Did Mommy Eat Detergent?

Before pods, it was a powder. Much messier.

A current bizarre craze among teenagers involves posting videos of themselves biting into packets of laundry detergent on the Internet. It's called the "Tide Pod Challenge."

This bit of news brings several questions to mind: Are these kids mentally ill? If they aren't now, will they be after ingesting poison? Do they have parents? What did their parents do, or not do, during their formative years that might cause such self-destructive behavior all these years later? And finally, can the parents be blamed, or does the fault lie with the omnipresent social media, overwhelming pressure from peers, or just our deviant culture in general?

I have no answers. But I do breathe a sigh of relief daily that my own son, now 30, has navigated the treacherous waters of youth and made it to adulthood without eating laundry detergent or acquiring any body piercings or tattoos, unaddicted to opioids and averse to alcohol. Mostly he engages in wholesome activities like biking and yoga, makes a point of eating well, and aside from smoking cigarettes -- he says he's quitting -- makes me proud.

About those cigarettes: Our son grew up watching both his parents smoke, or rather hide our smoking from him, but children see and know all. I now take full responsibility for my poor role modeling, and although I quit eleven years ago I still feel guilty about it. So, getting back to those detergent pods: what did those kids see and when did they see it?