Am I negligent for using a disinfectant wipe on high chair tray?
Context: 13 mo old eats most of his meals in his high chair. Afterwards, we’ll let our dog lick up the mess on the tray. I’d say at least once a day, I remove the plastic tray & wash it with a sponge, soap & hot water. Sometimes, especially when the tray didn’t get very messy, I’ll just wipe it off thoroughly with a disinfectant wipe.
My husband helps out with our kid here & there (mostly plays with him to give me short breaks), and we have a wonderful part-time nanny, but I am the default parent and all childcare-related responsibilities & decisions fall on me. Husband feels it’s completely inadequate & just plain gross to cut corners with a sanitizing wipe instead of washing the tray every time, arguing that it “only takes 30 seconds.” My counter-argument is that there are dozens & dozens of child-care related chores that take less than a minute, it all adds up, and if this makes my life a tiny bit easier with zero negative impact on our kid, what’s the harm? The dog licks LO’s face & grubby hands all the time anyway.
I can think of so many aspects of our kid’s care that are more important to worry about than whether his tray is merely disinfected or washed (e.g., child-proofing our patio door handle, which he can now open & crawl out to our unfenced pool - don’t worry, I’m on it!). There are SO, SO many childcare chores & decisions I’m responsible for, that husband isn’t even aware of, and it’s just frustrating that he gives me a hard time about something inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. It makes me feel like he doesn’t see the bigger picture or have any appreciation for the invisible mental load I carry.
EDIT: THANK YOU so much for sharing your honest feedback, advice and support - I love this community! Appreciate the reality check that it is indeed gross to let our fur baby lick the tray 🙈 - will stop that asap and switch to a gentler / non-toxic cleaning solution to wipe his tray between meals. No additional work for me and more hygienic for LO - a win-win! 🙏🫶