Bear

Max's preschool has a few different bags that each child has a turn to take home sometime during the school year. There's the star bag, where each child fills out a poster with some of their favorite things, adds some photos, and gets to be the line leader for the day. There is the prayer pocket, where a child draws about a special prayer or thought they have. Then there is the Bear bag.

It's a small bear that loves adventures with each child. Inside the bag, he brings a binder that contains pages and pictures of every adventure.

Super cute for the kids to build commonalities. Super fun for the kids to take turns being in charge of something. Super fun for them to document different adventures.

Super fun for me to think about all of the germs this little bear is bringing with him. Super fun that this bag ran alphabetically through preschool, making us the tail end of the line.

"Mom, he gets to sleep with me!" Max exclaims on his first night home.

"Yea!" I say, as my mind immediately develops a master story that we need to build Bear his own bed so he can get in and out at night if he needs to use the bathroom. In all honesty, it just grosses me out thinking every kid has already snuggled and drooled over the little bear.

Fine. Call me paranoid. I avoid buffets because the thought of open food to everyone in the restaurant grosses me out. I love to cue members to wipe their bikes at the end of class. My first thought upon entering any enclosed kid-play facility is "how often does this place get disinfected?" I carry hand sanitizer in my car, in my bag, and know where every wall dispenser is at every "regular" place we go to.

Do my kids still get sick? You betcha. Because kids are kids. And they will do their darnedest to lick their hands, each other, or however else they manage to spread germs from one to another like wildfire.

Do I avoid living? Nope. I think kids should get exposed to germs. I really do think it makes them stronger. And I had great luck with this philosophy until we moved to a new state where other mothers have me almost convinced that we are getting so sick so often because the germs are different than what we are used to.

Either way, I had thoughts of accidentally leaving Bear at an undisclosed location until just before it was time to take him back to preschool. I considered washing him in the washing machine, but then worried Max would have to explain to all of the kids why Bear just didn't look the same.

I settled with wiping him down with a disinfectant wipe, and moved on.

Because, sometimes that's just what you need to do as a parent. Move on, and let your little people experience life.

We read him stories, took him on trips, buckled him in his own seat belt. Kermit even joined in on the fun. And took pics to document.