Off to a flying start....mostly

I did it, I bit the bullet and started talking to my growing preteen.  I started with chatting to him about the fact hes nearly a teenager, this means he's going to start getting smelly and when we get smelly we have to wash more and we have to start wearing deodorant.  He was more relaxed about the deodorant than the showering and hes happy to put it on every morning.  This might be to stop him getting smelly and prevent having more showers.  We have a social story up about teenagers getting smelly. Friends don't like that so we have to change our clothes every day, wear fresh socks and underwear and put on deodorant. Then we smell nice and people are happy.  He reminded me yesterday morning about clean underwear!!!

He's also started getting dressed himself in the morning in his room.  This is big because I always had to dress him downstairs.  I do have to leave the clothes out and he needs a bit of reminding and a promise of toast once hes dressed.

I touched on the topic of his body which is a slow process but hes listening.  He seems ok with the idea of body hair. He found it hilarious when the social story I copied from a book I bought reassured him it wont all grow over night and he wont wake up a hairy monkey boy.  I guess that wasn't a concern for him. He knows he might get spots and hasn't noticed the first one that's popped up.  I really don't think he pays attention to himself.  I don't think he understood when I showed him his voice will start to change and might sound squeaky before he sounds he sounds deep like a man. Maybe when it starts happening, we can talk about it more.  Hes already found a pubic hair but I've shown him a generic picture that he'll have more and his penis will get larger. But I didn't mention when it gets harder.  We're not at that stage just yet, thank god!!

The last thing we talked about was girls bodies.  They change too. They get breasts, but boys don't.  They get hair but not on their chest like a man might.  I had to remind him we don't touch girls or try and look. Its very private, and we don't show friends or teachers any new hair.  I don't need that phone call from school.

The only issue so far with talking about him growing up is he now wants a job in a cinema.  He cant fathom why hes getting bigger but at ten isn't big enough to have a job.  Its caused quite a bit of anger and resulted in hours of watching you tube videos of projector rooms.

Hes also googled germs after talking about getting dirty or smelly and was begging me to buy Domestos (bleach).  I couldn't figure out why for ages until last night when he came into the bathroom to shower, he shouted for the Domestos to wash.  He is way to clever on the internet but then puts 2 and 2 together getting 5.  Thank god all my cleaning products have always been hidden well away!

I'm so glad I started this early. I cant imagine having to cram it all in, teaching him in a rush to beat his body.