Thursday, April 3, 2008

The Five-Second Rule

A recent study suggested that our society has become so germ phobic that we are actually harming our children. We need exposure to a certain amount of semi-harmless germs to allow our immune systems to effectively build up immunities to fight the bully ones. This is not a problem in my home.

It reminds me of mother stories. With the first child, everything is sterilized. By the third child, the instinct is to pick up the pacifier (or whatever) and blow on it. Then you just plop it back in the child's mouth.

One of my brothers-in-law told a story at the Belle's funeral. It was a homecoming celebration for his return from Vietnam. The Belle made his favorite, banana pudding. Hangdog snuck into it and somehow knocked the bowl to the floor. She scooped it up and picked out the pieces of glass. But when she served it, she warned her son, "Watch out for glass slivers."

I've never gone quite this far. But I did find myself crawling on the bathroom floor last night because I dropped my sinus medication. I found it. I took it.

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