REPOST of the obvious- Summer Body Grooming 101

In honour of the horrendously overpowering B.O. creeping from beneath the pits of the fat man in the wifebeater shirt in Rogers Video last night, I’m reprinting a portion of yesterdays post regarding basic hygiene.

I hope to God that he somehow, somewhere, he reads it.

I would also like to point out that the words ” my husband”, could, and should be swapped out for Matthew McConaghy in Point Number Four ….  ;  )  Love you, sweetie!  Now,  we are off to drop our little one off at Saturday preschool, and then find a fantastically over-portioned breakfast joint where we can read the paper, drink coffee and eat trans-fatty breakfast foods in relative peace. Days like this are numbered…however, still no sign of #4,who could be coming any minute, despite hiking large hills, running, pokes and verbal pleading.  Good grief. And for those who haven’t really thought about it , and wonder why women occasionally have little patience at this point- it’s not 9 months of pregnancy, it is actually 10. 40 weeks. Do the math.

Read again, and enjoy.

Summer Body  Grooming 101 ( Dude @&*!@ Get Some Pit- Stick on NOW ! )

A funny thing happened on the way to a meeting yesterday. I’m sitting on the bus, minding my own business, when this big,fat  stinky redneck guy in the requisite wife-beater shirt sits down across from me. I’m looking out the window, but I can sense his eyes on me, and I look over. Sure enough, he’s staring at me. Or, should I say, my belly. I ignore him for a bit, but he keeps staring right at me. So I look over at him again, and give him my ” F-off and die! ” look. His response?

” Gee, your stomachs big.” This from the genius with the 70 inch beer gut. Everyone’s looking now, including the bus driver in his mirror who obviously thinks this guy has signed his own death certificate.

I look right at him with a smirk,gesture towards his sweaty gut and say with relish :  ” I have a fully formed miniature human being inside my body- what’s your excuse?”

He immediately stopped staring, and got off the bus to the continuing snickers and laughs of my fellow passengers and driver.  ; )

Which brings me to my headline today - summer grooming etiquette 101. I cannot believe that in this hyper-hygienic and body conscious age that I would even have to go here, but nevertheless- here I am.

Point number one.  How is it that people never seem to know they stink when they sweat? Do they really not know, or simply not care ? Either way, it just shouldn’t be happening. There is nothing -NOTHING- worse than being on a bus or sky train sitting next to someone with rampant B.O. Oh, wait, there is something worse than that- it’s actually having to stand next to someone with rampant B.O. while their arm is in the air holding on to the rail!! God, kill me already.

Please! Please,I’m begging you all, for the love of God, take a shower, put on some pit-stick and smell yourself periodically during the day if you are inclined to sweat. It’s just wrong to put your fellow citizens through that kind of torture. Especially on transit. Which leads right into …

Point number two.  Men in wife-beater shirts with small dead animals under their arms. AKA: excessive pit hair. WRONG WRONG WRONG. All of it wrong. No wife beaters with afro pit hair. Especially when there appears to be little bits of pit stick all balled up in it. Nasty!!!!

Point number three. Women, we are not exempt from courteous grooming. invest 3 dollars and buy a razor, ladies, nothing ruins a look faster than Sasquatch legs. Get it? Bad.Bad Bad. Pits too. Yuck.

Point number four.  The hot weather seems to induce some sort of mental condition where big women think they look like Sports Illustrated bikini models.Why this happens, I’m not sure, but there is actually a study that supports this strange occurrence. No one want to see your muffin top hanging out between your crop shirt and your way too tight jeans or shirt, ever. Really,I’m not joking - unless perhaps you happen to be a chubby chaser. There is nothing wrong with wanting to feel cool and sexy, but open your eyes when you look in the mirror, ok? Don’t traumatize us. Blubber only looks cute on whales. That goes for hairy fat men walking around with their shirts off too. Matthew McConaghy you are not.

Point number five.  Its going to be hot this weekend, and the beaches will be packed. On the assurances of my teenage daughter that this does in fact need to be said, I leave you with this statement.

