At Idlewild Children’s Center, summertime means sack-lunch-every-Friday time. This will be my first summer packing lunches for Chloe, but I imagine she’ll eat whatever I throw in her (as-yet-unpurchased) lunchbox, assuming she’s in the mood to eat. Connor is a different story. It is
well-documented that he is a picky eater. It is also common knowledge that I finally
gave up that fight. I made the decision to serve him his own meal each night, with a perfunctory offer of whatever the rest of us are eating, followed by a polite “no thank you” and a pleasant meal with no fighting over food. As long as the meal has a fruit, a starch, and a protein, I don’t care if it’s the same thing every night and I don’t care if it’s the same thing I’m eating.
Sending Connor a sack lunch has never proven to be a problem. He has one approved protein source that doesn't need to be cooked and travels well in sandwich form (PB&J), and I can always throw in an apple and some chips. No big deal- at least not in years past. But this year, something happened to throw the whole system into chaos: I received a note from school that says, “Parents- No peanut products are to be brought inside the Center due to severe allergies among some students.”
What? Are you kidding me? I can’t send a PB&J to school with my non-allergic kid because someone, somewhere might be allergic? No. I do not accept this. Peanut allergies have always existed, yes? Well, in 30 years of carrying PB&Js to various public settings, I have never once seen someone have an allergic reaction to what I was eating. Never.
I can understand that there might be a danger if kids are bartering portions of their lunches, the way kids tend to do. But it seems like the simple solution is to instruct the kids not to trade food, and then to have the adults monitoring lunch make sure that the rule is followed. The not-at-all simple solution is to ban all peanut products from the building. I mean, seriously? Who is dictating this? Is it a protective parent? Is it lazy teachers who don’t want to enforce a “no trading” rule? Is it a skittish administrator who is scared she might end up getting sued if the wrong kid eats the wrong sandwich? Ultimately my question is, Why is this MY responsibility?
I’m not asking that rhetorically. I really want to know. Can someone who is a teacher, or the parent of a child with peanut allergies, please tell me what has changed since I was in elementary school that has made PB&Js so dangerous? I’ve
researched it online, and I just don’t buy the whole “peanut particles might get in the air” explanation (see: my 30 years of public PB&J consumption). Give me something I can get on board with- I want to understand.
I'll tell you this: one way or another, I'm going to make sure my kid has something besides apple slices and Cheez-Its for lunch this Friday. I just want to know if it's really necessary for me to pull out
this recipe in order to make that happen.