Functional Tissues

My family and I have had a recent debate over the severity of grossness that is wiping your baby's nose with your shirtsleeve or whatever other article of clothing is handy. My childless sister claims that nothing could be more disgusting and you should always be prepared, especially if your child has a pre-exisitng condition which would warrant said preparedness. I came to my brother's defense,(whose act of questionable hygiene sparked this heated discussion), citing my most recent validation mantra "you do what you've gotta do", simultaneously acknowledging the situation's gross factor. My sister spent many years in daycare prior to her career as an elementary school teacher, so she does have some experience with snotty noses and other less than pleasant tasks of caring for children. I had to trump that with the previously hated but now embraced mantra of "it's different when it is your own". Now prior to becoming a mother, I felt nothing could be more insulting than to advise an otherwise educated, self sufficient person that they couldn't possibly understand or empathize with what it is like to care for or tend to another human being. Well, it turns out you can't- at least when that human being is your own child and their nose has been running like a drippy faucet all morning and although you have tissues in every room in the house, snot is milliseconds from getting into their mouth and what is available as a functional resource? Your shirtsleeve. Now don't get me wrong- this is coming from a person who cannot clean up dog vomit without gagging and I absolutely HATE to have anything sticky or slimey on my hands. Becoming a mother has taught me to surrender to the grossness of it all. I mean changing diapers is not a pretty job and somtimes, I get stuff on my hands- eww! But, you do what you've gottta do- because you know that you are the vessel by which your baby's well being travels. Even if it is through a river of snot.