during the height of Covid I remember reading an article with advice by someone who lost his sense of smell entirely. it recommended getting to know people who would honestly tell you if you smelled bad; and recommended small children because they tend to be more honest

as someone with a not-always-great sense of smell, i think about this advice often, but it always seems so hilariously impractical. should I birth or adopt some children solely to use them as smell detectors? ask friends and relatives to bring over their kids to smell me every day before I leave the house? What.

but even further: do we actually know that children and adults, in general, even have similar preferences about smells?

I mean I really really doubt it. Have you seen the stuff children are ok with putting in their mouths? Have you seen the utterly insane breadth of different things children accuse of smelling or tasting bad? I would not trust them to be the touch point on whether my coworkers would find my odor offensive, ok.

I’ve laughed uproariously before about the concept of a gourmet cooking show judged by three-year-olds, where five-star chefs get chopped because they included peas and the judge thinks peas are icky

But I think it might be even funnier to see a show about getting your smell judged by children.

“this part of your shirt smells like you spilled tuna salad on it and I love tuna salad. 5 stars”

“your armpit smells like you put that gross white stuff from the plastic stick on it. I’m gonna puke”

yes. Trust them. Always.