hands (or even her whole body for that fact) smelling like soap. Mind you, we have not changed soaps recently and she has been fine with smelling like soap since she was born. THIS JUST HAPPENED OUT OF THE BLUE!

Is this just our soap, you ask? No. This has also been a problem when we go to the store and she has to use the public restrooms. We end up just having to use water-yes I know what you are thinking, all you other women washing your hands next to us.

She has become so sensitive to soap smell that one time after I grabbed her chubby little cheeks and gave her a kiss she asked, "Mom, do you have soap on your hands?" "Um, yeah." I replied. She gave me a look like I had just cut off all the heads of her barbies. Then, she smelled her own hands as if the smell could magically be transferred to them.

We've tried to expain to her how nice it is to smell clean and not like a butt and how her friends might like her smelling like a flower over the cat's litter box. She just sticks her non-soap-smelling hand in our faces and says, NO MOM. Or she drops to the ground kicking and screaming until we stop talking about it. I've thought about mentioning to her that I might have to call the dentist because if you don't wash your hands, he won't be happy with you. Though, I might have to save that threat for some bigger crisis like when she wants to start dating.

I'm not sure what to do except maybe take her to the store and let her smell every kind of the thousands of soaps available and let her choose which aroma she can handle being on her body. Won't this be a fun task? I'll be all like, Em, what do you think about this smell? Then, she'll drop on the ground dead and everyone around us will say, "How dare that woman make her child smell a bar of soap!"

Motherhood is NEVER dull.