Unlike the lions in Madagascar, the citizens of Wakanda, or my favorite, the Quinceañera, we don’t really have a real coming of age marker ’round these parts. Well, maybe unless you count today… when I presented both Jake and Nate with their very first deodorant.
Let’s back up. Grandma Suzy has notoriously declared Uncle Geoff’s first deodorant bestowed upon him in the fourth grade. I’d say I really noticed the overwhelming aroma last fall, when I was responsible for evening soccer practice pick-up. This was just the start of fourth and second grades. The boys would climb into the backseat, with their friend Finn, and the windows would immediately fog-up, the air thick with sweaty little boy.
So, it’s about time. When presented with two choices of Schmidt’s chemical-free deodorant, Nate chose lavender, and Jacob chose lime.
Nate used his for the first time this morning. His little armpits are back to being irresistible. I ask him how it feels and he says, “It kinda burns.”
“Oh no. That’s weird. I don’t think it should burn.”
“Well, it kind of scraped.”
I had taught him to take the internal plastic cover out and to recycle it. And then I instructed him to raise it up, but not too far. And I had demonstrated to go in through the bottom of his shirt (not the neck hole or the arm holes… which I could totally see him considering). He’s decided to remove his shirt entirely every day for the entire process. I did my best to warn him of the unintended swipe of deodorant on the front of his shirt if he isn’t careful, whether using the bottom-in, or shirt removal methods. And then we covered the part where you put the cap back on and try not to stab the sharp edge into the soft cakey part.
I had no idea there were so many lessons to teach just on the singular subject of armpits… I mean seriously.
Deodorant: A modern day right of passage.