Imagine working at an after school program, and one of the children doesn’t like the hand sanitizer that’s provided by the program due to sensory issues.

Would you let her use your hand sanitizer instead, or would you insist that she use the same hand sanitizer as everyone else?

In this story, two coworker disagree about how to handle this exact situation. Let’s hear both of their perspectives.

AITA for wanting to allow a girl to use my hand sanitizer

I know the title sounds weird, so I’ll start by providing some background info.

I (20F) work at an after-school-program and there’s a little girl (7-8 F) who has some sensory issues (hasn’t been diagnosed with anything, so I won’t attempt to here).

One day I was working with her, she started to melt down as my coworker (18F) gave all the kids hand sanitizer due to being averse to the smell and texture.

I let her use mine (the Touchland Watermelon one from Ulta) and she calmed down, so I told her that in the future, she could just ask me to use mine.

Her coworker doesn’t like this arrangement.

Well, today, she asked if she could use my hand sanitizer.

I of course said yes before my coworker said she could just use the school’s.

The girl calmly explained that she didn’t like the smell and texture.

But my coworker told her “I don’t care” and told me not to let her use it because she needed to learn that she couldn’t always get what she wants and it would result in the other kids wanting to use it.

She’s not sure if she’s doing the right thing or not.

To be clear, I would have no issue with the other kids using it and am all for teaching kids that they can’t always get what they want, but I just don’t think this is the time or place to do so.

However, me being neurodivergent could cause me to be biased, so I wanted to get some more neutral perspectives as to whether I was the AH

Is it wrong of her to share her hand sanitizer, or is her coworker making a big deal out of nothing?

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person thinks the coworker sounds mean.

Another person thinks she did the right thing.

Her coworker is really overreacting.

Everyone is on her side.

Tough love isn’t always the answer.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.