When my older son was about 2.5, he started doing something that was really strange (yes, I know that a great deal of toddler behavior was strange.) If he happened to pass a dog or a cat on the way to the bathroom to wash his hands, he would wipe his hands on them. Of course this behavior was cyclical because the animals were only too happy to act as personal napkins and lick food crumbs off their coats which encouraged OS even more.
After many weeks of reminding him not to wipe his hands on the pets, he stopped doing it...only to then take up the habit of wiping his hands on me. Not surprisingly, this also was not acceptable. I am not interested in licking crumbs off my skin or clothing. So after I spent a number of weeks reminding him not to wipe his hands on me and making sure the napkin holder is full, he has taken to wiping his hands on the couch or walls if there aren't any napkins or a sink around. Thankfully this doesn't happen very often.
When we went out to lunch earlier today with friends, all the napkins were used and OS was wedged into a booth, so he suddenly tried to use my husband as his personal napkin. One of our friends piped up that they have the same problem. Guess our problem isn't so unique after all.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Watch out for being used as a human napkin.Labels: Child Health and Personal Care, Food (Solid), Humor (at least Attempted), Pets and Animals |
It doesn't stop with toddlers. It seems as though when my husband cooks he doesn't see the use for an apron, as he uses his jeans to wipe his hands. MY lesson learned: thank goodness for spray-n-wash.
(But really, WTF? Why can't he use a towel or wear an apron?)