Guest etiquette- towels

[Anonymous]

We had family friends staying with us; apparently their teens use some kind of body wash that completely destroyed an entire set of towels.

of course, my husband put the “good” towels from our wedding out which is his fault, not theirs, but still a little bit more annoying.

This is my question— if you were the parents of said teens, wouldn’t you have asked “hey, our kids use something that will destroy colored towels, do you have any white ones?” Or given a heads up ahead of time? Idk. It feels like basic thoughtfulness to me but I also don’t have teens so maybe I’m expecting too much.

[Anonymous]

My guess is it’s not body wash. If they use topicals for acne, some can discolor fabric. It might not have occurred to them or they didn’t see the damage.

[Anonymous]

Don’t buy cheap towels?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My guess is it’s not body wash. If they use topicals for acne, some can discolor fabric. It might not have occurred to them or they didn’t see the damage.

This. A body wash would not destroy towels. It’s just soap. But medication would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My guess is it’s not body wash. If they use topicals for acne, some can discolor fabric. It might not have occurred to them or they didn’t see the damage.

This. It’s most likely Benzoyl Peroxide and they probably don’t even know it causes damage, maybe because they use white towels at home.

We use white towels for guests because we can bleach them (or oxyclean) if necessary. You live, you learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had family friends staying with us; apparently their teens use some kind of body wash that completely destroyed an entire set of towels.

of course, my husband put the “good” towels from our wedding out which is his fault, not theirs, but still a little bit more annoying.

This is my question— if you were the parents of said teens, wouldn’t you have asked “hey, our kids use something that will destroy colored towels, do you have any white ones?” Or given a heads up ahead of time? Idk. It feels like basic thoughtfulness to me but I also don’t have teens so maybe I’m expecting too much.

What a stupid question. Do you go to other people's homes and say "hey, can you give me different towels? a different set of sheets?". Of course not. They're not ruining any towels at home, your towels were impacted by something other than body wash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t buy cheap towels?

+1

[Anonymous]

I have navy blue towels' in my teens bathrooms. They use all sorts of benzoly peroxide based face washes, etc, and the towels are fine.

Of course nobody is going to ask you if you have cheap towels that will change color, and could you please figure out what color would work better.

[Anonymous]

If you’re going to get ticked off about stuff like this, maybe hosting isn’t for you.

[Anonymous]

They didn’t realize they were ruining your towels, OP.

[Anonymous]

It’s peroxide.

They made a mistake because they’re teens. It’s not poor etiquette to make a mistake. At most, the parents should send you some new towels. But to me that would be totally unnecessary and I would make clear as the host that sh$t happens and it’s no big deal.

Honestly OP this is just kind of the destiny of towels, even nice ones from your wedding. Some of them live to become old and infirm. Some of them go out in a blaze of Clearasil glory, sacrificed to the War on Backne. They’re all rags in the end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t buy cheap towels?

They WEREN’T cheap towels, and now they are basically bleached in places- I agree that again, they were the wrong towels to use for guests.

I’m just surprised because, if I had been in the situation, I would have:
1) known my kids use a topical thing that destroys towels and given my host a heads up OR
2) seen the damage and offered to buy new towels

It’s not a huge deal, I’m just surprised that the consensus is so different than how I personally would have handled the situation. idk. My baby threw up in my IL’s car and we offered to have it detailed- I would just assume it’s a common courtesy to at least apologize for leaving something worse off than when you came

[Anonymous]

Facial soaps like Proactive will bleach some of my towels. You didn’t know and they didn’t know. There is really nothing to say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had family friends staying with us; apparently their teens use some kind of body wash that completely destroyed an entire set of towels.

of course, my husband put the “good” towels from our wedding out which is his fault, not theirs, but still a little bit more annoying.

This is my question— if you were the parents of said teens, wouldn’t you have asked “hey, our kids use something that will destroy colored towels, do you have any white ones?” Or given a heads up ahead of time? Idk. It feels like basic thoughtfulness to me but I also don’t have teens so maybe I’m expecting too much.

This isn’t about having teens or not having teens, it’s just about being able to extend people grace and hospitality even if they are imperfect and make a mistake that damages your towels. I’m not sure you’re cut out for hosting.

[Anonymous]

The damage was not apparent to them, so they didn’t know. It’s just towels. Buy white ones for guests and maybe make up remover wipes and leave in the bathroom and move on.