Eat This, Not That...Definitely Not That!

It is a seemingly right of passage for teenagers and kids to do stupid things.  When I was younger, kids were playing the choking game where you would choke yourself until you passed out.  Kids on the East Coast sometimes would go "ice clamper hoppin" which is as dangerous as it sounds.  

You may be asking what the heck  "ice clamper" means.  According to the Urban Dictionary, an Ice Clamper is a Cape Breton slang term for an iceberg.  That literally is the only thing that came up when I Google'd "ice clamper."  An "ice clamper" is kind of similar to an iceberg, but not the same thing.  In the Sydney Harbour, large chunks of broken up ice from the ocean will float into the harbour, and then back out of the harbour, a couple of times before spring.  They are more like thick slabs of sea-ice.  Most are flat on the top.  They aren't really like an iceberg at all.  There is an old wives tale that after the second coming of the clampers, Spring is right around the corner.        

Basically, when the "ice clampers" come into the harbour, some locals (mostly teenagers) will jump from clamper to clamper, hence the "ice clamper hoppin".  They are literally jumping from one chunk of ice to the other, with the cold, dark Atlantic ocean underneath.  Slip off a "clamper" and you are in the icy cold water.  It's super dangerous and there have been lots of people hurt over the years doing this.  KIDS and ADULTS don't jump on ice clampers!!  I feel like I may need to make that last sentence neon and flashing.  It's an awful pastime, don't do it.

The last couple of weeks I started to hear about kids and young adults who have been partaking in the stupidest "challenge" I have ever heard, biting into laundry pods.  At first, I didn't believe that it was possibly true.  Why would anyone in their right mind want to put any type of soap into your mouth?  I almost die when I get a bit of dish soap in my mouth accidentally. Wasn't washing your mouth out with soap a form of punishment in the past?  I am positive that child services would be called if a kid's parents tried to wash their mouth out with soap nowadays, but now they are doing it themselves.

I would like to know who came up with this challenge.  Who out there thought, "Hey I bet it would be fun to bite into a laundry pod that is filled with soap, bleach, softening liquid."  Then who decided it would be fun to video people taking the challenge.  People obviously don't have enough brain cells to understand the gravity of taking part in this challenge.  Do parents not warn their kids about poisonous substances?  PSA: everyone needs to watch this old school Canadian video with your kids.

I used to have a couple of healthy eating book that I loved called "Eat This, Not That" which had suggestions on foods not to eat, and ones to substitute them with to eat healthier.  Watching a video about the "tide pod challenge" by the Prince Edward Island police officer, I got thinking about the "Eat This, Not That" books.  I kind of feel that we need an "Eat This, Not That...Definitely Not That" to give to kids in elementary school.  A couple of pages that come to mind...

It saddens me that as a society as advanced as we have become, that we actually have to have these conversations.  Kids can figure out how to use an ipad at less than a year old, yet we have to tell them not to eat chemical filled laundry pods.

Please please please talk to your kids about eating laundry pods, and the dangers of these "online challenges."

That is all...

Jen