Thursday, April 30, 2009

I Have Some Explaining To Do

A lot of you have probably seen this picture floating around the internet or your emails. It's my way of recognizing the swine flu scare for posterity. What I love about this picture is that the kid's mom is probably the one snapping the photo while encouraging her baby to move in for another lick. Sounds like something I would do. (It should be obvious that I'm not a germophobe--unless you have strep. I'm sick of that one.)


After my last post, I have to explain a few things. I agree that finishing my breakfast after #5 slimed it is pretty gross. But here is the actual thought process that I went through: "There's not that much that hit my plate. I'm two seats down from him after all. Plus it was mostly saliva, which isn't that bad. And I've had worse from him and lived."

Now let me explain the incident that was worse. When #5 was an infant, only a week or two old, I was nursing him and noticed a yellow smudge on the back of one of my fingers. I assumed it was sauce from our curry dinner, so I licked it off. It wasn't curry. I realized then that somehow I had gotten some yellow baby poop on my finger when I changed his diaper just before I sat down to feed him, and somehow I had missed that smudge when I washed my hands. I have no idea how it got on the back of my hand, but that's what I licked. My train of thought then: "Gross! At least at his age he probably doesn't have much bacteria built up yet." Incidentally, baby poop tastes a little like earwax.

So there you go. I do wash my hands. I disinfect my counter tops. But I don't freak out about germs. I'm surprised so many people are so worried about the swine flu. Sure it could go pandemic. But so could the common cold. Either way we have meds to treat both. And don't tell me you've never kissed your child only to get a lipful of snot! Let's face it: being a parent is down and dirty work.

5 comments:

Charlotte said...

I'm not a germophobe either. But I did gag a little from the poop story. The worse I ever got was spit up in the mouth.

Oh, and we normally don't worry about all the public hysteria. But this time Peter has had meetings with the state and he is worried. This virus has 4 mutations we've not seen before (so don't have any immunity for). This means the middle age range healthy people are at risk, too. And it will be harder for our bodies to fight it, too. We just made sure we had enough supplies to last a week without leaving the house (not a problem for most LDS) and masks in case things start outbreaking near by.

Debbie Jensen said...

Okay, gross! But my next question is, how exactly do you know what earwax tastes like? :-D

mindy said...

I'm not a germaphobe, either. I would have likely eaten the breakfast, too. :o)

The thing that I wish would come out of these bird/swine flu things is a realization that part of the problem is raising animals in such unnatural concentrations. Keeping thousands of animals living practically on top of each other is a recipe for illnesses mutating and spreading. We'll likely see a bovine flu eventually. The treatment of the animals is inhumane AND unhealthy. I am not overly worried about the swine flu, as I know that worrying won't help, but I think we as a species have brought these sorts of things on ourselves to a large degree.

//soapbox//

Mary said...

Debbie--Glad to see a comment from you! I expected my sister to tease me on knowing what earwax tastes like. When I was little I remember wondering, so I tasted it. It's very distinctly bitter. Truth be told, I tasted a lot of weird stuff when I was little. As an adult, the only weird stuff I try is considered a delicacy in France: escargot, caviar, etc. I bet delicacies started as dares!

Debra said...

You'll get no judgment from me.
: )