Germaphobic Era

Have you noticed the change in how many kids play outside?  I don't see kids outside much anymore.  Probably has a lot to do with TV and video games.  Makes me sad because I would love to hear kids outside in my neighborhood.  When I go places I constantly see parents wiping their kids' hands with sanitizing wipes.  I even see parents follow there kid around with them.  I was reading this article on Yahoo.  6 secrets of kids who rarely get sick.  It's all about constantly washing hands and doing it for at least 30 seconds.  

I'm seeing lots of comments where people are saying how germaphobic parents are getting.  They freak out if their kids play in the dirt or get dirty at all.  I used to spend hours and hours outside getting dirty and would just bathe when I was finished.  Man, how times have changed.  

At the actual Mighty Mud Mania event

I remember one time I made a mud mania in  my back yard and some people were freaking out about it. We let the kids play in the mud and with the hose and some people were saying how dirty that is.  Nooooo... duh.  It's mud.  We have really fun memories from that.  Good way to build up immunities naturally.  By the way, the moms I see that follow their kids around with sanitizing wipes that I know, their kids are sick a lot.  Makes you wonder.... hmmmm...Of course there are times IMPORTANT to wash hands like using the restroom, after using chemicals, before you eat, etc.  The article is a bit overboard.  But hey, to each their own.  You know, we used to get the flu shot and our family would get very, very sick.  One year I almost died from it.  Since not getting the flu shot, we rarely ever get it and when we do, it's very small and we get over quickly.