Believe me, I want what is best for our children, and I certainly want them to be safe in all things they participate in, but I am completely at a loss as to why our school systems are banning peanuts and peanut products. I am extremely aware how some folks, children and adults alike, can have a severe allergic reaction even deadly reaction to peanuts, but why ban this healthy food from the schools? In my opinion, it is a matter of responsibility and accountability. If a child is allergic to anything, you teach that child not to eat the food or be around the product. You don't teach them that the world will stop using or eating the nemesis just because they are unfortunate enough to be allergic to this particular item.
Are we not doing an injustice to the children if we forbid other children from bringing the food around them? What will happen when these youngsters are out in the real world? Will they expect their co-workers and college roommates to forego all items which they may have an allergic reaction to?
I have thought about this in regard to my own children. I am fortunate enough to not have a child who suffers from an allergy of this proportion; however, I do feel as if I did that I would do everything in my power to teach my child how to be responsible enough to not ingest anything which could harm them. I would teach them how to use the (fill in the blank with whatever allergy) and I would insure at every level that the school and caretakers of my child were prepared in the event my child came in contact with the allergen product. I would never, I repeat NEVER, ask other students and children to stop having and bringing to the school things they may enjoy just because my child couldn't be around it. But, it doesn't stop at the schools.
Recently Mars announced how they will no longer sell a Mars bar in Canada with a nut in it. HUGE MISTAKE! Have we now created a society where we no longer can choose as a consumer if we want to eat a candy bar with nuts? Ok folks, I get it. I get the cigarettes and the danger to others and why people complain and we now have bans in regards to smoking. I get the restriction on alcohol and our efforts to prevent children from coming in contact with it until they reach the appropriate age. But, I don't get this peanut and peanut butter ban.
Frankly I think the whole thing is nuts.
My kid loves banana and peanut butter sandwiches, which happens to be very healthy, but he can't have it for lunch. Oh yeah, and now we can't send anything with pits in it to school either. Good grief folks, take responsibility for your child and teach them to stay healthy, not to touch other kid's foods, and know what exactly they are allergic to. And please stop asking the world to accommodate your child . . . God only knows that when they grow up and enter the real world, Joe Public won't be watching out for them!
