Thursday, January 21

terrific twos

I was at the bookstore earlier today with my guy and Mandolin. My guy had half day of work today so we met after for lunch and books. Mandolin had to go "big girl potty" so off we rushed to the bathroom. Another woman came in to take care of her own business while Mandolin was finishing hers up and we started washing our hands. Hand washing is always a drawn-out affair. I usually ignore other people in the bathroom, as we're socialized to do, but halfway through the second round of the "wash your hands song" Mandolin started yelling at the woman who came in earlier. Apparently this woman decided not to wash her hands and Mandolin flipped out and started yelling "Mommy, that's dirty" and pointing at the woman. The woman shot us a look and quickly left the room. We completed our song and hand washing and made our way out of the room to look for daddy when Mandolin decided to tell everyone and I mean EVERYONE in the store that the woman was dirty and didn't wash her hands while pointing at said woman. Her exact words were "Eww yuck, she's dirty mommy, you gotta wash hands, yuck it's dirty" with the exuberant hand pointing and arm waiving that only a small child can do. I was mortified.

11 comments:

Brenda said...

don't be mortified. mandolin just did what every person should do when some lazy pig wipes their ass, doesnt' wash their hands and then touches the door handle and god knows what else. it is disgusting. a basic human civilized function and some people are too damn lazy to do it. i hope that woman was embarrassed as hell that a small child has better hygiene than she does. go Mandolin

emma said...

I disagree with Spidey pudddin. I think you should tell Mandolin that while hand washing is the norm in your household it may not be the norm to everyone and that doesn't mean that other people are "dirty".

Maybe the women used Purell hand sanitizer, or maybe she was a germophobe who didn't want to touch the faucet, or maybe she didn't want to waste water . . .

Personally I can't stand kids who have to correct adults . . especially those adults they don't know. My nephew doesn't like smoking and used to proceed to tell EVERYONE who smoked that they were hurting their lungs and they were going to die. I imagine everyone who smokes KNOWS they hurt their lungs and are probably going to die, but them again everyone who DOESN'T smoke is going to die too.
I'm kinda in the corner that, on most stuff, kids should be seen and not heard.

Jenny Robin said...

I think the funniest part of this is that the lady has a great story to tell, but in telling it she'll alert all her friends to the fact that she didn't wash her hands.

Jilly said...

i can't wait until she develops social sensors. most kids don't get them until 6 or 7, so i'm in for a few rough years.

i can't wait for her to be a teenager so i can retell all of these stories and embarrass her, turn about and all that.

UrbanStarGazer said...

That's awesome! Ha ha ha ha!!

Catz said...

maybe she used hand sanitizer after she left.which she would still have left germs on the door handle. yuck.

but the story is funny. out of the mouths of babes.

Brenda said...

i never touch a door handle in a public bathroom for that very reason.

Jilly said...

i'm not a germophobe but i do know that hand sanitizer won't clean BM off your hands or kill everything in BM if it's on your hands. How do i know this? I spend my days cleaning BM off a 2 year old's bottom and the Dr gave out handouts on handwashing and the staying-power of BM. I'm already a hand washer, so I didn't need the flyer, but I was sad that she had to give it out to everyone just in case.

Ded said...

This puts me in mind of that famous old opera regarding down-at-the-heels Italian artistes with very young children, "La BM."

vq said...

Gawd...

Kathryn said...

Many years ago, after my kids had had a unit about How Bad Drugs Are at the middle school, we were driving someplace when one of them said, "Look, Mom, that man is using drugs!" I said, "What? What man? Where?" and they said, "The one over there, smoking!" Indeed he was, and it was your standard tobacco cigarette. (Would that that would have stuck with them; they both smoke, occasionally.)