Me and Toothpicks

I keep seeing these cool things on Pinterest revolving around food (like marshmallows or grapes) and toothpicks. The idea is for the kids to build structures by using the food as connectors for the toothpicks. I always see it and think 'oh, how fun,' followed shortly by 'but it involves toothpicks...never mind.' See, I have this weird thing about letting my kids (or not) use toothpicks for any reason. They kind of freak me out! When I was a kid, Mom gave us bologna rolled up and held with toothpicks. We thought that was a delicacy, and happily went outside to munch on them, while simultaneously swinging all over our swing set. It seems that we didn't think through the whole scenario, and haphazardly threw our toothpicks in the grass. Do you know what's coming? Oh, yes, I dropped from the swing set and landed with a toothpick at least half way into my foot. It wasn't one of those cheesy splinter-of-a-toothpick ones, rather one of the nice smooth, sturdy ones. It hurt, and I screamed. Mom stuck her head out the window and kindly recommended I pull it out, which would have been nice had it not been lodged half way to China. Let's just say that if my memory serves me, she had to pull it out with pliers. Makes me cringe just thinking about it. Ack! Aren't you glad you read the blog today? ha! So there is my reasoning for not wanted my kids to play with toothpicks. I should probably get over it, because statistically speaking it probably won't happen again, but still...