QUESTION FOR MOMS IN THE MINISTRY
I don't think I've written about this lately, but it's been a concern that I've had before I even got pregnant. I just would love some advice on this! OK, I grew up an only child and my mom was waaaay overprotective. She's also a 'clean freak' which she has somewhat passed on to me. (That translates to: the smell of bleach permeates the apartment, I wash my hands a zillion times a day, I monitor my husbands hand washing, and I've very paranoid about unclean hands and smokers handling my newborn!). On a continuum, if dirty was far left, obsessive-compulsive was far right, I'd be just a little to the right.So my husband has smoker's on his side of the family and they will be easily offended if I suggest or ask them to wash their hands before holding the baby, much less changing shirts or putting a clean shirt over the smokey shirt. His grandmother has started asking people to smoke outside, but they still come right in fresh from smoking and pick up babies. How do I manage this at Christmas?
November will be beginning the flu and RSV season, and being a nurse, I know it's extremely dangerous for babies to be around children and sick people. How do you manage that at church though? People will want to hold the baby and they don't realize that just because they are successfully fighting a cold, the baby may not be so fortunate. And at our church, people don't really ask, they just pick the child up. There are lots of little kids there as well, who tend to want to kiss babies, etc. So my question is how do I deal with this? My husband's number one concern is not offending anyone. My number one concern is the health of the baby. How do you balance that? Both at church and with in-laws. (I say in-laws because I'm blunt with my family and they aren't easily offended).
posted by Amy @ 8:19 AM
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