conundrum

If you are faced with the dilemma of allowing your child to enter a social setting with food from breakfast still stuck on his face or licking your thumb and using it to wipe said food off, which do you choose? On the one hand, your child will spend the morning looking dirty. The teacher will think that you don't even care enough to wipe your child's face off. She'll add that up with the uncombed hair and the pants that are too short and tell herself to keep an eye on the situation. 
On the other hand, wiping saliva on your child's face is gross. His face might appear cleaner but really you've just replaced the crumbs of food with slimy bacteria. It's truly a conundrum. 
This morning I went for option two. I was unbuckling Tru's buckle and realized that he had blueberry juice on the corner of his mouth. I chose for my child to look clean. Truett freaked. You would have thought I cleaned his face with a used diaper wipe. Obviously he prefers option one. I can't really blame him. I remember watching moms do it to their kids and thinking it was gross. But now I have my own kids and all bets are off.