Former Teacher Says Shocking Number of Parents Don’t Care About Their Kids’ Hygiene

Former educator Maggie Perkins (@itsmaggieperkins) posted a series of TikTok videos delineating a lot of the things she wishes she could have told parents when she was a teacher.

Her videos contain a number of shocking revelations about personal hygiene, painting a sad picture of neglect that infuriated numerous commenters who replied to her clips.

"I used to be a teacher and there were certain things I just could not say to parents. But you need to hear this because this how people see your child," she says, right at the top of the video.

Firstly, she wishes that more mothers and fathers would tell their kids not to touch their own genitalia when they're out in public.

"Teach your child to not touch their genitals. Bare hands on the privates that needs to stop, front of the pants, back of the pants, needs to stop."

She also shared another parenting tip when it comes to cleanliness as well: "So a lot of kids think they don't need to clean their hands after going to the bathroom if it was 'just pee,'" she says to the camera.

"All the hand washing all the time. In our house, we use this really scented soap so that after my kids go to the bathroom, I literally sniff their hands. And I go, 'You need to go back and use some more soap.'"

She added that parents also need to really focus on keeping an oft-overlooked item properly sanitized as well.

"Your child's lunchbox needs to be cleaned," she says. "Kids are really messy when they're eating, so if they have like a Gogurt, now it's dripped and crusted on the inside of there. And a lot of this food starts to smell spoiled, and it's going to attract bugs and ants into the classroom and into the home."

She added that ensuring these items are thoroughly cleaned is a good way to make sure that pests aren't infiltrating a kid's classroom and house. "You do not want mice because your kid's nasty lunch box is a nasty lunchbox," she says.

Furthermore, she urged parents not to neglect keeping a child's backpack free of grime: "The backpack is also washable and should be washed."

From the way Perkins talks about her former students' cleanliness, it seems she has interacted with a bunch of parents who simply didn't keep an eye on their kids' belongings.

"This isn't like a weekly thing, this is like a, 'Hey there's an orange rotting in the bottom of your backpack from October. Let's clean that up,' type of situation."

She said that there's another matter of hygiene that many parents simply don't focus on. "Cut their nails, wash their hair, don't smoke around your children. Put clean underwear on them, put clean socks on them. Deodorant doesn't work if you're just wiping it over body odor. Deodorant works on clean armpits."

Moreover, she informed viewers that if they have any questions about the best ways to keep their kids clean, there are instructional videos online they can consult as well.

"Everything I've talked about in this entire series has videos that go with it. If you're not sure how to talk to your kid about hygiene, literally Google 'how to talk to my kid about hygiene.'"

She added, "There are guides for parents who have children of all ages about what you should be talking to them about at their developmental stage. And if you're not able to talk to them for some reason, there are videos you can show them."

Perkins also had a message for parents who replied to her assertions, stating that it's difficult to keep their kids clean.

"The amount of people who have commented to say, 'Oh, it's so hard to cut my kids' nails, they throw a fit.'" She says that not cutting a child's fingernails could lead to potentially serious health complications. "OK, well, do you want impetigo? Google it first and get back to me."

The former educator went on to explain how disastrous this condition could be: "If you've got impetigo fingernails a scab picker and eater, you're bruising for a staph infection."

In an additional video on the subject, she sent out an extended message to parents who smoke cigarettes, stating that if a kid's parents enjoy ripping heaters, then their children are going to smell like that too.

"If you smoke, your kids also smell like smoke," she says to the camera. She also added that even if parents don't smoke inside the house, this aroma is still going to get attached to their children as a result. Perkins went on to state that the same goes for weed smokers, too.

Furthermore, that dank skunk smell will attach itself to a kids' clothing, which starts to become a problem, she says, once they get into middle school. If a kids' clothing is reeking of weed when they're in school, faculty members might take notice, leading to problems whether they're in the classroom or walking the halls.

Also, she urged parents to wash behind their kids' ears as well, as "gunk" can accumulate over time, leading their kids to have crusty ears when they're in school.

She said that as a general rule of thumb, consider what life would be like for their kid if you were a fellow student in the classroom "sitting elbow to elbow with them for six hours a day."