Snot and Boogers

Sometimes parenting is a lot of fun. You get to play with your child. You get to see them smile. You get to see them learn new things. You get to hug them. You get to find snot in their hair. You get to find boogers in your hair. You get to find boogers under the table and on their clothes and on the floor and everywhere around the house. Parenting really is one of the best things ever and it’s these joys that make everyone love it.

Before you have kids, you may think that blowing your nose is a pretty routine exercise, and hopefully it is. However, after having kids you may realize that you didn’t know that you could go through so many tissues in a single day. You thought that box would last you the rest of the month? Try again. You’re lucky if it will last you the week when your child has a runny nose - you’ll constantly be using them.

When your child has a runny nose, the boogers will not seem to stop. They’ll just keep running down your child’s face, getting on their clothes, and ending up all over the house. You’ll wipe the nose and two minutes later, you’ll be wiping it again. Young kids don’t blow very well, and so you’re basically just stuck cleaning up their nose the best you can without them blowing for you - it’s a lot of wiping.

As your child grows and learns to blow their nose, the tissues will continue to disappear. Your child will grab one, use it, and then they will throw it away even though it’s barely used. If you’re lucky then your child will be willing to reuse the tissue at least one or two times. Most kids will want to get a new tissue every single time that they need to wipe their nose. They’ll just keep disappearing.

At some age, your child will learn to pick their nose. Then you won’t have a tissue worry on your hands but a booger eating issue on your hands. It’s so much easier to sit and pick at your nose then it is to grab a tissue. Those boogers need to go somewhere and it’s very natural that your child will put them into their mouth. Getting a child out of the habit of picking their nose is hard to do - hopefully you stop it before it starts.

Even if they’re not eating their boogers, they’re likely putting them somewhere. If you have a child that picks their nose then you’re bound to find boogers all over the house - under the table and chairs is the most obvious place you’ll find them. On clothes as well, but that’s not too big a deal since you’ll just wash those. On the couch, carpet, and under seat cushions are a few additional places you can expect to find them.

Once school starts, or if your child is going to daycare, then expect to have even more boogers in your house. Your child is simply going to get sick more often from being around so many other kids, and that means that you’ll constantly be fighting the battle of having a cold with your child (daycare is generally worse in this regard just because the kids are younger). Be ready for all the extra snot coming out year round in this case.

As a parent, you get to deal with plenty of gross things. Snot is just one of those things, and it will likely be more than you’d expect. Enjoy.