Dishcloth Dilemma: AIBU to ask my mum not to wipe baby's face with a dishcloth?

[WednesdayRebel]

AIBU to ask my mum not to wipe baby's face with a dishcloth?

Let me start by saying that my mum is NOT what you'd call a germphobe. She genuinely believes in the beneficial properties of exposure to healthy doses of all sorts of grime. Builds the immunity and all that.

Now let me say that I don't disagree with her - to an extent. I'm aware of theories that suggest rising allergies and so on are the fault of us living in overly sterile environments. And my house is hardly pristine.

But one thing Mum's been doing is beyond my capacity to cope with. She uses her dishcloth from the sink, the same one she uses for doing the dishes, to wipe up ANYTHING around the kitchen/dining/living areas of the house. Off floors, tables, surfaces, whatever. And she has a dog. And a cat.

It's not what I'd do, but it doesn't bother me.

Until she insists on using the same dishcloth to wipe my baby's hands and FACE every time she eats.

Did I mention that she uses this same cloth to clean up dog spillages from the floor?

I recently asked her not to, then pointed out that she was still doing it after I'd asked her not to, and that this was upsetting both me and my husband.

She got all shirty, defensive and aggressive, and told me that she does some things out of habit and can't be expected to change. I've spoken to her a couple of times since and both times she's been really off.

So AIBU in asking her not to use the dirty dishcloth to wipe my baby's mouth with? Or am I being pedantic?

That is beyond disgusting! And dangerous. Dont ask her not to do it anymore, tell her in no uncertain terms that the cloth is not to go anywhere near humans!

If I hadn't actually seen my friend do this I would have said this post was a wind up.
Yanbu. Gross.

DH dried DD's bottom after a nappy change with the hand towel and then put it back on the hook! He thought IWBU to go nuts about it.

Of course she can stop doing it, sounds like she just doesn't want to.

I've always done this with my clean dish cloth! It's purely for dishes and surfaces with crumbs on, rinsed out thoroughly etc and I replace them regularly
(Those blue thin ones you get in packs of 10)

I don't think I could eat off the plates if the cloth that had cleaned them had also cleaned dog things off the floor mind

But even without pets, unless you never wear shoes in kitchen, wiping off floor then dishes is horrible. As dog poop on streets, rats, mice etc, its not like i eat food dropped on floor, though toddler used to try.

YABU. Its a generation thing I think. My mil once dribbled raw meat juice out of a packet all over work surface then mopped up using dishcloth and left it not even rinsed on the sink. Bleurgg!! She didn't get a chance to wipe kids faces with it thank goodness as it was immediately dispatched to the bin by me when she wasn't looking!