Clean-LEE-ness ( by Rebecca Lee)

Clean-LEE-ness

These days, moms are obsessed with cleanliness. Germs are a big no-no. No one is allowed to touch your baby , Little Johnny carries anti-bacterial lotion with him everywhere he goes and lathers it on after touching every door knob, and Johnny gets his hand washed before/after/during meals. And yet, somehow, Johnny still comes down with the common cold, at least one to four times a month. It got me thinking about the past, and all of the disgusting-germ filled activities that we participated in as kids. Did our parents obsess over cleanliness? Nope! Are we fine? Yep! Did we get sick? Heck yes. Did we build immunity? Yes! We are all functioning (and even successful!) adults now.

A few of the disgusting activities we participated in:

1) BOBBING FOR APPLES. This one always gets me. My teacher used to put apples into a big water bowl, and we each took turns fishing the apples out WITH OUR MOUTHS, from the SAME bowl, trying to get more apples out of the bowl than the other team. Can you imagine how much saliva was in that bowl? When you got sick, did the pediatrician ever think it was from Bobbing for Apples? Did the health department ever come to reprimand Ms. Nancy for playing that game with her second graders? Nope!

2) Sharing lipstick/lip liner. In middle school, my friends and I used to borrow each other’s lipstick/lip liners if we forgot ours at home, or didn’t like our own colors. Noone ever seemed to mind if one of us was sick, had a cold sore, or had chapped lips. We shared anyway. We were okay.

3) Running around the playground barefoot. We had no problem taking off our shoes, running around in the sprinklers, jumping, rolling around on the ground, etc. No one had “water shoes” and no one was afraid of foot fungus. We got through out. Most of us still have feet that didn’t fall off.

4) Double dipping. Nowadays if anyone double dips, they get a lecture. Don’t even THINK about double dipping your food if you want to be invited to the next party or social gathering. We double dipped our nachos into each other’s cheese ALL THE TIME. It brought us closer.

So, let’s try not to obsess over germs. We can’t protect them from everything. We try our best to keep things clean and then they go and take their pacifier out of their brother’s new diaper and put it in their mouth. We could flip out, or we could choose to chill. Let’s just chill.