Licking fingers to turn pages

[Nousernameforme]

Aibu to think this is revolting and wish people would stop doing it.
We got a new catalogue through the post, one of those with half a dozen or so pages advertising festive outfits, pjs for the kids you know the sort of thing. I put it aside for to look at later, well parent popped round unexpectedly and started flicking through it licking fingers to turn each page 🤢

It got binned the second they left. Dc asked for it this morning as they need to make a collage for school. I told them I threw it out and why. They agreed it was a grim practice and said teachers do it to their papers all the time 🤢 but obviously they can't say anything as then they are the rude one.

AIBU to think people would be a bit more aware of spreading their own body fluids around especially after the pandemic. I wish there was a way you could confront people who do this without seeming like a weirdo germaphobe.

Oh and parent is a bugger for doing this I usually have to hide the Christmas radio Times and let them keep any book they borrow.

If not liking people's spit on my books and papers makes me a germophobe then I guess I'm a germophobe. If you want to lick your fingers to turn pages, at least make sure it's pages that belong to you that you are turning.

It's gross, I used to work with someone who used to do it to documents other people would need to handle later.

No thanks

I bet the parent spot on hankies & wiped her mouth as a child too.😂😂

@Nousernameforme It's a tiny bit of moisture, which would have dried out by this morning. Anyway, unless you/your kids were going to lick the corners of the pages, it's hardly a problem is it.

your kids are at school, school hardly the worst thing they'll come across.

I don't like seeing people do it, but at least I acknowledge it's harmless & just a ridiculous 'ewww' in my head.

Totally OTT. Would this have bothered you before 2020?

I am with you it is horrible!
Do you remember Dominic Raab in the covid briefing?
Dominic Raab slammed after licking finger during daily coronavirus briefing - Mirror Online

I once bought carrot cake in a supermarket with a cake counter and the person who cut it got icing on her fingers as she put it on the scale - and licked each one of her fingers then went to pick it up again! She was surprised when I said I no longer wanted it! I do not think she knew she was doing it- horrible!

It didn’t bug me before COVID, but it really irks me now. What did you say to your parents? Or did you just stew in silence. I’d have given my parents a…”Mum! That’s not very Covid-friendly! No licking my things, please!”

I hate it when people do that. It's nasty for people who have to touch the pages that they've gobbed on, and it's nasty for the finger licker too as who knows where those fingers have been.

The pandemic seemingly taught most people nothing about basic hygiene 🤢

😷 Did she seriously not understand why you didn’t want her freshly licked cake?!?!

What about a big ole snog? How do you deal with that?

I am guilty of this, and my daughter has said it’s not necessary and I just thought she was being over the top. It’s a generation thing, I am nearly 60, my mum did it ,does it still… so I think after reading this I need to concentrate on not doing it, I do believe it’s a habit though.

People on the tills at Tesco used to lick their fingers to open the bags back in the day. I always thought it was grim

I very much doubt this is any different than them touching the page with dry fingers after touching all sorts out of the house. Germs are everywhere, you need ti chill out about it. And you were v v unreasonable to throw the catalogue away because one of your relatives got a small amount of saliva on it! Yes you do sound like a germaphobe.

How does someone who can't cope with their own parent using the tiniest bit of saliva to turn a catalogue page actually get through normal day to day life?

Genuine question.

Imagine every single surface you touch during a normal day? Door handles, lift buttons, stairs rails, touch screens at a self service checkout, money, anything on public transport or in shops, cafes, restaurants, the entire workplace, pumps at the petrol station, an ATM!
Imagine the germs at your childs school? Or even going round to your relatives or friends house and touching anything..... and that catalogue, how many people touched it before it ended up in your house?
Do you eat or drink outside the home? Do you use a public restroom? Stay in a hotel? Sit in someone else's car? Accept gifts?

I mean, where does it end?

As a regular user of my public library I try not to think too much about what the people who have read the books before me leave on the pages.

I hope you never need to use a public lavatory OP.

The amount of people you see leaving public loos without washing their hands is horrifying.

They'll be touching the door handles to leave and then go on to touch numerous other things that you could potentially touch as well.

It got a bit better around the time of covid but I think that all the hand washing has now been forgotten by a lot of people.

It's gross.

Makes a bit of your mother's spit seem pretty tame in comparison.

It is just unnecessary and rather gross.
Also the transmission of bacteria is more likely to occur from wet skin than from dry skin

Also finger lickin is not good sorry Colonel
The habit of finger-licking: getting a solution out of the pandemic - PMC

It's saliva not phlegm. There's more important stuff to get worked up about. What disaster do you think will befall you because of this?

lick it.

I do think it's odd although I'm not really a germaphobe. I just have never had the need to do it, does it actually help?

I'm the opposite of germaphobe, I don't worry about shit like this, I don't wash my hands very often, I dislike covid hand sanitizer, if food drops on the floor I pick it up and eat it. I don't worry about your saliva on pages.

I hate this as well. So gross watching someone do it as well

Mumsnet has opened my eyes to how disgusted and revolted many people get over things that never ever occur to me.
Like this.

Are you disgusted by the library OP? Genuine question?

It’s like people look for stuff to make them anxious. I always thought I was on the highly strung end of things but turns out, by mn standards I’m totes chill 😎

It's foul. Anyone who does this should be forced to eat their own shit.