The Slippery Slope

The first couple of times your kid wets the bed, you strip off every stitch of bedding, compromised or not, and wash it with bleach and borax on the "sanitize" setting of the super-ultra-fawncy washer you bought specifically for that feature.

Later on, you settle for the "hot" setting because, damn, your electric bill's not cheap.  After all, your mom never had no "sanitize" feature and you survived, didn't you?

Then you get to the point where, before you strip the bed, you give the outer layers the feel-n-sniff test, because, hey, why wash something that doesn't need to be washed if you're going to wind up washing it in the near future?

After awhile longer, you just strip off the sheets and chuck them in the washer on "warm" with a bunch of other stuff that needs washing anyway. 

You know you've hit rock bottom when you find yourself eyeing the rubber sheet from hell that takes three people to wrangle on and off the mattress and thinking to yourself, do you really think she'd notice if you just let the sheets air dry?  It was just a little bit of pee...

Comments

[Robin]

That's kind of what it's like with the second child and germs. With Nina, if something touched the ground, she couldn't have it back until it was washed. And in the case of food, it was tossed and replaced. Clothes were worn until they got something on them.
Now with Tori, drop it once, have it back, drop it twice, have it back. Eat some wood chips at the playground, why not?! Clothes aren't soaking wet in your drool, you can wear it again! As long as you're not eating dog poop, or the item didn't fall in visible disgustingness, have at it kid, germs make ya' strong!!!

[Becki]

At four a.m.? I'm a big believer in throwing a dry towel on top of it and dealing with the laundry in daylight.