Annie Bacterial – Hive and Nest

I have a friend, let’s call her Annie Bacterial, who is one of those anti-germ freaks.  She is always washing her hands, making her kids wash their hands, and never goes anywhere without Purell. Seriously, the second Annie’s kids or husband walk in the door, they MUST wash their hands.

At this point you, reader, are either thinking, “weirdo” or “yes, of course”.  I am in the “weirdo” category.  I am not a germ freak, and do not understand germ freaks. Especially since, considering the evidence, Annie is way off base. Annie has two boys that are the same ages as my two middle children. Since we’ve known this family (about four years) the boys have had strep three times and full blown influenza (the kind that the hospital reports to the State Health Board) twice.  They also throw up and have sick days from school constantly.

My children on the other hand, are almost never sick. We all had the flu (the barfy kind) and strep when we first moved to Utah six years ago, but that’s about it. When we moved to Texas, I sent for our Medical records. We went to the same doctor in Utah for the last four years.  They didn’t even have a medical record for Finn since he’s never been sick that entire time.

I make my kids wash their hands after they go to the bathroom.  I try to remember to have them wash their hands before meals, but I forget a lot. I only use Purell at the zoo since there could be some weird Avian diseases floating around. Otherwise, I’m pretty mellow.  If my children were getting sick all the time I might think differently. But generally I roll my eyes at the germaphobes out there.  I’m sure some of you would qualify.  It kind of seems like a trait people are born with. I guess I just prefer life on the wild side.