Pubic hair poking out of the sides of either male or female swimsuit bottoms is just simply…. not tolerable.

How disturbing.

 

 

Breaking news - Supreme Court of Canada has officially lost its mind.

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled the onus is on the Crown to prove youth crimes deserve adult sentences.   The High Court says young people should be presumed to be less morally culpable for their crimes than adults.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/05/16/scoc-onus.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080516.wscoc0516/BNStory/Front/home

At some point, we must all stop making excuses and start holding young offenders accountable. Stiffer penalties will send a clear message that age is not a reason to excuse criminal and violent actions. Read more on my reasoning here:

http://lailayuile.wordpress.com/2007/12/14/michael-levy-attackers-have-varied-and-interesting-history-youth-justice-act-fails-again/ 

Summer grooming etiquette -101 (Dude,@#*! Get some pit-stick on NOW!)

Sun!!! Glorious, glorious sun!

What more could one ask for than to have a long weekend, AND gorgeous weather? How about some anti-perspirant?  More in a moment, but let me get a couple of items out of the way first this morning.

Apparently you can put a price on ‘traumatization’. Victoria teen, Willow Kinloch, was awarded $60,000 in punitive damages in the civil trial she launched after obtaining video of her encounter in a Victoria jail.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/15/bc-tethered-girl-decision.html

Personally, I think this award is a joke. See my previous post  for my full views on this case here: http://lailayuile.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/bits-and-bites-3/

All I can is that it will be interesting to see what good she does with the cash,and she better make it last. You only get one free ride like this in life, so make something out of yourself kiddo.

*********

A funny thing happened on the way to a meeting yesterday. I’m sitting on the bus, minding my own business, when this big,fat  stinky redneck guy in the requisite wife-beater shirt sits down across from me. I’m looking out the window, but I can sense his eyes on me, and I look over. Sure enough, he’s staring at me. Or, should I say, my belly. I ignore him for a bit, but he keeps staring right at me. So I look over at him again, and give him my ” F-off and die! ” look. His response?

” Gee, your stomachs big.” This from the genius with the 70 inch beer gut. Everyone’s looking now, including the bus driver in his mirror who obviously thinks this guy has signed his own death certificate.

I look right at him with a smirk,gesture towards his sweaty gut and say with relish :  ” I have a fully formed miniature human being inside my body- what’s your excuse?”

He immediately stopped staring, and got off the bus to the continuing snickers and laughs of my fellow passengers and driver.  ; )

Which brings me to my headline today - summer grooming etiquette 101. I cannot believe that in this hyper-hygienic and body conscious age that I would even have to go here, but nevertheless- here I am.

Point number one.  How is it that people never seem to know they stink when they sweat? Do they really not know, or simply not care ? Either way, it just shouldn’t be happening. There is nothing -NOTHING- worse than being on a bus or sky train sitting next to someone with rampant B.O. Oh, wait, there is something worse than that- it’s actually having to stand next to someone with rampant B.O. while their arm is in the air holding on to the rail!! God, kill me already.

Please! Please,I’m begging you all, for the love of God, take a shower, put on some pit-stick and smell yourself periodically during the day if you are inclined to sweat. It’s just wrong to put your fellow citizens through that kind of torture. Especially on transit. Which leads right into …

Point number two.  Men in wife-beater shirts with small dead animals under their arms. AKA: excessive pit hair. WRONG WRONG WRONG. All of it wrong. No wife beaters with afro pit hair. Especially when there appears to be little bits of pit stick all balled up in it. Nasty!!!!

Point number three. Women, we are not exempt from courteous grooming. invest 3 dollars and buy a razor, ladies, nothing ruins a look faster than Sasquatch legs. Get it? Bad.Bad Bad. Pits too. Yuck.

