Julia Twigg

Personal hygiene is something that every person - in every culture - of every age must attend to. While different cultures have different standards of cleanliness, it is something that everyone needs to consider according to Julia Twigg’s The Body and Bathing: Help with Personal Care at Home. Young children, youth, adults, and the elderly must all conform to these standards in one way or another. Due to age some people are incapable of keeping themselves adequate for the society’s sanitation customs. This requires them to acquire help of some sort, specifically when it comes to bathing. Young children and people of old age may need someone to help them bathe, although the approach to both body types is different. While they do share known similarities, the process of bathing people of different age changes the aspect of bathing itself through the eyes of the bather and the bathee.

Parents or caregivers must attend to their needs and wash them, sometimes multiple times a day. For them, bathing becomes a kind of chore, done before they go somewhere or before they go to bed at night. Children view bathing as a necessity, but not for personal reasons; it is part of their daily activities (Twigg 196). Parents and caregivers are not ashamed for needing to clean their children, as they are aware that their children cannot take care of themselves, and therefore need assistance. Many times to engage children in “bathtime,” parents may incorporate toys and bubbles so that their children willingly bathe. This allows the children to accept that bathing, and possibly showering, will become a habit in their