My kids go back to school this week. Yay! The only thing I'm hating about it is facing making 4 lunches each day again, which do not include any trace of peanuts.
Many schools, including ours, have banned peanuts/products that have any peanuts due to the number of kids who have allergies related to them.
So that means no peanut butter or Nutella - okay. But also no muesli bars that might have peanuts, nothing that might have been produced on the same line as something that might have had peanuts (this tends to be on the packets), and forget those multi-pack snacks which might have peanuts as an ingredient.
I have two kids who will only eat Nutella or peanut butter on a sandwich. No sandwiches otherwise. I am therefore forced to make up lunch boxes with individually cut up fruits, cheese cubes, crackers and a yoghurt. My kids are the best fed in the whole freaking school! Sure this does them good anyway, but blinking heck. I work full-time myself, and have four children. Once in a while I'd just like to be able to send them to school with a sandwich and therefore be able to make all of them on the weekend and throw them in the freezer, saving me time every single day.
Especially seeing as none of my kids have allergies.
I know for some kids with these allergies, it's a life-threatening condition. And for years now I've gone this extra mile to accommodate them. But you know what? I'm sick of it. I'm wondering how the allergy kids will ever learn what they can and can't eat when they go out in the real world. I'm wondering how they'll cope when they find out that not everyone in the world is going to do whatever they want.
I have a diabetic in my family, but heck, we still have sugar on the table. He just knows not to eat it. Two of my kids have had dental work and have never been allowed sticky foods because of the possibility of removing their dental crowns - they have always, since they started going to birthday parties at the age of 3 or so, handed me their lolly bags to take out possible offending lollies (jelly frogs, etc) before they indulged. They've also told their teachers themselves.
Surely it's time to hand some responsibility back to those who are affected by these issues rather than making society succumb to their every wish.
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3 comments:
Kids these days are losing their immunisation and hence missing the fun factor in their lives. I remember when I was a kid (and i'm only 28) that I used to play in the dirt with all my mates. Never was anyone worried about getting hurt, and even if we were, we'd just get up, brush it off and back to the fun times.
Now, I'm not sure why (most) new parents keep protecting their kids from everything. I agree with you regarding let them make their own choices. I know my folks taught me good stuff, and it's still stuck with me till this day and for a lot longer. Let the kids have fun. Don't buy them a game console or even if parents do, then limit how much they use. Kick them out of the house to play with other kids in the neighborhood for a couple of hours. Keeps the brain active too and makes them a lot more self-aware and make better decisions.
Hey Jo,
I found this difficult to read, from a sense that kids are not allowed to be kids anymore.... It makes me frown... As Ajay said remembering when we were kids, the world was our oyster, we tried whatever we wanted without thought of repercussions...
It's refreshing to see your kids, well the one, realise their own medical boundaries and be conscious of them... Kids with peanut and other allergies can be so flippant with it... Then the parents flip out if something happens... Such is the world I guess... ;)
I empathise with you.
The thing I like the most about what your saying is the importance of teaching self responsibility. After all that is probably the greatest thing that we need to have as adults.
At 15 my daughter was sent to Belgium for three months on exchange to experence all the things of European life. She has told me that there were plenty of oppertunities to eat(experence) peanuts(drugs,sex & adult stuff).
It was 15 years of teaching her self responsability that allowed me to believe that she would be ok to experence life while balancing it with the dangers that come with her personality and life.
She is just fine and now entering adult life I have no concerns for her and I look forward to her carefully nibbling on a few peanuts to see if maybe their not as bad as when she was younger.
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