Point number four.  The hot weather seems to induce some sort of mental condition where big women think they look like Sports Illustrated bikini models.Why this happens, I’m not sure, but there is actually a study that supports this strange occurrence. No one want to see your muffin top hanging out between your crop shirt and your way too tight jeans or shirt, ever. Really,I’m not joking - unless perhaps you happen to be a chubby chaser. There is nothing wrong with wanting to feel cool and sexy, but open your eyes when you look in the mirror, ok? Don’t traumatize us. Blubber only looks cute on whales. That goes for hairy fat men walking around with their shirts off too. Matthew McConaghy you are not.

Point number five.  Its going to be hot this weekend, and the beaches will be packed. On the assurances of my teenage daughter that this does in fact need to be said, I leave you with this statement.

Pubic hair poking out of the sides of either male or female swimsuit bottoms is just simply…. not tolerable.

How disturbing.

 

Adding slot machines to Newton Bingo Hall is misguided attempt by Mayor & Council to set things right in Newton

I need your help.

Will someone, anyone, please give me an example of an already ailing neighbourhood that actually benefited from expanded gaming facilities right in the midst? Can anyone show me where adding slot machines to an existing bingo hall has actually improved and revitalized the surrounding area?

I’ve written several times about the spiralling degradation of Newton, a residential neighbourhood in Surrey that has been suffering for quite a while.  My most recent article was published as an open letter the the editor of the Surrey Now. http://lailayuile.wordpress.com/2008/04/07/two-sides-to-every-coin-and-every-story/.  My outrage is clear and certainly the recent news that Surrey Mayor and council support Boardwalks efforts to “revitalize” the existing strip mall by expanding the Bingo Hall and adding slot machines didn’t soothe me one bit.

In a 5-3 vote, council approved the continuation of the plan, allowing it to move to the public hearing stage as well as further scrutiny by council. Councillor Linda Hepner  supports the $25million plan whole-heartedly and says she feels comfortable with the bid because it calls for penny slots - pennies and nickels.

????????????????

Time for a little reality check Linda - and for those who also voted to let this go further along.  I bet you don’t get out much in Newton to actually know what the immediate area is like around the mall, do you? Have you ever actually even been in the current facility? Good grief.

How about coming for a walk with me so I can show you first-hand what is at stake. I invite all the councillors along for a little schooling.

Right behind the Mall is a family, subsidized housing complex - a large one.It’s old, run-down, and prostitutes, drug addicts, and children all wander the grounds in”harmony”. It’s not a pretty site. There are also two well-known crack houses right behind the mall area.  There are several lowe3-income apartment buildings.

Within a half block is a closed and abandoned gas station where street people congregate and reside overnight. 

 Two blocks to the south is large homeless shelter, and three well-known low-cost motels where street walkers ply their trade are right across from it.  Two blocks to the north is  a recycling bottle depot, where at night after closing, the local hookers and addicts hang out to socialize

Within three blocks of the current and proposed facility, there are 2 pawn shops. Two

 There are also 3 cheque cashing facilities with extended hours. Within 4 blocks, there is a parole office, 5 pubs and attached cold beer and wine stores,and the extremely dicey Newton Bus Loop.

 I’m told , but have been unable to confirm, that the pharmacy at the local Safeway is the local methadone dispensing facility.

Do you see where I’m going with all this? All of the above businesses and homes are within a short walk of the proposed facility. This is clearly not a neighbourhood where the residents are brimming with hope. One can already see obviously troubled residents in the bingo hall, trying to win it big, spending Lord knows what kind of money they don’t really have to spare.

How can anyone- especially an elected city official - say they honestly feel comfortable because ‘its only penny and nickel slots’ ?

How ?

Do you think for one minute that every down and out bum, addict and hooker isn’t going to be in there plugging those machines with their scrounged up pennies and nickels, hoping to score  a $10 dollar win for their next fix, some food, or a pack of cigarettes?  You’re selling false hope, and nothing more. Its not going to be people with money in this facility, dear mayor and council, its going to be the people who really don’t have it to spare. The people who cant feed themselves or their kids, the people who have already lost all hope and are hoping to hit it big with one more push of the button. Think not River Rock Casino - think the dirty streets ofold Vegas.

