Contrary to popular belief, motherhood has made me less into hand sanitizing and Lysol’ed door handles. You’ve heard it before from old folks – “It’s okay – it builds immunity!” Humnoy has been “sick” 2-3 times with the last major spell with his ear infection, which I totally owned it using natural remedies. I let him eat off of the kitchen floor, play with non-choking yet somewhat hazardous items, and get kissed by animals who may or may not lick anuses.
I’m the first to admit I’m very lazy and try to find the least effort in doing things. When Humnoy is playing within earshot with something I can’t specifically identify, I leave him be. If I catch him chewing on something edible, I let him eat it (sometimes). He’s a very adventurous eater so I exercise most caution here. I went out dancing at the dance studio the night before and left my going-out shoes by the front door. See, I am so lazy, I don’t even take the extra time to put them away where they belong. The morning after, Mama was a wee bit lazy relaxed from the comfort of the love seat to grab the pointy heels out of his chompers.
So, if you want a strong healthy kid, let them put that dirty old toy in their mouth or eat that blueberry in the corner from this morning. It won’t hurt ’em, I promise.
What do you let your kids do that is not up to sanitation standards? Are you a germophobic mama? Any other confessions?
The Laotian Commotion 
I work with kids and my sanatary habits haven’t changed. Some teacheea have their kids wash their hands every 10 to 15mins (or so it seems) and I only have my kids wash their hands before eating and after painting/inking/have snot clearly dripping from their noses. And guess what?! My kids are the healthiest and gone the least out of any class 🙂
Wow, there’s lots of irony going on there. You with kids still boggles my mind 😉
haha me too, 3 year old even!
Until they can clean the floor themselves, I don’t think any kid should object otherwise!
I am totally not a germaphobe either. When Simon was born my in laws brought a big bottle of hand sanitized and we never even used it. I was at storytime yesterday talking to someone I didn’t know and mentioned how they had the same toy there that Simon likes at the dr office, and she scrunched up her face and said “ew the same toy that all the other kids there have put their mouths on?”. Um…yep! He has yet to need to go to the dr for any kind if illness, so I think he’s doing okay.
Also I like your admission that some of you parenting comes out of laziness. I try to avoid as much stress in my life as possible, I do the same thing.
If I weren’t an AP mom, I’d be whole lot crankier! Attachment parenting is easy parenting. (Sometimes) 😉
The only thing I freak out about is toys at the dr.’s offfice. That place is like a petri dish. Other than that anything (pretty much) goes. When we moved to this house (when my oldest was not quite 1), he spent the first few weeks making sure that he licked every single river rock in our landscaping. Whatevs. Dirt is good for you 🙂
My freakout items are coins and batteries, which, of course, are his favorite and most common. Germs are good for you, no matter what source. 😉
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