Kathryn Hecht

I've walked a lot in these shoes today.

These soles have ground into the pavement of downtown Minneapolis, the rubber mats of my car, the linoleum of a gas station bathroom, and the Play-Doh-crusted carpet of a daycare.

Embedded in the tread?

Smear a toddler booger?

Yeah, a little leftover norovirus, maybe?

Maybe if I'm really lucky, a little fleck of dog poop.

Makes you sick just thinking about it, right?

So, yeah, that happened.

And while you may not have tasted what I just tasted, you felt what I felt.

Your sympathetic nervous system activated, increasing your heart rate and tensing your muscles.

Your anterior insula flared, creating a feeling of disgust, a little nausea, a slight gag reflex.

Am I going to get sick now?

I don't know.

But I do know this.

I am so glad you're uncomfortable.

Congratulations, truly, because that discomfort, that is the first essential step to creating confident kids.

And you can trust me on this one.

I make kids uncomfortable for a living.

This week, I had an eight-year-old stab me with a needle twice, took a kid into a basement on a spider safari, and played Uno on the bathroom floor with an understandably reluctant teen.

It's only Wednesday.