You will have to excuse my impertinence , but since when was it councils business to sell false hope in exchange for a better looking facility?  At one time, council fought against slot machines, but yet you seem so willing to host the thought now - whats changed?

Ahhh….. I think I smell money… 10% of all profits from the slots? I hope you plan to spend it all on RCMP, because we are going to need them even more than we do now after slots are installed. You think Joe Blow isn’t going to breaking into even more cars for some change or CD’s he can sell for quick cash? HA!

You are fooling yourself, Linda Hepner, if you truly believe its going to make the neighbourhood better. I think besides the fact that the buildings will undergo cosmetic improvements you don’t have to fund, the profits are obviously the big selling point for Mayor and council - not the reality of what goes on after slots are installed.

If you really want to do something to help save the neighbourhood, how about starting with the basics.

 Order those owners of abandoned buildings to knock them down instead of leaving them as gathering places for crime and drugs. Clean up the streets, and start approving some projects that really will change the entire area for better.You want a thriving community with pride? Show the community you really, truly support them.  Meet with the rental property owners and hold them accountable for their atrocious properties. Low income doesn’t have to mean slum, and it shouldn’t. These residents need help, not slot machines.

Haven’t any of you noticed all the security guards the local businesses have to hire to protect their staff and patrons? Not just one, sometimes two and three.  What does this tell you? We need more policing. We need it badly, in this area.

Boardwalk Entertainment claims to have so much public support, and I bet they do- from all the current bingo players who already use the current facility. The place is busy all the time, and sadly enough, its almost entirely the same people who I speak of above. No money to spare, and yet day in and day out, there they are.

Perhaps we cant force someone into detox who is on drugs, perhaps we cant turn around the life of every street person, but you can prevent this neighbourhood from becoming worse than it already is, for those who actually care and live here.

 Dont provide yet another avenue for petty crime, addiction and hopelessness. For those on council who do not live with the realities of this neighbourhood, please think about this. Real change takes vision, dedication and concentrated effort at sticking to concrete plans. Too bad council doesn’t seem to share the vision I have for Newton, because slot machines are not part of it.

 You might feel good about supporting this proposal now, because you don’t actually live here, or have to deal with the consequences, but what will you do when the revitalization you seek, doesn’t magically appear when those slot machines are installed?

 How will you feel then? Will the percentage of profits you retain from the proceeds allow you to sleep better at night?  I hope you will, because I know I won’t be able to.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/surreyleader/opinion/18465029.html

http://www.canada.com/surreynow/news/story.html?id=e3dbc16e-117a-4d36-b287-3b4ea249546e&k=3316

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/letters/story.html?id=95cb5300-030c-4737-bf4f-b03210727fa0

 

Bits and Bites - Wednesday May 14th,2008

The birds certainly weren’t singing when I woke up this morning and its a safe bet they won’t be all day. Should the little beasts chance opening their noisy beaks to break into song, the sheer volume of rain falling will drown them instantly. That’s La Nina for you. Get used to it.

Todays bits for you really do have some bite. Take for instance, what could be the most accurate statement made in the Braidwood Taser Inquiry to date : Canadian police have been brainwashed.  This comes from Dr. Michael Webster, a top psychologist who works as a crisis negotiation consultant with law enforcement agencies in Canada and the US. He says Canadian law enforcement have fallen for  the propaganda issued by taser manufacturer, Taser International, hook, line and sinker.  http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/13/bc-080513-taser-inquiry-webster.html

No kidding. Webster hit the nail right on the head with this statement. When you are repeatedly told you need something ( be it a taser, tranquilizers, whatever!) long enough, when you are told that it could save your life, and that this is the best alternative to shooting someone, perhaps you start to believe it after a while. Some cops passionately feel the taser is a vital weapon that must be had at their disposal, and where do you think it started ? You can thank Darren Laur for that one.  The reality is that cops survived and performed their jobs  very well for years without the taser, and would continue to do so should it be removed from their arsenal. The only people who truly need tasers are the greedy fat-ass shareholders and employees of Taser International,who’ve been banking on a fat retirement one day.

