MIL wont wash her hands

[Pink3489]

Hi all,

How would you approach this? My MIL wont wash her hands after using the bathroom at mine. I'm a bit uptight when it comes to germs so this bothers me. I dont want to offend or embarrass her. What do you think I should do?

Hide outside the bathroom with some dettol and spray her hands when she comes out. Once you've done it shout "all clean now"

If you don't want to offend or embarrass her, there's nothing you can do.

Or maybe next time, before she goes, say "oh MIL, I bought this lovely hand soap, it makes your hands smell lovely. Let me know if you like it"

You could say that you've started buying it to encourage the kids to wash their hands as you suspect they don't on every visit and roll your eyes or something.

What does your husband think of his mother's grimness?

Is the sink not in the same room as the loo?
If not then put some hand sanitizer in there and say I've put some hand sanitizer in there so you can clean your hands after you've used the room.

Have you got DC? Get them to call her out on it if they are young.

I like this idea 😂

How do you know?

How do you know whether she's washing her hands or not?

That’s gross 🤢

Or maybe next time, before she goes, say "oh MIL, I bought this lovely hand soap, it makes your hands smell lovely. Let me know if you like it"
This.

Exactly.

Are you checking her hands to see if they’re a bit damp afterwards like she’s a 4 year old?

I like the idea of buying a fancy hand wash. I might have a look online now and get it ordered for next time.

No children yet but I'm expecting my first next month. Might use the excuse of a newborn. I could say something about how the midwife stressed the importance of handwashing with a newborn around.

And for those asking, I know because I live in a small bungalow so she goes in there, I hear the flush and then she opens the door. I also cant hear the sink being run either.

I cruise a lot and the doors of some of the ships, especially on those lines gor older passengers, have toilet door handles that dishes out hand gel when you pull the handle to open the door. Ingenious! Maybe you could slather some on the handle before she comes and say it's to teach the children?

My MIL is old and forgets/doesn't think to wash hands after things like a two hour train journey. Yuk.

I remind her 'you'll want to wash your hands' and keep reminding her, I'm afraid. And yes, telling a toddler to help grandma go to the bathroom and wash her hands is a good save.

So it's not necessarily that she won't, it's that she doesn't?

You might be best saying you ask everyone to wash their hands before holding baby so she doesn't feel singled out.

So you just think she isn’t washing them because you haven’t been able to eavesdrop on it?
Maybe she only runs the sink gently so as not to waste water.

So many people don't, we were never taught to as children and I really don't think I did it until well into my teens 🤢

Pretty sure my parents still don't, but I wouldn't know, just think they're very fast in the bathroom.

Appears more common for men to not bother after a pee, guess they don't think they're touching the business end. See plenty of men coming out of the loos at work zipping themselves up 😱😱

Or just tell her the bathroom tap needs to be looked at so she'll have to use the kitchen 😄

Why do you need to wash your hands after a train journey?

My grandson used to do this in public toilets. Very loudly !

And for those asking, I know because I live in a small bungalow so she goes in there, I hear the flush and then she opens the door. I also cant hear the sink being run either.

This was how I knew my flat mate wasn't brushing her teeth in the morning (we got ready at the same time everyday). Walk in, flush, walk out. No trips back into the bathroom either before walking out the front door for work.

But I said nothing because it was none of my business.

I remind her 'you'll want to wash your hands' and keep reminding her, I'm afraid. And yes, telling a toddler to help grandma go to the bathroom and wash her hands is a good save

I wash my hands when I get home wherever I've been. I have done for years.

I'm definitely going to stress to everyone to wash their hands when the baby is here. Only 4 more weeks to go!

In the meantime hopefully my trick of the fancy handwash will work.

@Cheeselog are you from Readin' by any chance?