One thing I love to do at the end of a long day is sit down and watch my favorite show with a tall glass of milk and a stack of graham crackers.
My 1 1/2 year old daughter often enjoys this little snack with me and loves that she can dip the graham crackers all by herself.
One day I was doing housework and put out some crackers for my daughter to snack on, but didn't bother with the milk.
A few minutes later I noticed she was no longer at the kitchen table.
After looking in a few rooms, I found my daughter in the bathroom dipping her graham crackers, to my horror, in the toilet and eating them.
Obviously I was completely disgusted and decided I better do some research.
At this point I was positive that she would be deathly ill at any moment or be growing some sort of fungus in her mouth.
The information I found after some research made me feel much better about the toilet dipping experience, but worse about the cleaning I had been doing moments earlier.
            According to a study performed by the University of Arizona in 2002, the kitchen sponge harbors the greatest amount of bacteria in the entire household.
While my daughter was drinking toilet water, I was using the dirtiest thing in my house to "clean" my kitchen counter, sink, table, and appliances.
The toilet seat, I found, is 8th on the list but toilet water is almost as clean as drinking water.
I also learned that the desk in my office - which I eat lunch on every day- has 21,000 germs per square inch.
I'm considering eating off the office toilet seat, which harbors only 49 germs per square inch.
It seems as though I had been concerned about the wrong surfaces when it comes to the spread of bacteria.
Although I'm not planning on allowing my daughter to dip her crackers in the toilet, I will definitely start sanitizing the surfaces in my kitchen more often, washing mine and my daughter's hands more, and using paper towels to clean, rather than a dirty sponge.
Sometimes I think I learn more from my daughter than she learns from me.