Condolences to friends and families of the victims in the tragic and bizarre helicopter crash in Cranbrook. It makes me think about how much we take life for granted. I’m sure the young Kenyan student who was walking to post a letter to his family back home never imagined in his wildest dreams that this was how his life would end, in a bizarre twist of fate no one could ever have explained, or predicted.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/14/bc-helicopter-crash-victims-names.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080514.wbcchopper14/BNStory/National/home

So how about this? Take 5 minutes from your busy little life, and put down the crackberry. turn off your pager and phone. Hug your kids. Tell your husband or wife that you love them. Do it now, and do it every day, because you just never know when your time is up. Be thankful.

What the hell is this? Clifford Olsen has a MySpace page? http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=6986394a-cf40-4768-aa23-0ea5628045d4

Whats wrong with this picture? Prison certainly isn’t what it used to be, nor what I think it should be. Minimum security facilities with not even a fence, that hold maximum risk offenders, access to the finer things in life, conjugal visits, etc- take it all away. As they say, commit the crime- you do the time. and how about making it actually feel like some sort of punishment, hmmm?

I found this bite under Yahoo’s “Odd News” , but really, its such a freaking normal occurrence in todays world, there really is nothing unusual about it. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080513/koddities/oddity_tv_driving

So what? This guys watching a DVD while hes driving, he gets pulled over and ticketed - whats so odd about that? Let me tell you what’s wrong with this picture- HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN PAYING ATTENTION TO THE ROAD!!!!  Enough already with multi-tasking drivers- this term wasn’t created for reference to vehicular activities.

 Let me tell you some of the things I’ve seen people do, all while in the act of actually driving a vehicle - not stopped at a light, or while waiting in traffic. Driving. At high speeds.

- eat a giant bowl full of cereal perched on a lap , apply eye makeup, apply full face makeup, curl hair with portable curling iron, watch porn on ceiling mounted DVD player, pluck eyebrows, type on a laptop beside them, shave face and neck, tie a tie, text message, yak on cell phone, remove top, paint toenails, write notes on pad of paper on centre console, read a book, read a map, yada, yada, yada . You get the idea. And people wonder why there are so many accidents every single day….

Ciao everyone, see if you can beat that, and let me know : What is the weirdest thing you’ve seen someone doing while driving ? !

 

 

 

 

What The Hell is Wrong with B.C. ?

Someone accused me of being one of Bill Tielemans hacks once, while I was trying to get to the bottom of a story - I took it to be compliment and an indicator that I was getting very close to the truth.

Bill wrote an excellent article on his site that everyone should read. Please pass this link on to everyone you know who is also concerned about the direction our province is headed.

http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/2008/05/what-hell-is-wrong-with-bc-liberals-do.html

Taser Talk - Too Many Questions, Not Enough Answers.

Here we are, 6 months after the taser- related death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, and still no answers.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/12/taser-inquiry.html

In fact, more questions have arisen regarding the safety of the newest weapon in police officers arsenals, with little resolution on any. Most disturbing- although not surprising- is the continued defense of the safety of the questionable weapon by creator and manufacturer, Taser International. Of course, do they have any other alternative? No. At this point, any admission of any kind of failure to ensure complete and appropriate taser testing would probably result in a class-action lawsuit.

Enough already.The last straw for me was seeing a TV report investigating irregularities in the amount of electricity a taser discharge contained. To be more precise, the report highlighted the fact the every single discharge was different, with an extremely wide variance in electrical charge- some discharges clearly and vastly exceeding the stated discharge amount. 

As if that weren’t bad enough, there is no way for an officer to determine if his taser is working properly, or discharging the “appropriate” electrical charge.  Sounds like a liability to me.

Can you imagine ? Maybe it shoots the right charge once, but four times the proper amount on the next use.  No consistency, no testing method for the officer in charge of the weapon, and therefore, a complete wild card in my eyes. The admission that there is absolutely no way for an officer to know how much electricity will be discharged when he or she uses that weapon, opens the door for all sorts of  new legal liabilities within law enforcement.

