Germs Suck and So Do I

**Warning to MamaDB: Please go somewhere else and read a story about puppies and rainbows, because I'm gonna talk about that thing you don't like**



Is she gone?


Good.

Last week, an email went around our neighborhood yahoo group regarding hand sanitizers and alcohol poisoning. Someone thought they'd seen an earlier email that was debunked by snopes, but this one appeared to be true. I have become the arbiter of all things urban legend on this group, because I got tired of reading how Swiffer wipes can kill your dog, so I would "reply to all" with a link to Snopes, hoping the original sender didn't find me snarky and come TP my house that night.

They asked me what the deal was, and after I checked on Snopes, I replied with the following:

"I don't remember the original email you're referring to, but I would trust Snopes and your own common sense on this one. Don't allow your child to use the stuff unattended, and monitor them after use to make sure they don't lick it off. Also, don't use half the bottle in one go. :)

Personally, I don't subscribe to the Sanitize Everything school of thought. We use anti-bacterial soap in the kitchen for food-borne bacteria, but nowhere else. I'm old school, head in the sand some might say, and believe that building up my kids' immune systems by exposing them to good and bad bacteria is what keeps them from getting sick much (that statement guarantees we catch every bug that comes through Steiner in the next 4 months). That doesn't mean we don't clean the house with bacteria killing stuff, but that's about it. I am chagrined to admit we rarely have the girls wash their hands before meals. I'm also the mom who stood by and let her daughter eat dirt when she was 1 if that gives you any indication of my laid back attitude. That's good parenting right there."

Ha ha, aren't I smug and lighthearted and carefree?

Yeah, that was Thursday, and on Saturday, Boodle woke up with a red, itchy eye, which proceeded to get worse as the day wore on. We, of course, still took her to her Hip Hop dance recital, because hello, good parenting continues.

After buying some questionable homeopathic drops to stave off a trip to the urgent care hellhole on a Saturday night, I was awoken this morning at 5am with a crying, crusty-eyed kid in pain. One blissfully easy trip to the urgent care on SUNDAY later, and we're confirmed to have Conjunctivitis, (pink eye) are in possession of a bottle of eye drop antibiotic, and are waiting to see how else God shall chuckle at me and my blase attitude and poor hygiene habits.

(I'll spare you a photo of the afflicted eye, because ew.)