Germs and such

Having a toddler means that my place is always messy. No matter how many times I sweep the floors, there will always be stuff to be swept. I use a small dustpan and a brush. My husband doesn't understand why I do that but the vacuum and the balai cannot get all the corners and the OCD in me insists that the dustpan & the brush will do the trick. Just like the mopping - after I finish mopping with the mop, I use a wet swiffer without the apparatus, go down on my knees and wipe the swiffer over the corners.
Using the clothes dryer indoors is absolutely driving the OCD in me NUTS. Normally I will open a window and push the dryer vent out the window. But since its too cold to open a window, the vent is blowing tiny dust particles into the bathtub and lands everywhere in the bath. Everytime I do the laundry (which is almost everyday) I end up cleaning the bathroom with a wet swiffer - floors, basin, bath, every imaginable surface I can get my hands on. Its tiring and irritating but a necessity.

It used to be worst. In Malaysia, I used to insist that my maid mop the floors twice daily with dettol as Lucas was crawling everywhere and picking up stuff from the floors, stuffing them into his mouth. His toys were washed every night while he slept. His bottles and pacifier were religiously sterilised daily. Then my childhood friend came to visit with his 2 year old son who has never, ever fallen sick. Noah's pacifier dropped onto my balcony and Shawn just casually picked it up and gave it back to Noah. I was horrified but Loli assured me that Noah has never been sick and that sometimes exposure to germs could be a good thing.

I have since eased up on the dettol; when we took Lucas to visit his mamy Anita for the first time, she was surprised that I had to sterilise his bottles and pacifier every night. In France, you stop sterilising at 6 months or so. From then on, no more sterilising for me.

I try not to get too paranoid when all I have is water to rinse Lucas' pacifier which had dropped onto the floor. I no longer wash his toys every night. Once I screamed so loud when I caught Lucas putting his papa's shoes in his mouth that he jumped with fright.
Lucas now automatically puts out his hands for cleaning when I pick him up from creche as I still insist on cleaning his hands with anti-bacterial hand wash. I no longer cringe when I catch him picking up cereal from the floor or putting his pacifier into papa's shoes. I do wash the pacifier if it goes into the shoes but I know that I cannot be monitoring Lucas 24/7 and so if he picks up his pacifier which has fallen onto the floor and plops it back in his mouth, I tell myself its fine as his saliva will kill all the germs from the floor...