Would the public stand for police handguns that unpredictable? What if there was no way to tell if an officers gun was working properly or not, if it might backfire, or release more than one bullet with each pull of the trigger? Do you really think that would be acceptable?

Pull tasers from all police, security and private use , in Canada, until we have some absolutes - some REAL guidelines, more regulated and independent testing, and development of after-market product safety and consistency testing. Right now , there are still too many questions and not enough answers or solutions, and to me , that’s completely unacceptable.

Mothers Day Between Strangers

Sometimes experiences between strangers are powerful and bonding, and remain vivid in the mind long after the reality has passed.

Let me share with you,in a moment, such a chance meeting that occurred this weekend that will bring a smile for many years to come.

Being 9 months pregnant in public feels a bit like being a walking miracle on display . The roundness of my belly is a powerful magnet for other women, young and old, and I love it. Men as well, look at me with curious expressions of either awe or simple happiness.  It is often as if all the hopes and dreams one holds within themselves become transparently visible in their expressions as they wonder at the unseen shape moving about beneath my skin. 

  Although women have been giving birth since time eternal, the magnitude and miracle of carrying an unborn child within my body has no less diminished with the coming of my fourth, and the comments of strangers only add to the excitement. I have heard every old wives tale imaginable for predicting the sex of the child, and am happy to indulge a well-meaning stranger who tells me they can tell the sex of my baby by the way I carry my belly. Apparently, since I am carrying low and completely out front as if a basketball were under my shirt, the old wives tales all say it must be a boy. We don’t know the sex and have chosen to let it remain a surprise, but time and experience have taught me to enjoy the wishes and thoughts passed on by well-meaning strangers.

An encounter with such a good -intentioned stranger on Saturday started as a momentary comment and turned into something special. As we entered to stroll the beach-side promenade in White Rock, an older women called out to me in greeting, and explained that her daughter in law was due June 1st. As I am obviously ready to give birth at a moments notice, she wondered if my due date was close, and an excited conversation ensued when I told her anytime.

She explained that her son and daughter in-law lived on the East Coast, and so although she and her husband had been able to travel to see them a couple of times during the pregnancy, she really missed being able to watch the progress firsthand. This would be their first grandchild, and her excitement and joy at the impending birth were contagiously transparent, although tinged with a bit of sadness of the distance between them. We chatted about babies and birth for a bit, and I could see that she was so enthralled at the movements beneath my belly as she told us about her how happy she was to finally be a grandparent. She didn’t ask, or even hint that she  wished to feel that child moving,and yet I sensed that it was such a loss for her to be missing that simple experience. 

As we chatted about how I was doing, the baby’s bum become apparent right under my ribs, and impulsively I took her hand and gently placed it on my belly, moving it softly over his body so she could feel him/her moving. Tears filled her eyes as she looked at me in amazement, our eyes locking in emotion as we both felt the clear outline of a baby’s bottom wiggling under our hands.

As the moment passed and the baby settled into stillness, she removed her hands and raised them to her face with tears and smiles of such utter happiness, I shall never forget it. This was what she had been missing so dearly, and she told us then that when her son called for Mothers Day, she would tell him that God had already given her her present. Such a simple exchange, and yet so deeply felt by both of us for very different reasons.

We chatted for a bit more, and the meeting kept us smiling for a long time after we parted. Her name is Gail,and she is a chaplain at Peace Arch Hospital. It has been a long time since I met someone whose spirit shines through so brightly in every way and it was a pleasure to see a grandparent so in love with a child who has yet to enter this world. He or she will be blessed. 

Why did this exchange mean so much to me? Although I didn’t share this with Gail, I have not had contact with my mother for years, and this loss is often felt at times like this. For one brief moment, our eyes connected while our joined hands felt the movements of my unborn child beneath my skin, and I had the pride and joy of sharing this with a mother. It did not matter that she wasn’t my mother, because for that moment, it felt as though she were mine. This was not a just a gift for her, but for myself as well.

