Germs, Kids and City Living – 5 Tips To Remain My Friend

Listen I am FAR from a germ-a-phobe. I let Max eat dirt. As long as it’s DIRT and not NYC sludge. There is a difference. I try to prevent putting deadly germs in mouth. Plus, it’s cold/flu season, so let’s all do each other a favor and just remember to try and keep the germs at bay. We are already surrounded by rats, cockroaches, green toxic liquids dripping out of vans on the street (seen it!), and brown sludge gushing out of trash bags on the street. Do we REALLY need to go over some city-living etiquette? I think we do and here’s why:

1. Don’t place your bags on the floor of the subway (and then on the seat)

Seriously, I almost confronted a lady this am about this, but didn’t want to be “that person.” So hey lady who got off at the Astoria Blvd. stop this am, if you’re reading this – YES THIS IS TO YOU. Do NOT place your gym bag on the floor that bums pee on and we all step in and then place in on the seat next to you once you are able to sit down. Seriously, common sense.

If you’re a tourist and you are still in denial about how dirty this pretty little city is because you watched a SATC marathon before coming up to run around in your Manolos – you’ve been warned.

2. Don’t wear your shoes in my house

I have a friend who is now an Orthopedic Surgeon in DC who did his medical residency here in NYC. He told me about this lady who was hit by a bus and broke her leg. They had to AMPUTATE her leg because of all the infection and disgusting things that were run over and crushed into her leg on the street. And you want to walk on that and then onto the carpet my son plays on and eats cheddar bunnies off of? I think that’s enough said. Don’t do it, or you WILL be yelled at.

3. If we’re having lunch together, go wash your hands.

After you just held the same handrail in the subway that the lady before you did with her wet, snotty tissue. After you balanced yourself holding the railing on the escalator in Grand Central. After you touched the screen to get a new MTA card. No, I don’t want to share a bread basket with you, or have you hold my son – until you wash your hands. COMMON SENSE!

4. Wash your veggies and fruits

I can’t believe I even have to say this, but really. If you’re going to eat that tomato or apple that traveled a few hundred miles and has gone through 10 pairs of hands to even reach sitting out on the bodega shelf for you to buy, please wash it before letting my son eat it. I totally believe that every work that handled it first washed their hands, and wasn’t sick, and no one walking down the street coughed, sneezed or picked it up before you either.

5. Just because I am on a rant – don’t walk down the middle of the sidewalk

Ahhh you’re in love. You’re holding hands, looking up at the beauty of the skyscrapers above you and – bam! Your heel is torn off by a stroller trying to get by. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. New Yorkers know not to hog the sidewalks without consequence.

xoxo