5 Second Rule

Yesterday we ate dinner at Sam's Club, pizza for most of us. We were all standing in line ordering and the boys (I say boys because I had 5 of them with me, no other girls involved in this instance) took their pizza and turned to go sit down. Then I heard, "Peter, 5 second rule...you can still eat it."

Now, if you have kids you probably know what this meant, I sure did. I turned around to see my 6 year old getting help picking up his pizza from the cement floor of Sam's club. I had to make a choice.

Said child had specifically picked out that exact piece of pizza with great excitement.
Would eating it after it hit the floor briefly really kill him?
Shouldn't I let him make that choice?

I looked at his wide open eyes and said, "You need to choose what you are going to do."

He paused for just a moment and took the pizza to sit down and eat. I was fine with this, not thrilled, but hey! how big of a deal is it in the grand scheme of things? Apparantly the lady sitting at the table right by the checkout was pretty shocked, I could tell by the look on her face. I wonder if she has boys? Besides, didn't I just read an article that explained how allergies and illnesses are getting more resistant to treatment becuase our kids are exposed to less germs than they used to be and their immune systems are weaker? ;-)