Motherhood

Do you ever have those moments when you think you are going to suck at motherhood?  I do.  Every time I look around my messy house I think my poor kid is going to think cat hair covering everything is the norm. 

And at what point do I graduate from calling my mom for stupid stuff?  Ok, I have a great example but you guys are going to think I'm gross, but I promise I haven't gotten food poisoning yet.  So, on Saturday early afternoon I pull a pound of chicken out of the freezer and set it on the counter.  I totally forget about it until the next morning, and yes, it is still cold.  I put it back in the fridge, but I didn't get around to cooking it up.  Until today.  I pulled it out and it still looked good.  I opened up the package and sniffed vigorously--still smelled good.  I sliced it up to throw in the pan and noticed that it was very sticky.  Tacky even.  I will admit, I debated calling my mom and asking if it was ok.  I knew she would ask about the smell and color and both were ok.  I said a prayer and decided to fix it up anyway (give me a break, I don't have any groceries and I am way too tired to go to the store tonight).  I tasted a bit of it and it tasted fine, but I decided to season it with a packet of Taco season just to be sure.  It's been a couple of hours and I'm still ok. 

My mom always thawed food out on the counter overnight and none of us ever got sick.  As a nurse, pizza would often sit out for over 12 hours and we would still eat it and not get sick.  I'm not saying people shouldn't be careful, but I do think our country has gotten a bit too germophobic in recent years.  Part of the reason we now have these resistant super-bugs is because of our almost maniacal desire to kill every little living bug and we take antibiotics every time we get the sniffles (for the record, sniffles and colds are generally viruses and are NOT sensitive to antibiotics--they are only good for bacteria). 

I am sure I will probably become a freak about the food once my kid comes home, but until then I am giving my immune system a work out and debating whether I should call my mom or not.