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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Poor hygiene makes me cringe - AIBU?

217 replies

Defenbaker · 07/09/2019 16:31

I've noticed that quite a lot of people seem to be clueless about basic hygiene, and I inwardly cringe when I see poeple doing certain things. For instance:

A woman served cake to people at a party. She served one slice then licked her fingers before offering slices to others (who all declined - think I wasn't the only one put off by that).
A cleaner at work picked up something dirty from the floor and threw it in bin, then emptied clean items from dishwasher without washing hands first. (She had disposable gloves on throughout, so perhaps as no dirt touched her actual hands she didn't think twice about it.)
A woman played ball with children in garden, then went into kitchen and began making sandwiches for people, without washing her hands first.
A woman in swimming pool changing room used a towel to dry her body off, then threw it onto the floor and dried her feet, before finally drying her hair with it. (I wondered how many people with athletes foot might have walked barefoot on that floor before she did that).

More generally, I hate it when people in cafes handle cash then serve/touch food without washing their hands first (it's widely known that there are lots of germs on money).

Maybe I'm more careful than some people, as I am emetophobic, which makes me very careful about food hygiene. Also I realise that there are germs everywhere, and children develop their imune systems by coming into contact with germs, so a totally sterile world wouldn't be ideal for humans, but AIBU to cringe at this sort of stuff?

Please share your pet hates here, re people's poor hygiene.

OP posts:
HollysTeflonSeptum · 08/09/2019 07:50

DS went through a stage when a toddler of scoffing the dry cat food - chicken flavour was his favourite iirc -when I wasn't looking. I could always tell as it had a distinct smell and he always looked so guilty afterwards as he knew it wasn't allowed.

He is now a strapping healthy 6 foot 14 year old, no harm done as far as I can see. He gets a little embarrassed if I ever mention his former cat food habit though :)

Hand washing is a bugbear, especially leaving public toilets going straight for the handle and ignoring the many antibacterial handwash dispensers in GP surgeries and hospitals where many people could well have compromised immune systems.

pimbee · 08/09/2019 07:59

The irony, OP, is you're probably more likely to get ill than those who are a bit more lax about some of those things.

SunflowersNKittens · 08/09/2019 08:16

Slightly off topic but sort of related. People that insist on going to work when they have contagious viral diarrhoea and vomiting!! They think they are being heroes by going in unwell but actually make everyone around them poorly and how do they know that their colleagues don’t have vulnerable people in their lives? Makes me sooooo angry.

StarlingsInSummer · 08/09/2019 08:16

@Femodene was it this thread?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2426370-Washing-hands-after-nappy-change-MIL-thread-sorry

I started that one! Still gives me the shudders.

OhTheRoses · 08/09/2019 08:18

I don't think much about this sort of stuff but the thread has made me reflect:

I do wash my hands - a lot
I do wipe down kitchen tops before I start (pdts)
I do have separate chopping boards
Cat is fed in utility so cat stuff separate from human
Have just sneezed and automatically sneezed into tissue
I have anti-bac wipes in the car for the steering wheel and knobs
In the bogs I have neatly folded piles of facecloths for hand drying which go straight into a basket for washing
I do not use public pools

Oh dear!

horse4course · 08/09/2019 08:27

Just curious - people who are that hygiene obsessed, don't you get squicked out by all the bodily fluids in sex too?

I wouldn't be bothered by any of your examples. I think hygiene should be tight where others could be hurt (eg catering) but at home/where it's only yourself who is affected, I don't care.

redchocolatebutton · 08/09/2019 08:27

They think they are being heroes by going in unwell

or maybe because they can't afford to be off? smp is very inadequate for low wage earners.

OhTheRoses · 08/09/2019 08:35

HorseforCourse. Do you not remember Penis Beaker?

emilybrontescorsett · 08/09/2019 09:45

I cringe when I see staff smoking then serve drinks or food without bothering to wash their hands.

emilybrontescorsett · 08/09/2019 09:46

Pml at Hollys son eating the cat biscuits.

BarbariansMum · 08/09/2019 09:50

I'm pretty keen about handwashing after using the loo and having access to safe drinking water but other than that I find all this germ-squimishness bizarre and more than a little tedious.Blush

Itstheprinciple · 08/09/2019 10:51

I'm not too bothered about most of the examples here because I am fastidious about washing hands before eating or preparing food. So, I don't get bothered about touching hand rails or door handles etc because any germs that are on there might get on my hands, but that won't make me ill. As long as I wash my hands before I prepare or eat something, the germs won't enter my body and I always wash my hands when I come in from work (school) or the shops. I once got very sick from pushing a trolley in a supermarket, then going straight to the cafe for a coffee and a cake. I don't know what possessed me, as I would usually go to the loo and wash my hands before eating but I didn't and I got a horrible bug.

I also have three cats. They do walk on the worktop, however I NEVER prepare anything directly on the worktop, I always use a chopping board from the cupboard and I anti-bac the surfaces on a regular basis.

But funnily enough, I am very weird about swimming pool floors and always take a separate towel specifically for the floor!

MitziK · 08/09/2019 11:15

CheshireChat, I have Psoriasis, so I put on emollient cream at night anyway. They do feel a little dry until then, but as I'm dealing with people who are bleeding, vomiting or are in other ways infectious/vulnerable themselves, what choice do I have but to follow correct hygiene procedures - for their safety as well as my own?

Having said that, I retrieved a headless mouse corpse off the kitchen floor at 7am today. Glad I wear shoes in the kitchen and spotted the unfortunate cadaver the bastarding mouse-breathed DTwatCat brought in for his second course.

The floor's due to be mopped today anyway, and there didn't appear to be any spillage. I picked it up with a paper towel, asked the DTwatCat what he'd done with the fucking head and chucked it into the wheelie bin (inside the kitchen bin liner).

Didn't actually wash my hands, as I was just about to clean the bathroom anyway, so was covered in bleachy spray within a minute of the first casualty of Mouseaggedon 2019's internment.

It's reducing risk, not eliminating it - I'd rather my now compromised immune system dealt with things that truly can't be avoided, not the things that an idiot (or at least somebody not as arrogant as some can be) could easily prevent.

MrsPellegrinoPetrichor · 08/09/2019 13:30

I've just realised that one of my fondest memories is of my very little ds with his arms wrapped round my dad's dog and ds sharing his beaker of juice with him!! ShockGrin

DrCoconut · 08/09/2019 13:50

The diarrhoea toilet one reminds me that I think leaving public toilets in a disgusting state is beyond grim. I realise people may get ill, kids may miss aim etc but there is no excuse for poo on the walls, used nappies or san pro on the floor, not flushing etc. Would these people leave their own bathroom like it? I'd love to see attendants like the one I encountered in Stuttgart policing this. You could have almost eaten your picnic in there it was so clean 😂

Ferretyone · 09/09/2019 17:43

"Personal hygiene"! Appalling breath! Unwashed body and hair, lack of general care ...

I have never been particularly worried about what happens with towels after showers. Isn't the idea that after the shower we are clean and so the towel does not get dirtier?

dayslikethese1 · 09/09/2019 18:02

I do agree that a lot of people are gross with things like this though I don't think any of your examples are that bad Blush Grossest thing I saw was at a friend's house when I was a teen, her parents left food out everywhere and their cats walked on all the kitchen sides. While I was there I saw the cat licking the butter which friend saw too and wasn't bothered so I could only conclude that this happened all the time. Also, my DM is quite gross with her dishcloths but I just try not to think about it too much Grin

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