What is it with kids these days?

So, a few months ago, we got new neighbors across the street. A single mom with two young daughters. We hardly ever see them.

The street we live on is perpendicular to the playground of an elementary school. It's not a long block, we have probably 14 houses facing each other and then at the west end, there is a house on each side of the street that faces the school. Whatever.  I am usually sitting here on the couch, playing on the computer or watching TV when school gets out. No big.

As with most Mid-western states and towns this time of year, we have snow on the ground. In some places, we have big mounds of the stuff. It has accumulated and been plowed, and blown, and scooped into piles. If you have lived places where it snows, you know that the snow is NOT clean, right?

Here's where my mind is being blown... the littlest girl walks home from the school at the end of the block. As she's walking down the street, I see her reach into the piles of snow at the curb and grab a handfull and start eating it!!!!  I watched her walk into her front yard near some bushes, stomp through the crust that has formed from a couple of days of rain, and grab a handful and put it in her mouth. This happened mere minutes before I started this post. WTH?!?!?!

After our first big snow, I saw her and a friend kicking back on the pile at the end of our drive way, munching away on the snow. I opened the door and said, "You know we have a dog, right? He might've peed on that snow. It's probably not a good idea to be sitting in it or eating it." They just looked at each other, kind of got horrified looks on their faces, dropped the snow in their hands and got off of our snow bank. I shut the door and was laughing. I would have thought that would make them think twice about eating snow from the side of the road. NOT.

I sorta feel I should tell her mom what's going on, but then.... What do you think? Let me know!