Baby Germs

When I picked Baby up at daycare yesterday afternoon, I found him in his highchair feeding himself diced green grapes. I walked over to him, put my face down close to his tray, pointed to a grape, looked him in the eye, and asked, “Give one to Mama?”

He giggled with delight, grabbed a grape in his chubby little fist, and plopped it into my open mouth. Mommy clapped and cheered, and Baby was thrilled.

He hurried to grab more grapes and plop them into my mouth. As expected, Mommy clapped and Baby was thrilled again. He is a praise addict.

The daycare teacher gasped.

Teacher: "You are a much better mother than I am. I could never let my kids feed me."

Mommy: (feeling instantly guilty and ashamed for some apparent error in judgement)

Mommy: "Why?"

Teacher: "Are you kidding me?!? Their hands are all slobbery and full of germs!"

Mommy: "Oh, I don’t care about that."

What Mommy was really thinking:

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!!!!?

This child pooped on my leg in the moment that he was born, has barfed all over me, has peed on me, has wiped his snotty nose on my shirt, gives me open-mouthed kisses, and I should be worried about the spittle on his fingers when he feeds me a grape?????

I think we missed the really important point that my 10 month old son is willing to share. Not only is he willing to share, but he is willing to share food. I know this is a temporary condition because I’ve heard that toddlers won’t share anything. I will beam in pride at his willingness to share with his Mommy and to hell with the germs.

This makes me wonder how this certain teacher is able to cope with his daily poopy-diaper explosions? Is this teacher a germ-o-phobe or am I too easy-going?

P.S. Daddy would laugh his butt off at the thought of Mommy being easy-going, but that’s another post for another day…