Rite of Passage

Someone please tell me, is it a rite of passage for three year olds to experiment with shoving things up there nose??? Why do they do this?

Sara told me today that there was something up her nose. Thinking nothing of it, I told her it was probably a booger and she just needed to blow her nose. Well she kept saying something was up her nose, and suddenly I had flashbacks of her sister at this same age, complaining about her nose. "Sara did you put something in your nose?" she pointed to a piece of Styrofoam on the ground. So into the bedroom we go, where I had her lie down on the bed and looked up her nose with a flashlight, and sure enough there it was....a piece of pink Styrofoam.

We attempted having her blow her nose several times real hard, but that didn't dislodge the stubborn little piece of Styrofoam. She really lodged it up there. There was no way that I was going to pay a doctor $80 to pick it out, so I got tweezers and attempted the procedure myself and succeeded, again while having flashbacks of doing the same thing for her sister when she was this age.

So someone please tell me why do kids do this? Its gross.