AIBU - Handwashing

[Lolipoplady]

Not sure who's being unreasonable here so opinions very much appreciated!

DP this morning got out of the car (we'd been out early), came into the house and made himself some toast. He didn't wash his hands first even though we'd been out and he'd just had his hands on a steering wheel, car keys, etc. I said 'hey, you forgot to wash your hands' and he got huffy saying that lots of people don't.

He started to make me a sandwich for lunch and again he didn't wash his hands even though he'd been on phone, using TV remote, etc.

Who is being unreasonable here? Am I being obsessive about hygiene? Or id DP being grubby? I thought that everyone washed their hands before preparing food?! I've never particularly noticed before that DP doesn't... maybe I've just not been paying attention.

I was my hands about once a year.

I'm a handwasher, but I work with children and I find it stops me getting ill (children are crawling with germs).

I wash my hands everytime I come into the house, after work and before I touch my own children.

After the toilet and nappy changes, and before preparing or eating food.

I also make the kids wash their hands after handling animals and before eating.

Good grief conconutpie I could not imagine living like that. I've got to 57, raised a child, cooked for many people without ever poisoning any one without any of that other than washing hands after going to the loo.

I'm a hand washer and so is DH. Couldn't bear it if he wasn't. When we come in the house, before cooking or eating, after touching the pets, after putting dirty washing or plates in machines, after the loo obviously. (At work, I wash my hands before I go to the loo, too). Very frequently at work (with small children, poor hygiene an issue for some of them).

Other than after using the toilet and after handling raw meat I don't have any non-negotiables on hand washing. I will generally wash them before preparing a meal but not before grabbing a snack etc. Will wash toddler DS's hands before eating if he's been grubbing round in the dirt but not as a general rule.

lass you don't wash hands after handling raw meat? Since well over half the chicken in the uk is contaminated with campylobacter that's not the best idea. You may have a strong immune system but what about others who you could spread infection to?

Endlessly at work.

After the toilet, cleaning out cat litter, when visibly dirty, after handling raw meat are my non negotiables at home. Usually but not always before preparing food for more than myself.

Heh I was wondering the raw meat thing. The first thing I want to do after making beef burgers is wash my hands. personally I think some people like to outming themselves on these threads.

personally I think some people like to outming themselves on these threads

I'm on a mums FB group in the country I live in. Someone asked how often people bathed their kids. There were basically three camps;

1. Every night, they're filthy little swines
2. Every couple of days, my kid has a skin condition (which I sympathise with)
3. I just rub them with a flannel they're fine they never smell and we bathe them when the moon is in the eighth house of Aquarius

Leaving camp 2 aside, camp 1 and 3 didn't see eye to eye. Only one mum was brave enough to say something like 'when they go to school they will smell and be teased- wash them!"
Considering the sheer state my kid is in at the end of every day (tonight he decided to turn his head sideways and smoosh it into a tray full of mashed spud and salmon) I can't get on board with the 'once a month' people. Grim.

Why is it that some people have a serious aversion to hand washing? Is it really so difficult to spend one minute washing their hands? My ex-MIL was like this. When me and exH stayed with her for a few days when my DD was very small,I don't think I witnessed her wash her hands once,despite changing DD's dirty happy,emptying rubbish bins and handling raw chicken. I always wash my hands when I get indoors,especially after using public transport. I like to think that my hand -washing maniais the reason that I catch very few colds and didn't get the dreaded noro-virus when it was doing the rounds.

Well quite fomal it makes you wonder whether they're lying for shits and giggles or the type where there is an extra layer over the house and the bath is full of dirty laundry with its own layer of dust.

Mines at the cusp of puberty and getting that going off boy smell. He's flung in the shower every day these days.

lass you don't wash hands after handling raw meat? Since well over half the chicken in the uk is contaminated with campylobacter that's not the best idea. You may have a strong immune system but what about others who you could spread infection to?

