I'm fucking sick of hearing it. I've become so self-conscious and insecure because of this.
For financial reasons and the crappy housing market for single people like me, I had to move back home with my parents last year (don't bother calling me a loser, I have my reasons). They're both mid 60s. My mother has always been the bitchiest, pettiest, most insulting person ever. She refers to random neighbours, who haven't done anything bad to her, as rude names like "ugly Jess" "Fat Maria" "Bald Brian" --never to their faces, that's just how she refers to them.
Anyway, growing up, she'd always tell me I smelled. We didn't have a car because we were poor, so I always had to walk everywhere. Every day when I'd come home from school or anywhere else, she'd tell me to leave the kitchen and change my clothes because my smell was making her sick. Wash your armpits, wash your feet--she'd always say this to me. She was always so smarmy and nasty about it too, like she'd half smirk when saying it. I swear, growing up around that bitch damaged me and made me so self-conscious.
Here's the thing, my hygiene was good. I would wash myself everyday before school, put on clean clothes, body spray and deodorant. Even when I was clean and fresh in the mornings BEFORE walking to school, she'd still sometimes fuss about how I smelled bad. What the fuck was she smelling? By the way, I've always been slim and walking doesn't make me sweat like a pig, When I'd come home from school every day, I was not drenched in sweat and I know I didn't smell as bad as she claimed. Sure, on hot days I'd be sweaty and I COULD smell that, but on normal, breezy, chilly days I DID NOT SMELL, but she still told me I did. I asked other people if I smelled, and they said no.
Now, all these years later I'm back living at home, and she's insulting my odour again. Even if I've just showered and just sitting down watching TV, she tells me I smell like sweat and that I should go wash myself. She also insults my breath frequently. I actually do have an issue with my breath. It's not severe halitosis but if I get hungry at all, my breath smells like ammonia. In general, my breath is alright as long as I brush three times a day, use mouthwash every hour, breath spray and keep hydrated. However, whenever I'm around her, I'm afraid to talk or open my mouth, because I know she'll insult my breath. I can only talk to her if I'm chewing gum. One time, in a queue in shopping centre, I asked her something and she made such a fucking scene in front of all the other customers and said loudly that she can't talk to me when my breath smells like that.
She is driving me mad. I shower and brush/floss my teeth. My clothes are clean. I am not dirty but all these comments about my stench make me feel disgusting. I sniff my clothes when I talk them off and they don't smell. I'm not arrogant or delusional. Sometimes my clothes do smell if I've been out in the heat all day or if my socks get sweaty and I can smell that, but most of the time my clothes smell fine. I have chronic depression and have been suicidal in the past. Being told I smell at the time is pushing me over the edge.
And before anybody tells me to move somewhere else, I can't afford that and lost my job recently. If I could live in my own apartment again, I would.