Bubble Kids

I was in class today and I overheard a kid in the back of the room talking about the five second rule and how "back in my day we didn't care about the five second rule and we turned out fine."  This led to a class-wide discussion about how a little dirt never hurt anyone and it's true, parents today can be too overprotective of their children.


Of course its a parent's job to protect their children but there is a limit.  It seems back in the day a mother was concerned about her child playing in the street, not because the street was dirty, but because cars made it dangerous.  Gone are the days of "look both ways" and "stranger danger", those days have given way to fear of germs, not physical dangers.  Interesting that ad campaigns are being launched to get kids outside where a matter of years ago that's where a child would prefer to be.


Commercials for disinfectants are perfect examples of this phenomenon.  These ads show children as germ ridden beast crawling with bacteria that must be swiftly eliminated or else all hell will break loose within the home!  Mothers of American!  Run to the store, pick up 30 cans of Lysol and spray your house down to save your family, nay the world from such evils as the common cold!  Protect you children from any and all germs to keep them from illness.  


Never mind the fact that you are only one woman and can only do so much, the outside world is filled with disgusting vermin whom, unlike your child who is germ-free, are the carriers of disease.  Never mind the fact that you are ultimately doing your child a disservice by depriving him the chance to build up that little thing called an immune system that will be bombarded the instant he sets foot outside your front door.  


Does no one else see the problem here?  Does no one else how illogical this is?  While no parent wants to see their child sick, it's for their own good.  Many have lived through a cold or the flu and lived to tell the tale...your child will too!  


So I plead to mothers across the country, please let your child run outside!  Let him or her make mud pies with friends, jump in puddles, ride bikes!  Let them eat dirt, fall down, scrape their knees, even, Heaven forbid, break a bone!  Part of growing up is learning from experience and what experience can a child gain from being cooped up in a house all day?  Children are blessed with amazing little minds and gigantic imaginations-let them enjoy this before it's too late and adulthood is knocking on their door.  Remember back to your childhood, remember coming home covered in mud from head to toe, isn't that a precious childhood memory?  Guess what, you're still here, it didn't kill you, it won't kill your kid either.