Wash your hands! Don't touch that!

The title of this post - it's the two things that I repeat every single day, about 200 times a day.

Yes it's true. I am a germaphobe. And I blame it on the swine flu (or if you want to be politically correct and not offend any other flu viruses, the H1N1 virus).

Don't get me wrong, I am obsessed with my kids washing their hands ALL THE TIME. But now that it's "flu season", I am even more obsessed.

I carry hand sanitizer in my purse, my diaper bag, the car. I have a tub of antibacterial wipes in my diaper bag and a smaller package in my purse (yes, I DO have a huge diaper bag and a huge purse, thanks for asking).

At Target, I wipe the cart handles, seats, sides, and well basically the ENTIRE cart with several wipes. Same thing at Wal-Mart (even though, in my opinion, Target has the most germ-infested carts of any stores. Gross. Wal-Mart is a very close second!). Same deal at the grocery store -- or any other store that has carts. You might as well put your kids in a hazmat suit before sitting them in any carts.

And then, on any shopping trip I repeat this phrase "Don't touch that!" over and over and over again. And I clean their hands with an antibacterial wipe as soon as we get in the car.

Yes, I'm a bit obsessed, but whatever.

And hand washing? Oh geez...my kids probably think I'm crazy. I make them sing their 'ABCs' while washing (OK, so I sing it for Emma, but she says some of the letters with me). I actually had two school teachers stop me at a public restroom and THANK ME for teaching my kids (and my niece who was with us) to wash their hands while singing that song.

I can't help it. I would like to avoid the piggy flu this season. I'd also like to avoid the 'regular' flu, stomach viruses, bronchitis and the common cold. While I'm sure it's not possible to avoid all those, I'm doing my best to avoid swine flu. And it's making me a wee bit obsessed with germs.

I blame it on the news. Our local news more than anything else. One channel in particular. (13ABC you know I'm talking about you). Every night they have their "swine flu central" update and give all these stats and stories and BREAKING NEWS! about the swine flu. It's making me a little crazy.

But I did have my kids vaccinated against the 'regular' flu (as I have done every year since they were old enough to get the vaccine). I am getting a 'regular' flu vaccine (as I have done every year for the past 6 years). And Olivia's school will be doing a 'swine flu clinic' once that vaccine is available and she WILL be getting that vaccine too. And I'm hoping Emma will be able to get it. And then I hope that Kevin and I can get it too. Heck, if my dogs and cat could get the vaccine, I'd probably get it for them too. (Kidding. Sort of.)

Now I know that no one can totally avoid germs (well, unless you live in a bubble -- and I'm not willing to do that). But I am trying to my part to avoid germs by doing those little things that all the 'talking heads' on the news are telling us to do: washing your hands being the most important.

And I know that I'm not the only one obsessing about this. When the words "swine flu" were mentioned at the PTA meeting this week, every parent in the room suddenly 'woke up' from the meeting-induced stupor and everyone was "What? Swine flu? Is it here...in THIS school?!?!?" The principal assured us that NO it was not in our school and if it did show up we would know ASAP. And he told us that every classroom has several bottles of hand sanitizer for the students to use.

Whew.

Germs know this: I will take you down. I'm armed with Lysol and I'm not afraid to use it.