Strong hygiene habits should be practiced year round. I want to share some of the tricks I’ve used with my kids to maintain their hygiene:

The give me knucks trick
This trick refers to showing your kids to tap knuckles with strangers instead of trying to get them to shake hands. I’m not sure if it’s culturally impolite, but I don’t mind because handshaking is one of the most common ways people casually transmit germs to each other.

Dangerously dirty hands
I’ve taught my kids that whenever their hands have touched something that’s dirty, such as the handle of a trash can, they must treat their hands as if they were dangerous.

Door handle trick
My kids know that they need to do everything possible to avoid touching doors or door handles at such public places like restaurants, malls, banks, and especially, public bathrooms.

Disgusting plane and airport rugs
I teach my kids to never play on airport rug floors’ especially near bathrooms. In case you’ve never noticed, the men’s restrooms in those places always have urine splattered on the floors.  

Hotel bed covers and decorative pillows
Whenever we travel with the kids, we never let them sit or lie down on hotel bed covers or pillows. Our family’s custom is to pull off hotel bed covers and decorative pillows as soon as we get inside our room.