Monday, February 02, 2009

If anyone from Child Protective Services is reading this, I swear it's not indicative of my ability to care for children...

I made chocolate chip cookies the other night and, of course, one of my favorite parts of the process is where I get to snack on the raw dough. As I did, I started thinking about other types of baked goods that are delicious even in raw form and thought about how fun it would be to let my kids lick the spoon while we baked together.

But then I remembered a blog I read where the writer posted a photo of her kid licking the batter off a spoon and people fah-reaked the heck out. OMG! Salmonella! Your child is going to die!

C'mon, really? Is this something we should be worrying ourselves silly about? You, how many times did you end up in the hospital near death as a child because your mom let you lick the spoon that may or may not had some raw egg residue on it? Oh, that many? Really? Wow.

OK, you're not a good example. Let's take me, for example. It never happened to me. I ate all sorts of things as a kid and did all sorts of things and got (mildly) injured in all sorts of manners (we joke that my parents could only afford to send two of their three kids to college, so it was survival of the fittest to see who survived childhood and got to go). And, eh. 

Let the kids have a little batter, I say. It's not like any of us know anyone who died from it. Oh wait, you do? Three people? Remind me never to use you as an example again.

4 comments:

Sam_I_am said...

I take my chances, cause batter rocks.

sj said...

my father used to tell us that if we had too much frosting, it'd give us worms in our stomach.

never stopped us.

and for years i've licked the bowl. and guess what? despite my predilection to head to the er with numerous injuries - i've never gotten sick from it in my 31 years.

SouthernBelle said...

Pah, I used to eat batter all the time and I turned out fine.

My sister ate half a box of snail bait when she was little, and nothing happened to her except as my dad said, "she shat green for a week".

kk said...

I'm with you – let them eat raw dough.

I used to eat it. And raw potatoes, too, when my mom was peeling them. (Yes, I am weird).

Kids are too sheltered these days...let them get scraped knees and a bellyache!