Fail Mix*

What like, 90% nuts?

Livid.

Can I get a witness from all the death by food-allergy moms out there?  That once you go through the range of emotions from shock and fear and disbelief,  livid is what you are left with when you find out that the teacher who's had your kid for two years in class actually handed out nuts to everyone for snack?  Never mind that there's a lot going on because it's the end of the year, or that she's a new mom.  I don't know how to stress the importance of Emily not dying in school, or even the importance of Emily not needing to be stabbed through her jeans with a giant needle and sent to the hospital.  That's unprofessional just for starters.

But seriously, what the hell?  If nothing else it helped us establish a new rule.  If Emily is ever in a classroom where nuts are handed out to everyone again, she is to run to the office without stopping and refuse to return until everyone washes their hands and the desks are wiped down.  It's not a nut free school, it's not a nut free world!  But in the cafeteria she sits at the "No Nuts" table by choice.  I wouldn't mind if she just made sure not to sit next to people eating PB&Js.  However, surrounded in the classroom, there is no escape!  At Whole Foods if we spend too much time in the bulk bin aisle her eyes start to get red and irritated, and the last time she got a gob of peanut butter on her skin she got hives all the way around it.  People die every year from nut allergies and it's usually from being careless.  It's usually completely preventable.  One of my goals in life is to make absolutely sure that we don't end up in the news as one of those.  I guess that's why some people think we're crazy, why we're labeled as "those parents": Food allergy parents, obsessive, forced into the outer rim of social eating, prone to shaking and tears when the kids react and when they have near misses and don't react because you remember all too clearly when they did.

My least favorite part of this whole situation is that some coward parent talked to the the teacher instead of me after I emailed a gentle reminder to all the parents to not send nuts or nut products to school for snack, (old class policy) and also asked for a heads up when parents send surprise birthday treats for their kids who are apparently more special than the rest of ours.  (I didn't phrase it like that of course.)  We celebrate class birthdays once a month and I always send Emily her own treats so she's not left out.  But some jerk parent always shows up on unapproved days with cupcakes processed near nuts and Emily is always left out and we deal, but it would be nice to know, you know?  This is first grade and they're 6 and it would be nice to hold on to some of the wonder of childhood.  But whatever, now the teacher is miffed because I said ANYTHING in defense of my daughter and she got talked to by some coward parent, God forbid.  It would have been fab if she had not handed out death allergens, is all I'm saying.

Ugh, breathe right?  Thank God Emily didn't have a reaction.  Thank God we have a plan for next time, and there will be a next time.  Thank God I will learn to get a tougher skin and wear my crazy-nut-allergy-parent hat, because this is the world we live in.  It's probably better than the crazy-cat-lady-house-coat anyway...

#sashilyskitchen
#crazynotnuts
#mymarshmallowskickass

*Title by my Mom