To expect guests to wash their hands on arrival?

Weird to expect guests to do this.

Despite being “grubby” we don’t have a significantly higher transmission of bacteria. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I do usually wash my hands on arriving at someone's house, but it won't necessarily be the first thing I do and it's often coupled with a trip to the loo, if I've travelled some distance. I mean, if it's my next door neighbour and I'm just popping in for a coffee I wouldn't think about washing my hands. But I live in London so I use public transport to get to most places any distance away, and therefore usually feel a bit tube-soiled on arrival. I similarly make sure to wash my hands at a restaurant before eating (unless I've walked there from home in which case I wouldn't need to).

If you are wanting people to wash or at least sanitise their hands without having to ask them, one trick might be to sanitise your own hands and then just pass the bottle or pack of wipes round almost like it would be unthinkable not to.

Hand sanitiser does not work on stomach bug germs.

With a newborn then yes, absolutely.

And in just the last 100 or so years, human life has totally changed due to industrialisation and the ease of public transport. Our immune systems haven’t evolved for this.

That is shocking. Having a newborn is a specific reason - you are not being sensitive there. It's common sense. I'd have no problem with someone asking me to do this, for any reason.

I'd welcome it as a general custom, to enter a home, pause, remove footwear, outer wrappings, wash hands, and face. I may have lived somewhere like this, as it seems normal and appealing to me.

But as other pp have noted, the UK is a rather grubby, ungraceful country in many ways, not given to elegant practical solutions that improve everyone's lives.

@roobyred you want to see most kitchen staff/ chefs who smoke/scratch their bums etc I'd be less worried about wiping tables
Same as ice machines and coffee machines both usually grim
I also think it's grim to see nurses /HCP wandering around in their scrubs

I always have hand sanitizer in my bag for after public transport, I should imagine that’s what the health visitor has too (otherwise she’s touching people’s taps/towels and not knowing if they’re sanitised) between visits.

I'm stunned at the responses to this. A few years ago we were obsessed with hand washing and sanitisers.
Not all of us were. I never bought any sanitiser. Would use it if specifically requested but didn't get into the obsession or the washing groceries or any of that crap. Occasionally remembered to do extra handwashing when coming home but didn't often remember and it certainly never became a habit.

The pertinent part that you drip fed was that you have a newborn. It’s normal and advised to wash hands before touching a newborn. But in normal, day to day life, expecting people to wash their hands when they enter your house is not normal and probably some sort of germ anxiety on your part.

Yes I would think it was very, very odd and unwelcoming

It's basic hygiene OP. I insist that my children wash their hands as soon as they get home. I would be hesitant to ask guests to do so, but I think it's gross not to. I think it's okay to ask this of your nanny, but I am not sure if he/she would do it when you're not looking. To me, it's just common sense. I've had so many bouts of flu/ covid/ illness.... Why would people not want to tale a basic preventative measure after they've gotten off public transport etc?

children are more likely to develop asthma/eczema/hayfever and allergies when they are over-protected from pathogens and allergens at crucial points of their development. OP you need to remember that we are living biological creatures and more of the cells in our bodies are bacteria than human. We evolved over millions of years to co-exist with the minor and major threats to our health that come from not living in a sterile environment. If you have someone living with you who is immunocompromised then of course get people to sanitise and wash themselves but otherwise you may be putting your children at risk by not exposing them to the normal environment.

I'm stunned at the responses to this. A few years ago we were obsessed with hand washing and sanitisers. Having just had norovirus, I don't think it's weird at all, particularly as we come into flu season.

It really pisses me off when I'm out in cafes and restaurants to see how the hygiene standards have completely slipped. Tables not cleared promptly, hardly ever wiped down. But reading these responses nobody seems bothered.

When I read your initial post I thought you must have a young baby. Otherwise would be a little OTT.
And you have a newborn. You are not being unreasonable at all! The best way to get people to accept the rule without resentment is to frame it in terms of: it’s because you have a young baby that will not have had all of their vaccinations yet. Your house, your kids, your rules. I’ve worked as a nanny in the past and the laxness of some parents in terms of hand washing before snacks etc! I always got the kids, and my own now, to wash hands before snacking (which often coincides with coming in from school so you can kill 2 birds with 1 stone there..) and certainly before touching a young baby in my charge. Check nanny is happy to follow your rules before hiring. It’s not like you are asking for an elaborate hygiene routine it’s logical hygiene practice.
Once baby older tho you will be ok to not have adults (even kids 😮) wash their hands on entering, as anyone you trust enough to come into your home you can likely rely on to manage their own hand hygiene at a basic level and take advantage of the facilities as needed! Parents accompanying young kids can do the same for them.

Interesting, I thought that washing hands when coming home, especially after shopping or travelling on public transport was the norm. It certainly is in other countries than UK.
Thinking its very unreasonable is yet another level to me.

I do wash my hands when I come back from being in London for the day but that's because I live in the country side and London (especially the transport) seems really grubby (black bogies!).

I think you're a bit PFB here. My son is older now and washes bis hands nowhere near enough, but he's actually the one in our family who never gets ill.

I wash my hands when I feel they need washing and I assume adult visitors to my home do the same.
Kids are a bit different, but it depends what they've been doing (mucking about in mud, snotty noses etc).

My sister's family wash their hands a lot. I took my nephew out for the day. I presume he washed his hands when he went to the loo, otherwise we just got on with our day. As soon as I dropped him home my sister marched him off to wash his hands.

I'm pretty sure health professionals are meant to wash their hands before handling your newborn. You are not being unreasonable there.

I was a community nurse/midwife. Always very careful about washing my hands on arrival and when leaving someone's house. Also organised my visits to put anyone with an infection at the end of the list.

Maybe in real life you could just use your words ...." Wash your hands please"
Or have it written into your contract with the nanny