Washing hands at soft play..

[treetop122]

Trying to work out if I am normal (ish) or OTT…

I have 3 kids, 10,6&3. Normal half term fun this week and we met some family at a soft play.

Now I try to avoid soft plays because of the germs this time of year. When we do go to a softplay, I make my kids wash their hands before they eat, and/ or when we leave. I noticed that others are not bothered and let their kids just eat.

Am I being over the top or do people normally make their kids wash hands before they eat when still in the softplay. I am quite strict on it and try not to let them eat until hands are washed.

i also make my kids take their socks off for clean ones when we get home… got me wondering, am I normal?! 😂

I'm exactly the same as you! I always make sure my son washes his hands before eating most places but definitely softplay. We also always wash hands when we get home. I feel like we avoid a decent amount of illnesses this way, he still catches stuff at nursery but at least it's not so constant. We don't normally change socks but it would depend how dirty the softplay is.

I do the same with handwashing and changing socks and quite often wonder if I'm the only person who does things like this! 😁

I've never got ill from a softplay or known anyone who has. I find the trope of softplay being a festering pit of germs in a league apart from all other places of human interaction really odd and driven almost entirely by being a popular bandwagon people jump on.

Handwashing before eating is a good idea anywhere. Softplay is no more significant than anywhere else.

Oh thank goodness I’m not alone..It’s tricky sometimes if there are open snacks on the table and they want to come and go, grabbing a quick bite before running off again.. but it seriously stresses me out. I just really noticed it yesterday that I was the only one making their kids wash hands. No one else seemed bothered at all.

I don’t always get a chance to make them wash hands before eating at soft play but I’d prefer it if they did.

Socks off, and clothes changed when we get home from such places. We always wash hands when we get home. And if DDs have sat on any communal loos: shower asap when getting home (as do I). Fully expect to be told I’m OTT 😂

Absolutely, good hygiene to always wash before you eat anyway, but especially important with what felt like hundreds of sweaty kids running around 😱

That said, my DF and DFiL are terrible for washing their hands (DF washes them sporadically and usually only rinses with water 🤢) and neither of them are ever ill, so I do think we’re probably too hygienic now!

And what about kids running about makes the whole place grubbier? It's normal to wash hands before eating. It's not normal to obsess about it to the point it's making you nervous as you said or to think it's somehow more important at softplay than it is in the park or at school or anywhere else.

The changing socks thing is definitely OTT.

If Covid taught us anything it was that people are mingers. Don’t feel guilty about washing your children’s hands - you’re the normal one. When you consider what children lick, poke and touch and how much particulate from skin, vomit, snot, pee and poo is in soft play, it’s disgusting that anyone could even think to let their children eat before they washed their hands…🤢

Well I guess germs spread more through bodily fluids..
or maybe stay for longer on surfaces when sweaty and sticky?..
I suppose I am using the softplay as my example as that’s what got me thinking. But anywhere there is a large number of people all touching the same surfaces I would feel the same.

Oh gosh this isn’t ott! I make mine wash hands before eating and when leaving. When we get home from soft play they get a bath and fresh clothes 🙈🤣

Bonkers.

It's good to reinforce hygienic habits but to me it seems a bit like trying to bail out a canoe taking on water in a storm with a wooden spoon.

Personally, I'd stop fretting and go to soft play more often and let your kids build up their immune systems.

But then I've never understood the hatred for soft play. I think it's fantastic, especially in the miserable weather we've been having. We've been multiple times this winter, often twice weekly. The kids get lots of exercise, make new friends, improve their gross motor skills, practice taking physical risks in a fairly safe environment and leave me alone for a couple of hours. What's not to like? On a risk-benefit basis, the benefits clearly outweigh the risks, including of snotty colds which they could pick up anywhere anyway.

To add to this discussion, roughly 2 weeks ago I saw that a young child had wet themselves upstairs in the softplay which trickled down to the equipment below and then went down the slide on their bare bottom! A carer attempted to clear up the mess with some water wipes.

I've also discovered puddles of vomit in a different softplay that a parent hadn't noticed happen and had to get a staff member to clear it up!

I will continue to wash my child's hands after softplay! If that's what I've witnessed, I dread to think what else has gone on!

Yes to the socks.
Once my baby caught hand foot and mouth at soft play I upped the hygiene and I thought I was pretty on the ball prior.

I do think that's OTT. Changing clothes, showering after using loos, really seems like far too much anxiety to me.

Soft play is the only place we seem to get ill. If / when I next go I will be upping the hand washing etc. Have stopped going after the last virus we caught as were ill for weeks.

Washing hands/gel/baby wipes ideally before eating

changing socks or clothes after soft play a little extreme

showering as soon as home if used a public toilet very extreme

I would just shower /bath as normal so either before bed or next morning as get up

Wouldn’t occur to me to shower them when we got home if they’d been to the toilet. A big problem is many viruses are airborne, many places are poorly ventilated (and some people won’t give somewhere like softplay a miss if their kids are contagious). My kids generally wash their hands before eating, but if we cant, I don’t make them wait to eat. If they want a snack when they come out of school, they won’t have washed hands either, but they’ll have been in an unventilated classroom likely with multiple things going around waiting their turn for the latest virus combo, which seems a lot more messed up to me personally.

One of my kids found a runny shit down a slide at soft play once so they do not need to be reminded to wash their hands!! 😂 😂

Same here

Hands washed, clean socks

I try and persuade them to show and fresh clothes once home but this is usually pooh hooed

Making a child shower because she has used a public toilet is very strange behaviour, @HamToasties- you’re setting her up for an anxiety disorder down the line.

Yes, we do the same. I don’t understand people here who say they don’t change kids’ socks after they’ve been running around in soft play with them 🤢 Sometimes (not always) the socks are absolutely filthy afterwards. All well and good building up their immune systems but they do that at school / preschool anyway mixing with other kids?

You must go to some absolutely disgusting soft plays or places in general given your comment about showering.

My child has never had filthy socks from playing in a soft play, nor have they got ill.

I don't do anything different during soft play. The kids wash hands after going to the loo, and before eating if they're particularly mucky. But otherwise carry on as normal.

My children aren't ill very often and very rarely absent from school. We've never caught an illness from a soft play.