>A Recipe for Confusion

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I’ve been begging Hubs to do a television news story on the recent American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation to keep all children under five away from exotic pets. AAP doctors now say that due to the risk of salmonella, small children shouldn’t own turtles, iguanas, snakes, mice, bunnies, or even hamsters- or even be allowed to touch them at zoos.

Huh?!

I mean, that’s a pretty big deal, right? I have several friends who’ve bought their small children gerbils, chinchillas, and even a snake. The highlight of Punky’s zoo class each month is the opportunity to touch hedgehogs, boa constrictors, and madagascar cockroaches (although they do pass out the hand sanitizer afterward). And with Christmas coming up, it’s just a hamster time of year, you know?

Anyway, Hubs finally managed to do the story, even going to the home of one of Punky’s soccer playing, hamster-owning friends to interview her. Little Susan knows Hubs as her soccer coach, but doesn’t really grasp the concept of his day job on television. That led to a hilarious conversation, which her mom told me about later on the phone.

“I told Susan what was going to happen,” she said, “and poor thing, a few minutes later she came downstairs and said, ‘Mom, I’m really confused. So my soccer coach is coming over here to talk to us about Ping… and then he’s going to put it on TV?'”

We both started cracking up. As if four-year-olds don’t already have enough trouble figuring out life without throwing that kind of wrench into things! Anyone with small children can just imagine the gears turning over this word problem.

This post originally appeared on Parents.com.