Ever follow your kids around for a day to see what exactly they touch with their little fingers? While I see little fingerprints on the walls, windows and mirrors, when you actually watch where their hands are in the course of a day, it’s nearly disturbing. Off the top of my head, some of the most gross places Princess Sticky Fingers manages to place her hands is all around the bathroom – literally, all around. She has her hands on the toilet seat and the floor even – right where men would stand up to do their business. Every time I see her in this position I remind her how we don’t touch those areas. Our conversations usually go something like this:
Me: “Please, for the love of God, don’t touch anything in the bathroom, especially not the floor or the toilet seat”
Princess I have to touch everything: “Why Mommy?”
Me: “Because Honey, people poo and pee here and there’s lots of germs that could be around”
Usually at this point it’s complete silence, not because she’s pondering, but because she now has her hands in her mouth chewing on her nails and she can’t talk.
It’s even worse when we have these conversations in public washrooms….
My daughter is a nail bitter which means we are constantly getting her to wash her hands, there are so many germs running around her hands and they go straight into her mouth. If anything, I suppose – “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. And she is a tough cookie!
Do you have a child like mine that can’t keep their hands off of water fountains, handrails and toilets? Each week, Lysol is giving away 2500 No Touch Soap dispensers through their Facebook page, so check it out. When you’ve got a 3 year old that loves touching animals and dirt, and bites her nails, the novelty of an automatic soap dispenser is a Mother’s dream come true.
**Disclosure: I am part of the Lysol® Healthy Families Ambassador Program by Mom Central. I received compensation as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.
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You made me laugh with this one! My son is 10 and I am still telling him not to touch things and wash his hands. He does seem to have a pretty good immune system and rarely gets sick. Maybe they know something we don’t…
LOVE the photo! I have a 2.5 year old son and every time I look at his hands, he has them dirty with something different….but they are ALWAYS dirty! Thankfully, he likes to wash his hands.
Oh, my! That sounds like the convos I have with Little One! Yeeeeeesh! I hate public restrooms. I’m sort of a germ-a-phobe when it comes to stuff like that. I try to teach Little One to keep her hands clean and not to touch germ infested areas.
I had to laugh because you sound exactly like me! LOL!
For the love of God, please don’t touch anything in the bathroom…especially the floor or toilet! LOL
Share your shudders! My 4yo DD oblivious to the germfests of public washrooms. After a mall trip the other day caught her in the backseat, flip flop removed licking the bottom.
EEEK!!! Tracy you made me shiver and cringe! My DD2.5 is so similar and then there’s my DD6 that won’t touch anything in the washroom for fear of germs.
I found myself giggling after reading this post because it is so very true. Not funny but true. Children touch everything without thinking about it and that is the very reason my son came home from school for years with every nasty bug going around. I purchased a Lysol non-touch soap dispenser about a year or so ago and think it’s a great idea. Unfortunately however, I think I have turned him too far to the other side…he is a bit of “germaphobe” now and constantly uses hand sanitizer and washes his hands whenever possible. He actually came home from school the other day talking about how all of the kids in his class run their hands under the water for about 2 second and say they washed them…he was appalled.
Yes, I think I may have created a monster…
My son is nearly 4 and is always touching something gross, whether it is having his hands down his pants or driving his little cars on the bathroom floor. I know just what you mean. When he was first learning to talk he would hold up his hands after touching something and make a face and say “dirty”, now I cannot keep him clean.