(An old blogpost...just for fun!) Okay, I’m not exactly a scientist, but I’ve come up with some very compelling, logical excuses for my lack of fortitude in the area of housekeeping. You see, I come from hearty Dutch stock, noted for their extreme cleanliness, but I always seem to fall far short of the ideals my mother drilled into me every Saturday morning of my youth. But now I find that dirt is actually HEALTHY. I reached this conclusion after some research into the causes of Crohn’s disease, which I live with. Crohn’s is in the same family of autoimmune diseases that includes rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. In these cases, antibodies, instead of fighting outside invaders, actually turn on the body and attack it in various ways. The cause of this mutiny is unknown, but I maintain that the little buggers are bored. Let me explain. I fit, exactly, the classic profile of a Crohn’s patient. Typically, we are firstborns, of immaculate housekeepers, from homes with no pets, breastfed only a short time or not at all, and we live in first-world countries. Consider, for a moment, the total lack of germs my body had to fight as a child: with no siblings messing up the place till I was almost three, no dog messing up the place till I was eight, and with mom Cloroxing my messes as quickly as I could make them, my immune system rarely had a job to do. And in America, it simply wasn’t fashionable to nurse a baby, though we now know nursing is a huge immune-booster. In fact, I learned that in third-world countries – where people live over dirt and under thatch, with all varieties of animals coming and going at will, and where they nurse till age two or three – autoimmune diseases are virtually UNHEARD of! So, with my newfound knowledge, I have embarked on a healthy new lifestyle (or rather, I’ve justified my negligence to date). I’ve always had a dog in the house, but now I see all that hair and drool as a beneficial part of our wellness program. I vacuum only enough to keep the dog hair from carrying away our sweaters. I dust every few months. And the kitchen spills, the dirty bathrooms, the soil ground into the tiles by the back door, they’re simply workout opportunities for my kids’ antibodies. Hopefully, this rebellion against my Dutch upbringing will compensate for any genetics my kids inherited from me. And scientific reasoning makes me feel so much better when my mother pops in for a visit.
Also, as my hubby says, "you've never seen a tombstone that says 'She Kept A Clean House'". There are more important things in life than a clean house.
oh, well then, my children ought to be the healthiest people in the world! I do my best to make sure their immune systems get plenty of exercise!!LOL. I may make this my personal mission statement!
" I vacuum only enough to keep the dog hair from carrying away our sweaters." I love this! I am a fairly good housekeeper. I don't, however, think that everything should be sanitized to death. Houses should be lived in and kept neat, but we don't need immaculate houses.
You know, there really is something to this. I have a friend who is germaphobic. She uses hand sanitizer ALL the time, she uses anti-bacterial soaps and bleach on everything. She refuses to touch anything in a public bathroom unless she is holding a paper towel. And her family is ALWAYS sick! My house is FAR from clean most of the time, and aside from the random winter cold, we are never sick. Just goes to show ya!
Love it! I maintain that every child needs to eat a little dirt at least once. Actually, I do think you are onto something there. I don't know specifically about Crohn's, but I HAVE heard that sanitizing everything helps to create resistant strains of germs.
I've several times that farm kids tend to be the healthiest group of kids in America. Fresh air, fresh food, exercize, and germs.
I maintain that every child needs to eat a little dirt at least once. Meghan, we have a five second rule for that. If a cookie/sandwich/etc falls on the floor or in the dirt and we rescue it before a five-count, it's judged clean enough. Wipe it on the jeans and eat it.
Bravo! What a discovery! Now my children would be the happiest kiddos as they got such a strong excuse of escaping the house cleaning sessions. I just hope they don’t see this thread.
