I do - but. The main reason I do is because I will* need to use the restroom while I am at the restaurant, and after ordering/before the food arrives is generally the most convenient time. I’m not sure what I would do in an alternate universe where I might be able to have a meal at a restaurant without using the restroom.
Yes, exactly. You have the time, so why not wash up? And , might as well drain the bladder, just in case.
If I’ve gotten groady outside, or feel need for a bio-break (#1 or #2) then yes. Otherwise we’ll often use hand sanitizer before palpating foods at eateries.
Usually not, but obviously if I’ve used the restroom, or if I know my hands are dirty because of something I touched.
Blech, that stuff smells nasty.
Would love to see the poll results if the poll started today. Would have to be wildly different, no?
While I am indeed washing my hands more than before, I have yet to wash my hands before eating at a restaurant. And I’ve eaten in a restaurant at least once every day for the past week.
[I think restaurant bathrooms are generally gross, and I imagine whatever benefit I might get by washing my hands would be offset by the rest of the experience.]
I have no desire to enter a public restroom unless it’s necessary. So many of them are dirty and smelly.
I usually have a couple handi wipes or Wet Ones in my pocket. I wipe my hands before eating.
Soon, the question will be did the food preparers wash their habds before handing the food to your Uber Eats driver… and did she wash her hands?
My parents made us wash our hands before dinner. We washed our hands before lunch in elementary school. Kindergarten had a bathroom attached. After that I recall soap and rinse basins.
I used to work in chemistry labs, so the working assumption was always that my clothes and body were disgusting (despite PPE) unless I’d changed and showered. So hell yes I washed before I ate.
And yes I excuse myself and wash my hands before eating at restaurants. Usually after ordering.
As the survey results indicate, there are apparently two kinds of people: those that wash their hands before eating and those that don’t.
My parents (my father was a pediatrician) never once asked me to wash my hands before a meal. I don’t recall ever doing so at school. I never taught my children to wash their hands before dinner. I thought it was something only TV families did.
Yes … there’s very definitely an interpersonal/cultural component. Basically, if the people in your immediate sphere wash hands before eating during your formative years, you probably will adopt the habit.
Apparently the CDC’s recommendations on when to wash your hands (“before eating” is on the list) don’t mean much to folks. A UK survey found that only 12% of people consistently wash their hands before eating; presumably it’s not much different in the US.
I grew up being taught to wash my hands before eating whenever we ate at home, but for some reason that policy didn’t extend to dining out - even at fast-food establishments, where we ate things like burgers and fries with unwashed hands (memory’s a bit hazy; we may have washed hands before leaving home, but even after that we touched who-knows-what while enroute from our home to the restaurant table - doors, service counters, the table itself, etc.). Sometime early in my adult life I realized that if it made sense to wash hands before eating at home (and according to the CDC, it does), then it made sense to wash hands before eating at a restaurant.
Did you even read the OP? Going to the bathroom wasn’t even mentioned. I selected no; but like most things like this, it isn’t really a yes/no question. Sometimes yes, sometimes no is my answer. It depends on what I was doing prior to eating.
^ Yeah, what I was doing along with other factors: Does the restaurant have a bathroom? Am I eating fried chicken with my hands or a dish exclusively with knife and fork? Did I drive directly from my house or have I been out all day? Lots of factors to consider.