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AIBU?

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Original poster

to think we are all becoming ridiculously germ-phobic?

54 replies

sickoftheholidays · 28/02/2011 15:49

Just seen an ad for vanish claiming to kill bacteria on clothes as washing alone may not be enough! Last I heard no-one died from your average dirty pair of jeans? I do get very tired of hearing how the bacteria on a childs high chair is more than on the floor, and the naff dettol adverts showing the germs etc,
I just feel like shouting ITS ONLY BACTERIA FFS, GET A GRIP PEOPLE! THE WORLD IS FULL OF THE STUFF, YOU CANT KILL IT ALL!

Am I unreasonable to think that this craze for absolute cleanliness is downright unhealthy for your average person?
I'm not advocating living in filth by the way, just objecting to adverts that make me feel like a dirty slattern because I dont dettol my surfaces and floor daily Blush and use vanish in every single wash!

OP posts:
Bucharest · 28/02/2011 15:52

Oh yes, definitely. We get a similar ad here in Italy, but it's for Napisan. Shows a Boden family on a bus and a sweaty old man brushes against the child and the mother legs it home and chucks all their clothes in the wash with a bucket of napisan.

Then there's the "I'm a pharmacist" ad with a woman (pharmacist, obviously) who says "I'm obsessed with cleanliness and hygiene" and then pours a full bottle of bleach round her bathtub.

Loons. And they're always sooooooo sick. Because they live in plastic bubbles, so the first time they step outside, whoomph, they catch everything that's going.

WriterofDreams · 28/02/2011 15:58

YAdefNBU

The disinfectant companies specifically target parents in the hope of guilting them into buying their products. The most pointless thing ever is the new dettol no-touch pump for handwash - FFS the very effing reason you touch a handwash pump is to wash your effing hands so why on earth do you need a no touch pump?? Just in case you're overcome with listeria in that nanosecond between touching the pump and washing your hands?

It might be worth stopping to think of the effect that covering your house in chemicals has on children, especially young children who constantly put things in their mouths.

Mymblesson · 28/02/2011 16:09

why on earth do you need a no touch pump

Presumeably so you don't smear shite bacteria on it after taking a dump and wiping your arse.

Anyway, you are defintely not being unreasonable. It's ridiculous, exposure to bacteria is necessary to build up a decent immune system.

LimburgseVlaai · 28/02/2011 16:13

I know, that washing powder ad was so funny!

However...

DD has a classmate who washes her hands twice several times per day: "First to get the dirt off, then to get them clean!" she chants. She has terrible eczema on her hands now - they look red and raw.

Ormirian · 28/02/2011 16:15

I'm not. But the rest of you definitely are Grin

EleanorJosie · 28/02/2011 16:16

I quite like Napisan though - started using it on washable nappies but now stick a bit in the wash for whites and light colours as it seems to bring them up quite well. Found Vanish a bit rubbish by comparison. I am not generally germaphobic though.

mozette · 28/02/2011 16:19

But surely with the no touch pump you turn on the tap with your shitey germ ridden hands, use the no touch pump to wash said hands and then turn the water off by touch the shitey germ ridden tap you touched earlier??

Mymblesson · 28/02/2011 16:21

Exactly. In life, there is no escape from shitey germs!

whiteflame · 28/02/2011 16:23

we have one for disinfectant that says 'kills 99 % of bacteria'. so really, it should be called 'effective for 1 use only disinfectant'. it leaves a few resistant bacteria behind, and guess who starts the next bacterial population?! stupid advert.

Lizcat · 28/02/2011 16:23

They obviously have not heard of the clean theory - more bugs we kill the greater the incidence of immune - mediated disease such as asthma and eczema. This is supported by large numbers of immunologists. We need to return to 'A bit of dirt never hurt'.
As a medical professional a nice cheap bottle of bleach kills more germs than any of those fancy expensive cleaning products we buy it in 10 litre bottles for the surgery.

bibbitybobbityhat · 28/02/2011 16:24

I don't think we all are. I'm certainly not.

