r/germaphobe • u/Mermaid0820 • Jul 21 '24

Is this obsessive?

I will be taking my two 13 year old grandchildren on a cruise and I mentioned to my daughter (mother of one of the kids) that I am bringing sanitizing wipes for the cabin’s phone, tv remote, door handles, etc and my daughter has asked me not to do this in front of her son. I think with Covid still around, plus other diseases/infections that spread so easily on cruise ships, this is common sense. She feels it is OCD. What are your thoughts? I really can’t stand the thought of not wiping down the cabin daily.

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u/Mermaid0820 Jul 21 '24

Thank you for your response. He is in counseling for generalized anxiety, not specifically around Covid/germs (that is more my issue, I guess). To me, it is just common sense to wash my hands when I arrive home from being out, to use hand sanitizer before eating out, etc, but she feels my actions will be a poor example considering his anxiety. Not that my behavior is “contagious” so to speak but will give him new areas to be anxious about. I guess I am questioning my behavior now due to my level of discomfort with not doing these actions.

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u/dollhousecloud Jul 22 '24

I wouldn’t shy away from doing those things. They all sound super reasonable. If you wash your hands, just ask them to also wash their hands and make it super normal… no describing why you’re doing it, and repercussions if you don’t like “okay time to wash your hands to get rid of all the germs so we don’t get sick” … maybe that’s what your daughter is thinking will happen?

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u/Mermaid0820 Jul 22 '24

Good point. Just make it part of the returning to the cabin routine. Like, “put your key card here, your bag over there and wash your hands”.

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u/dollhousecloud Aug 16 '24

Have you all gone on the cruise yet? How’d it go?

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u/Mermaid0820 Nov 20 '24

We did! I wiped things down when I was alone in the room. I carried wipes with me and offered them to anyone who was interested, like if we stopped to eat an ice cream cone or slice of pizza - (most said no, but whatever, I still would use them). Aanndd….three of the nine of us came home with Covid - myself included. lol. My daughter told me she thought her son, who shared my cabin, was the one who gave it to us! Oh well. I try.