PSA: Check your kids book bags!

Hello people of the Internet! This post goes out to all the folks who decided to keep our species kicking and have the products of their-and by that I mean the woman's-labor going to school. Now, I know that whenever you empty out your kids school bags you expect to find old sandwiches, moldy gym clothes, and other such objects of gag-worthy-proportions but I am writing to you today in order to urge you to move those excavations from the summer, spring, and winter breaks to a weekly basis.

I love this gif

I don't mean to add more to the pressure you feel as a parent but after what I experienced over my Spring break I now believe that taking such a measure will not just improve your kids organization and cleanliness but safeguard their health from some pretty dangerous bugs. To make one thing clear I don't have a child of my own but I do have a fourteen year old, mentally challenged, foster aunt who like many kids suffers from the seasonal sniffles and sneezes. However, last summer my mom noticed that my aunt's allergies were getting pretty bad-the girl couldn't take more than four breaths without sneezing-so along with a new medication she got her to carry a rag in her backpack so that she wouldn't have to get up a thousand time during class to wipe the snot off her lips.

Fast forward to the fifth night of my break when my family and I are about to watch the Mocking Jay part 1; which was a very good movie that I suggest you check it. My aunt had already went up to bed an I was just finishing up some folding when I noticed that Honey-my sister's two year old multi poo-had yet again gotten hold of a rag and was busy tearing it to shreds. After snapping at her to drop it I made to pick it up and toss it in the hamper when I realized that I didn't recognize the pattern on it.

I don't mean to buy into gender stereotypes but in my house the majority of laundry duty falls on my shoulders and as a result I am pretty familiar with all the colors, textures, and thickness of the house wash rags but was unfamiliar with the dark green dots decorating the white rag. At first I thought my mom had brought a new set but that couldn't be because, again, I do the laundry and hadn't washed any other rags with that pattern. Next I guessed that the marks were actually my sister's paints-she has ruined more cloths that way than I can count!-but I scratched that idea since even though the dots ranged in size they were all perfect circles. At a lost I picked up the rag and brought it over to my mom who looked at it for a few seconds before exclaiming "That's mold!". When I hear this I had the following reaction:

I'm not one of those girls who will scream and jump up on a table if I see a vermin run across the floor but if you saw just how infested this rag was with those spores-and no I am not going to show a picture because I am just now able to push the image from my mind-you would flip along with that stomach. As if this wasn't disgusting enough my mom hit my sister and I with another wave of horror when she realized that the rag was the same one she'd given my aunt to wipe away her snot at the beginning of the school year!

This is literally how my sister and I screamed.

That meant that at some point between August and March my aunt stopped wiping her face with a square of terry cloth and started wiping it with a petri dish! Now, you may be wondering why my aunt didn't say anything when the dots started appearing and I remind you that she is autistic and in fact did tell my mom that she needed to switch out the rag that very same day which is how my sister's dog got a hold of it. As my horror over the whole affair started to cool down it was replaced with a mix of clarity and concern. 

You see, even though my aunts allergy medication could clear her sinuses like Drano she was still sniffling and had even started getting bumps on her skin. Her doctor said it could because she'd developed an allergy to our dogs but at that moment I feared it was actually due to the rag. For the rest of the break I watched my aunt like a hawk searching for the vaguest hint of a virus or illness that had germinated on that piece of cloth which had been thrown away along with most of the contents of her back pack; the pack was saved thanks to a mixture of ammonia and vinegar. Thankfully nothing popped up and my aunt is okay but from now on my mom, sister, and I are much more vigilant about what she carries in her bag and I urge you to do the same with your kids. 

That's all I have to say so until my next post I ask you to Live well, Laugh often, and Love much.

Sources 

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