And I'm an emetophobe, but if I can understand the basic biology that our immune systems need a bit of exposure to bacteria in order to be able to work properly, then I can only hope a good proportion of the rest of the population does.

strawberrycake · 28/02/2011 16:25

I'm totally relaxed about germs, but from the looks I get at the baby clinic which I now avoid you'd think I was battering ds rather than letting him crawl on the floor freely then touch his face. Is this really sooooo bad? It seems awful to deny him freedom to roam (and endure the subsequent screaming) and I don't fancy following him with anti-bac gel/ pulling his hands away from his face every 30sec. The reactions from others are making me douby myself!

TrillianAstra · 28/02/2011 16:27

I'm not.

Who is this "we all"?

TattyDevine · 28/02/2011 16:30

I agree there seems to be a "movement" of germ-phobic, skank-phobic people out there.

Not just ads for no touch pumps and dettol and the like, but on here, people who are all princessy about toilet brushes, washing towels after using them once, changing sheets every day, washing their hair twice a day, they are all things I've seen on here.

I have a clean tidy house and enjoy good personal hygeine but I do get a bit Hmm about the ewwwww-princesses.

HeidiKat · 28/02/2011 16:30

When I recently stayed at my MILs with 9 week old DD she had borrowed a baby bath for me and sterilised it with milton. I was Shock I got my bath second hand from a friend and it never occurred to me to do more than rinse it with hot water before use, it certainly wasn't dirty. There is far too much worry these days over germs, kids can't live in a plastic sterile bubble ffs.

FindingStuffToChuckOut · 28/02/2011 16:35

YANBU re the ads, but like trillion says I'm not germ phobic either - and I bet most people aren't.

The add for the auto hand pump makes me roll my eyes - "100's on germs on the pump"????? Which you use to get soap so you can wash your hands which probably have 10,000's of germs on them anyway.

IT'S ALL ABOUT FEAR & MARKETING - don't let the ad people rule you.

theyoungvisiter · 28/02/2011 16:38

I think a lot of people are normal - but increasinly I do think people are being duped by the marketing shite.

I mean SOMEONE must buy that effing "no touch" soap pump. They must think there's a market for the stuff.

It seems to me that in the 80s it was all fear of smelling and everyone went nuts for glade plug ins and pot-pourri and shit, and now it's fear of disease and you have to wipe little johnnie's highchair down thrice daily with antibacterial wipes for fear he will ingest 0.0000001 grams of poo.

hocuspontas · 28/02/2011 16:41

I'd love to know the type of person who has got sucked into buying the no-touch pumps. Grin
Unless you have self-adjusting clothes and no-touch taps (as mozette said) what's the point?
How do these people cope in public cubicles? Not only their own shitey fingers to fret over but everyone else's on the doors, locks, toilet roll etc.

BuzzLiteBeer · 28/02/2011 16:44

No "we" are not. The morons who buy that shite might be, that doesn't equate to any kind of majority.

theyoungvisiter · 28/02/2011 16:45

You see it every now and again on MN - like there was a whole thread of people saying they couldn't bear toilet brushes so they had the flushable kind so they didn't have to - horrors - reuse their toilet brush.

And it really shocked me that there was a whole thread of these people!

hocuspontas · 28/02/2011 16:45

I worry about the children of germ-phobics when they go to nursery or school. Will they have enough immunity to survive the reception class toilets?

theyoungvisiter · 28/02/2011 16:47

I think toddlers sort themselves out as much as they can. The children of very germ-phobic parents are usually the ones you see frantically licking the slide when their mother isn't looking.

GrimmaTheNome · 28/02/2011 16:52

I'm not germ-phobic. I was delighted to hear that being exposed to dirty beasts like older brothers and pets was good for the immune system Grin

Mind you, the one place I probably wouldn't let a baby crawl around would be at a baby clinic if it was in a GP surgery - they must be one of the most likely places to encounter bugs which might actually make you ill. And we did hand-cleanse thoroughly when visiting Granny in hospital - because of course hospitals are the breeding ground for resistant bacteria caused by all the germphobic idiots.

MamaVoo · 28/02/2011 17:05

YANBU. The one time I took DS to rhyme time at the library, the woman brought out a box of instruments and offered antispetic wipes for anyone who wanted to wipe the instruments before giving them to their baby. I was the only one who didn't take one - dirty cow that I am :)

slipperandpjsmum · 28/02/2011 17:08

When a friend of mine had her first baby she used to make us all wash our hands before we picked her daughter up.

yanbu!!

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