Years ago I was in a store with one of my daughters. She was about 4 years old at the time. I had given her a quarter to put into a candy vending machine, like the one pictured here. My kids were always excited to insert the quarter, turn the dial and watch the candy or the gumball shoot out of the dispenser. It was an occasional treat when we were out and about. On this particular trip to the store, my daughter had used the candy machine just before we got in the checkout line. We were standing in line waiting on our turn to pay for purchases in our cart, when my daughter dropped her piece of candy on the floor.
She immediately bent down to pick it up, and I quickly warned, “Don’t put that in your mouth. We have to throw it away.”
She looked up and said, “But, what about the 3 Second Rule?”
I said, “The 3 Second Rule is just for home. We can’t do that here. These floors are dirty.”
She looked at the floor, looked back at me, and asked, “Are the floors at home clean?”
Just then I noticed the woman who was standing behind us in line. She had a bemused expression on her face, and she waited expectantly for my answer.
Let’s step out of the scene for a moment and talk about the 3 Second Rule.
The 3 Second Rule
+ In basketball there is a 3 Second Rule which states that no player on Offense can stand in the painted lane for more than 3 consecutive seconds while their team has control of the ball. This rule was introduced in 1936. In 2001, the NBA introduced a new 3 Second Rule, called illegal defense, which also kept a player on Defense from standing in the painted lane for more than 3 consecutive seconds unless they were actively guarding another player. I found conflicting information online on whether colleges use the newer illegal defense rule, too, so I downloaded the 183-page NCAA Rules of Basketball manual. In it, I didn't find any reference to the defensive 3 Second Rule, so maybe it's only used in the pros. The point of the 3 Second Rule in basketball is to ensure FAIRNESS and to keep players from camping out under the basket.
+ In driving, there is a 3 Second Rule, but it’s less a rule and more of a recommendation. The idea is to keep 3 seconds of space between cars. A driver can identify a fixed object, like a road sign, and watch the car in front pass the object. The driver should be able to count 3 seconds before passing the same object. That allows for 3 seconds of space between the cars, which is considered a safe distance to allow for reacting and braking. The 3 Second Rule in driving is designed for SAFETY on the road.
+ With food, the 3 Second Rule (sometimes it’s the 5 Second Rule) says that dropped food can be quickly picked up before it is contaminated from dirt or germs on the floor. If you drop a piece of food, you call out “3 Second Rule” and immediately pick it up. Then it is ok to eat. Science doesn’t back this up, but families have used the 3 Second Rule for generations. According to an article on businessinsider.com, the 3 Second Rule is “nonsense”. Furthermore, the article discusses slimy materials called “biofilms”, and germs and viruses that come from shoes and pets and other things that touch the floor, and the likelihood that “wet” foods will pick up germs when they touch the floor, and other nasty things about your floors that will make you want to move out of your house as soon as possible. Even so, the 3 Second Rule with food is designed for CONVENIENCE and ECONOMY, so that perfectly good food doesn’t have to be thrown away if it lands on the floor.
Would you pull the 3 Second Rule on any of these dropped foods?
C'mon people-- use your best judgement! I won't hold it against you.
Isn’t it interesting that there are so many different 3 Second Rules? Could there be even more? I wonder...
Anyway, back to our story.
The question my daughter posed lingered in the air, “Are the floors at home clean?”
There in the store I looked at the floor. There was no visible dirt, no germs to detect. I sighed and answered, “No, our floors are dirty, too. But, here, this is everybody else's dirt. At home, that’s OUR dirt. That’s why the 3 Second Rule works at home.”
She looked at me, said, “Oh, OK.”, then gave me the contaminated candy so that I could throw it away.
I glanced at the eavesdropper. She smiled and gave me a “Nailed It!” nod.
Isn’t that just like us? Pointing out the dirt on other floors and being offended by it, all the while ignoring the dirt on our own floors? Somehow thinking "our dirt" isn't as dirty as other people's dirt? We overlook our clutter and mistakes and shortcomings because it’s “our dirt.” But, one little speck of dirt on someone else’s floor? We see it from a mile away. And we tut-tut about how their floors are so dirty. Actually, I can’t speak for you….maybe you don’t do that. I hope you don’t. I could probably learn something from you.
I often wonder why that story about the 3 Second Rule stuck in my mind so strongly. I think, maybe, because I had to explain myself and make sense of one of my sayings that my kids had heard time and time again. My 4-year-old daughter called me out on it, and I had to scramble to figure out how to respond to her. She revealed the fact that my 3 Second Rule made no sense. Only, I talked her out of her revelation. She accepted my explanation, basically, because mom said it, not because it was a reasonable explanation.
Interesting.
I'm not advocating that people should eat off the floor. But, I’m still known to use the 3 Second Rule from time to time, depending on how much I want the food that I just dropped, and how long it’s been since the floor was mopped. Full disclosure: that might not be the only questionable thing you can find me doing.
How about you? Any habits that you would be hard-pressed to justify if a 4-year-old asked you to explain?
LOL, just askin’.