I never cook chicken because I now find the taste disgusting. I rarely cook meat apart from game. I would wash blood off but otherwise no. I pluck and clean pheasants and wash my hands after that as they will be covered in blood and pheasant guts.

My zenith or nadir, depending on your viewpoint, was the Christmas one of the cats wrestled a frozen pheasant off the kitchen table where it was defrosting. He hadn't eaten it as it was still too cold and in clingfilm. I'd have been a bird down for Christmas dinner if I'd thrown it out. Family have the constition of oxes, rarely even get colds.

I grew up on a small farm where we ate eggs from our own free range ducks and hens (and ate them too) and made our own butter and cheese from unpasteurised milk. We didn't even have a fridge until I was around 10, perishables were kept in the stone cold room.

We certainly don't live in a sterile house ... It's pretty messy some days ( baby who won't sleep so I have very little free time) but it is clean. Bathrooms and kitchen done daily. Mess o can cope with. A toilet that needs shaving I cannot 😳

No gamerchick No exaggeration. On television other hand I'm amazed at some people's obsession with germs.

I don't wash hands before preparing food as a specific thing, only when I've been doing something dirty and I can't remember the last time I had a tummy bug and dc have never had a tummy bug (3 and 1 so probably jinxed myself 😁)

On television? Meant on the other hand.

I have a cleaner who comes once a week. Other than sticking dishes in the dishwasher I don't do any housework.

I wash my hands after using the loo or handling the animals. I will usually wash my hands if I'm preparing food for anyone other than immediate family (as in, those who actually live with me). Apart from the odd cold or high temp, the kids are hardly ever ill and we've only ever had one episode of diarrhoea, from my eldest DD (8), a couple of years ago and one vomiting episode, from my middle DD (7), a couple of weeks ago. DH and I never get tummy bugs either.
I think the modern obsession with excessive hygiene is really unhelpful for children. The more germs they are exposed to as children, the better their immune system can cope when they are older.

He didn't wash his hands first even though we'd been out and he'd just had his hands on a steering wheel, car keys, etc. I said 'hey, you forgot to wash your hands'

But he was making toast for himself so it didn't effect you. I'd be annoyed if my partner spoke to me like I was a child.

YABU

Mobile phones, car keys. Jeyboards and keypads, lift buttons, Door handles, handrails and women's handbags - swarming with germs.

I don't care. Not being cheeky saying that, but it just doesn't give me one moment's anxiety.

I don't care. Not being cheeky saying that, but it just doesn't give me one moment's anxiety

No , nor me. It would not occur to me to even think about it.


This thread needs the Old Friends Theory - we all live far too cleanly.

I have no idea when or how often DH washes his hands.

I mostly wash hands after the loo. But I can't say I have at that 4am wee that I did half asleep.....

I wash my hands a LOT in work (healthcare). No-one in the family has any immunity issues so I'm relaxed at home about constantly washing them.

I don't wash them every time I stroke the cat.

I don't wash them to make a snack.

I only wash them when I'm doing something yucky (ie cleaning toilets etc.)

Maybe I am a minger

I agree with you totally, OP.
My immune system is a bit iffy, and a slight illness can really take it's toll. When I go into the kitchen I always wash my hands before touching anything else - a throw back to food hygiene training. Now dh has retired, and does most of the food prep, I am slowly getting nagging him into my way of doing things, especially if he is coming in from outside.

I think some of you who say you've persuaded your whole family to wash their hands ever time they enter the house are... Deluded.

If I washed my hands all day, they would be so sore- do you not suffer?

YANBU.
I wash my hands every time I come in from anywhere (school run, supermarket, dropping kids off at sports). It is the first thing I do after turning off house alarm (and I do an antibacterial wipe over alarm box regularly too).
My kids wash their hands once the cone inside too.
I work in a health/public service industry and its best practice and takes seconds to do so no big deal.
You are always going to encounter germs outside your home environment so I don't worry about not being exposed enough.