The Uses of Liquid Soap
August 9, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
There was no hot water in the shower at the YMCA so Charlie waited till we got home. He has been liking to shower long and leisuredly and has been taking an interest in the soap and in soaping himself (you never know when a “life skill” might emerge………). On a day of 90-degree-plus heat and torrid humidity—-and a tornado in Brooklyn, flooding, and, due to this, a four-hour commute to get from the Newark Airport to the Pulaski Skyway on roads speckled with overheated cars and weary motorists—-swimming and showering struck me as essential for Charlie. (Me, after noting that hot air was coming out of my car’s AC vents this morning, I was feeling glad to sit down in a cool room.) Humidity often makes Charlie wilt and become anxious, plus Wednesday was his last day of summer school, with three more to go before we head to the beach for vacation.
I heard splashing and warbling from the bathroom; Charlie asked me for “people” and I found some plastic people figurines that he used to play with. He gathered them up and ran off.
I heard what I gathered had to be the sink running and went into the bathroom, and slid across the floor. Charlie was in the shower; on the sink counter was an almost-empty mega-size container of liquid soap. The soap was, as I discovered more by my sliding across the linoleum and the pleasant smell, all over much of the floor and the sink and some of the walls. I had seen Charlie pump out too much soap and spread it thin upon the counter and I had to admire the shiney, viscous stuff, soft yet sticky like the vaseline that Charlie has been putting his fingers into. Goo is good—-I remembered Slime, the, well, slimey synthetic gunk that came in its own trash pail and that was the latest toy rage when I was a kid (not that we had any). “Rinse!” I said to Charlie and he obliged, and asked me to open another container of bathroom cleansing products (I said no).
Our bathroom (especially the floor) is now admirably clean, if a bit slick. I have had to walk a bit carefully.
And the sparkle is fine to behold.
Been there. Shampoo.
And soap, ironically, is terrifically hard to clean up, because you can’t use water or it just lathers up your floor.
Oh my, please tread carefully! Don’t want any owies before you go on vacation! (Owies earned whilst vacationing are another matter altogether! LOL)
Been there too. We now use the liquid soap in the foaming dispenser (refill with regular liquid soap mixed with a bit of water). It takes them longer to gather enough of it to make a gooey mess……
Maybe we need one of those dispensers—although there is one in the shower at YMCA and Charlie has been using much of it!
Haha! Awesome post! I could have used some of your “soapy kids” after Jaysen walked all over the floor with peanut butter on his feet (’cuz he saw it on Spongebob as a way to cure a cold). Yeah- that was fun.
I only wonder if I should hide the vaseline……….
Haha! Lola’s done that, too. Her latest was emptying a whole jar of face cream all over her legs, face, hair, you name it. (So creamy and fragrant!) I wouldn’t mind so much, except the stuff is like $20 a pop. It was clinically tested to reduce fine lines and make you appear years younger – wonder what it will do to my 3 yr. old – make her look 1 again?
My boy smeared our corridor wall with a big jar of brand new vaseline, it’s so moisturized that I’ll not find any crack on the wall.
Not yet in our house though I remember doing that myself with shampoo as a child. Boy did I get in trouble. I am impressed with your reaction. Gives me clues to how to act when my kiddos do it…