Personal hygiene can be a touchy subject, especially when calling someone out on it, no matter how well-intentioned.

So, what would you do if your co-parent started giving you advice on how to care for your child, but their own habits didn’t exactly set the best example?

Would you stay quiet and move on?

Or would you speak up, even if it meant causing tension?

In the following story, one father finds himself in this exact scenario with his child’s mother.

Here’s how it all played out.

AITA for telling my kids mother to shower more then 3 times a week

I(39m) have split custody of a 6 yo daughter.

Lately, my daughter’s mother(31f) has been working part-time and can’t make ends meet.

I have a full-time job during the day and my own LLC for just about anything under the sun.

The past couple of weeks, my daughter’s mother has been coming over and helping me out around with cleaning and other stuff while our daughter either helps her or plays in her sandbox.

My friend Gia(24F) and her BF(28m) have been helping me with my LLC side and would be around my daughter’s mother.

Apparently, showers are a big thing in this family.

When it starts to get late, we give our daughter the option where she wants to sleep, either at my house or her mother’s.

She always wants to stay the night with me.

So I tell her she needs to shower before she goes to bed (after she was playing in the sandbox or with the animals).

Her mother told me she doesn’t need to shower every day and wanted to fight about the subject.

I know her mother hasn’t had a shower in a few days.

I told her every time she would come over to help I could smell her personal “hygiene” and she might want to take care of that before telling me what is best.

I shower every day (we both work in factories) so I know how much I sweat.

Gia told me I was being an ******* for telling her she needed to shower, but her BF said it was gross and didn’t want to say anything.

AITA?

What an awkward situation for everyone involved.

Let’s see what the people over at Reddit have to say.

According to this comment, it’s best to ignore the ex and focus on his child.

Here’s an interesting perspective.

This person wants additional info.

Yet another way to look at it.

You can’t change people. Rather than trying to influence his ex-wife’s behavior, he should focus on putting the effort into his daughter.

Chances are that his wife is too far gone to fix, but it’s not too late for a child.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.