My good old Mom (now 92) told us kids we had to eat 5 pounds of dirt before we died. So we played outside, dug in the dirt for worms, caught lizards and frogs. And if our cookie fell on the floor we picked it up and ate it anyway.
Later on during my pediatric rotations in medical school, I discovered that the kids with the most obsessive-compulsive, fastidious about cleanliness Mommies, were the same kids that got the most colds, were first to develop the latest flu of the season. And the same kids who were most prone to asthma and other allergic disorders.
So all you clean freaks out there, get over yourselves.
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