Monday, November 01, 2010

Employees must wash hands...and so should everybody else

I got a detailed tour of many bathrooms while touring Disney a few weeks ago with the family. Lots of them. Got to see a the same bathrooms multiple times over a single meal, as a matter of fact.

And perhaps it's because I work for a hospital now or the whole H1N1 scare last fall, but I'm more aware of handwashing as a required practice of good health than ever before.

So I was surprised when we were in a bathroom once and saw a mom bustle her toddler out without having her wash her hands, telling that it was okay to not wash them because she "hadn't gone tinkle."

The girl probably wasn't yet 3, so I can imagine that she held herself onto the seat of the potty by holding on to the seat with her hands. And, she had been wandering Disney, right? Touching things, like perhaps door and ride handles, merchandise and other surfaces? In that case, it's not a bad idea to wash her hands every half an hour, whether or not tinkling was involved.

Our girls were just finishing washing up and stared at the girl as she left. I think they were trying to see if the germs were visible on her. After Lindsey's hand-washing class in 2nd grade a month ago, in which she got to see germs under a blacklight both before and after hand washing, Lindsey is as big of an advocate for handwashing as I am. They were in disbelief that she hadn't washed up.

So the lesson, boys and girls, is to always wash your hands, because not everyone does.

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