Thank you Gail, for giving me the Mothers Day gift you had no idea you gave.

 

 

Comedy act targets over-concerned yuppie mummies… and rightly so.

The funny thing about comedians and their acts is that often they take a serious truth and turn it into something we can all laugh about. You can insult almost anyone, and anything, if its delivered in just the right manner.  I recently caught a comedian on CBC whose routine was so funny- and so true- that I’m still thinking about it! The truth is, some of todays parents are doing more harm than good with their ridiculous, ill-conceived and over protective parenting methods.

For example,he touched on the benefits of dirt for your health  - or more succinctly, how modern kids don’t even know what dirt is ! As he pointed out, playgrounds are almost sterile areas in todays societies,and to top it off, behind every little designer clad kid is a well- heeled yuppie mummy with a bottle of Purel alcoholic hand sanitizer. Did you ever wonder how your immune system is developed? Exposure to germs and bacteria!!Your body has to learn to build a defense, and if you kill every germ or bacteria in sight, before your immune system learns how to handle it…… Well, lets just say that the poor kids whose mums and dads prevent them from ever coming into contact with any germs are doing way more harm than good.

People!!! Dirt is good, dirt is fun!! Kids NEED dirt!!!

When I grew up, I spent a good deal of time playing in the dirt with my brother, catching frogs and tadpoles in the pond down the street, and generally having what I would consider, normal childhood. We washed our hands before eating - most of the time, but I can guarantee you that I probably ingested more than most kids actually touch nowadays… and I have a distinct memory of my brother daring me to eat a worm.

Needless to say, I didn’t die of some horrible soil-borne pathogen,and I didn’t contract any strange diseases , nor did I get any kind of food-poisoning or intestinal parasites. I did , however, have a hell of a lot of fun, and learned that worms taste kind of gritty when you eat them right out of the garden…

Parents freak out about everything now, and it shows in the products parents by. For every kind of surface a kid might touch, there’s a product to cover it, or a germ killer to sanitize it. Your kids got a cough? Better run to the old doc and get some antibiotics. You might as well raise your kid in a freaking bubble, if that’s the route you are going to go.

Think about it- why are so many illnesses that were previously normal parts of childhood becoming killers? Viruses are mutating and bacteria are getting stronger and more resistant to the remedies we have. We, as a population, have done it to ourselves. Most  of you know I have three kids. My older two had all the normal kid illnesses- chicken pox, colds, occasional flu. A little snotty nose over the winter. Rarely did they ever have antibiotics for anything that I can recall. Hot tea and lemon with honey, Vicks vaporub, and some extra love from mom was the cure for everything.

My youngest one, however, in only three and already has had cellulitis. Cellulitis!  I had never even heard of it before he developed it, but its one of those bacterial infections that has become resistant to certain drugs, and it has returned already once. Great, I think, he’s only three and already he’s run into something that could mean problems down the road.  I place all the blame on these medically resistant bugs on people like those yuppie parents who kill every germ in sight, and run for meds whenever their child gets a fever. I blame the doctors who hand out the meds like they are candy, finding it easier to appease a cranky patients demands rather than refuse to give them something that wont help a bit. We’ve done well at creating a plethora of drug resistant strains of bacteria that are killing people everyday.

Why cant we go back to the way it was? What is everyone so scared of? If there is one thing I could tell a new parent , it would be to relax. Just relax. Let your child enjoy  being a child.  Geesh, when I grew up, we didn’t have bike helmets or knee pads. We didn’t even have seatbelts or car seats- although I do think its great we do have them now. Take your kid to the country, and let him or her dig in the garden. Show them worms and spiders and bugs and anything else that crawls by. Let them eat without sterilizing their hands first.  We didn’t use Purel and if we dropped a cookie on the ground, we would just wipe it off and eat it anyways.

A little dirt never killed anyone, my dad used to say. 

 

 

Too much going on today to post, stay tuned for my regular post tomorrow a.m.