Milking It

I had one of those, "I am an awful parent" moments today. Both of my kids had asked for a cup of milk this afternoon, and I quickly obliged. My youngest sucked down half, and my eldest took one sip, and said, "Mom! What is wrong with this milk?" I picked up the cup and smelled it, and it smelled okay, not really bad, but maybe not perfectly normal. My eldest said, "Taste it. You will see what I mean." I said, "I am not tasting it. I believe you if you say it doesn't taste right." I went to the kitchen, and picked up the gallon container of milk to inspect it. I had just purchased it yesterday. Let me tell you now that it was organic milk too, so we are talking $6.00 a gallon for this milk. I looked again at the sell by date and saw my error. The container had the words sell by, with the numbers 10-10 19 under it. Which in my hurry yesterday was what I translated as October 10th. However, to the right, there were more numbers, and these were the actual sell by date. 9-28-08. I was horrified. Never in my life have I had 10 day old milk in my house, let alone actually drank it or given it to someone to drink. Then I began to wonder if milk that old was more problematic than causing just an upset stomach. So I researched it on the internet. Don't EVER research the internet for possible medical problems. By the time I was done, I had read about harmful bacteria that can manifest itself in the milk, etc. I ran to the phone to call the doctor thinking the whole time, "I am an awful parent. I am an awful parent." I was none to happy with the grocery store either, but ultimately I put the blame on myself for not checking the milk date right. I laid out my problem on the phone, and initially the nurse wasn't reassuring either. She said, "Wow, that is really overdue. Let me go talk to the doctor and see what she says." Long story short the doctor thinks my kids will be fine. Anyway, I called the grocery store, and they agreed to refund my money or give me new milk in trade. My eldest had dance lessons near the store tonight, so my youngest and I dropped her off, and started to leave to rectify the milk issue when my youngest announces very loudly to the entire room of waiting moms, "My mom gave me BAD milk today. We have to go get new milk now." I looked down at her and said, "Thanks for that." She innocently said, "Well you did give me bad milk mommy. That wasn't very nice."