A lot changes when you have a kid, and a lot of that change has to do with what you’re purchasing post-kid vs. pre-kid. Other than the blatantly obvious items like diapers, children’s tylenol, and tiny socks, you have things like antibacterial wipes that become absolutely essential. At least for me.
See, for as long as I can remember I’ve had this really strange aversion to touching food with my hands, or even touching items that have been touched by someone who just handled food and didn’t wash their hands. I mean I remember having anxiety attacks over my brother eating potato chips while playing Sega because he would get grease all over the controllers, or having tantrums because I grabbed the tv remote and found someone had smeared some sort of oil slick all over the buttons.
To this day I can’t function if I am unable to wash my hands with soap immediately after eating. I’m not saying I’m one of those weirdos who eats a grilled cheese with a fork and knife or anything like that, but rather that I need to wash my hands after finishing. I mean at the sink. Hand sanitizer or a ‘moist towelette’ will temporarily satiate me only if there’s no accessible sink, but it’s never good enough; I need a sink, hot water, and lots of soap.
Well, what demographic is notorious for sliming everything in their presence? Children –especially toddlers. They bury their little paws in a pile of greasy fries, they massage spaghetti between their fingers, they smear potatoes in their hair. This leads to a little conundrum for a person like me who does not want to touch or be touched by food.
So I buy a lot of ‘Wet Ones’ these days (or their generic equivalent). We use about 4 wipes per meal, more if it’s something really messy like spaghetti. This is necessary because J doesn’t yet understand the concept of washing her hands at the sink; instead, she gleefully splashes and throws water in my eyes. It’s virtually impossible to get her cleaned up without putting her in the bathtub, hence the need for Wet Ones.
They’re quick and clean well enough, and most importantly J is agreeable to using them. I like to keep a tube in as many rooms as possible just so that I can quickly clean her slimy hands whenever and wherever the need presents, thereby reducing the level of grease and slime on household items (or on me).
Strangely though, these wipes still do not satisfy my personal hand-cleansing urges… I won’t use them on myself but I’m totally content with J’s level of cleanliness after being patted down with some wipes. I guess it’s all relative.
