Mommies2Cents Vs. The Nut Allergy Nazi
This weekend we attended a birthday party for my daughters best friend. It was held at an indoor bounce house venue and it was on a Saturday afternoon so there were approximately 2,764 obnoxious children in what seemed like a VERY small warehouse. For those of you that don’t know me very well, having to socialize with other moms in a place like this is pretty close to my worst nightmare. The one and only thing that would make it worse is if all of the kids had mustard smeared across their face.
I’m not very good at “getting in there” when it comes to other people’s kids. Mostly, because I do not subscribe to the “it takes a village” mentality. They are my kids and I will raise them, look out for them, discipline them or whatever. I don’t like other parents stepping in. The other thing is that when I am throwing a party or hosting an event…it’s my event…that means don’t touch it. I’m a control freak and I feel that most people don’t, for lack of a better word, care as much about my details as I do.
All of that being said, I felt like an idiot just sitting in a party room doing nothing. Everyone else is chit chatting, Ansley is playing with her friends and I am just sitting, wishing I had to go pee again so I could leave the room. That is when they decided to serve cake. The teenage girl who was cutting the cake was running out of room to put plates of cake so I decided I would help. I asked if I could pass these out and she seemed very grateful and relieved. So I grabbed two plates and headed over to the kids. I sat the first two plates down and one was immediately shoved back across the table at me by a mother. She was taking to her kid so I assumed that he was in some sort of trouble and his mom would figure out the cake thing. After all, I was just helping to pass it out. If a mom didn’t want her kid to have any that was on her. So I went back to pick up more cake to deliver and brought it back to the table of kids. When I got there the mom who had shoved the cake at me on my last trip said “DO NOT GIVE HIM ANY CAKE! HE HAS A NUT ALLERGY!” I responded with “Oh! I’m sorry I…” and she cut me off “Yeah, just don’t give him any food” she said shaking her head like I was a moron. This is when I looked up and everyone in the party was looking. She had managed to yell at me so loudly that she hushed a 5 year olds birthday party.
I was infuriated to say the least but I went back to my cake duties. This is when things got worse. Almost every adult rushed up to take over the cake passing out duties like I was incapable of doing the task! It was a traffic jam at the cake station so I made sure Ansley had a piece of cake and I left to go find Mr. M2C and Cole who were playing while we “partied”. The mother who was throwing the party came to find me and thank me for helping with the cake. But she seemed more questioning than appreciative. Saying “Thank you for helping with the cake…where was I? Talking I guess…”
Socially I think I will always be in a “Damned if I do, Damned if I don’t” situation. If I don’t help, I’m a bitch. If I do help, “I’m in the way”.
Anyway, back to the nut allergy…
If things were that serious, shouldn’t there be a sticker or something? I mean, there were A LOT of people there as well as workers assisting with the party. What happened to me could have happened to anyone there because I refuse to believe everyone in that room but me knew this kid had a nut allergy.
When Cole was a baby he had a severe allergy to dairy. He would turn blue, his breathing would get shallow and he would drift in and out. His pediatrician walked us through things and said she hoped he would outgrow it by the time he was in school. We were lucky and he did eventually outgrow it. But at the time, I wanted to be prepared. I looked for stickers, t-shirts, anything that would let people know not to give him dairy. He wouldn’t have to wear them everyday but if we were going around a lot of people he would have.
Personally, I think this mother likes yelling at people about his allergy. She feels some sense of power from it otherwise she wouldn’t have felt the need to embarrass another mother the way she embarrassed me. I’m respectful enough to deprive my daughter of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch EVERYDAY but she still felt justified in treating me the way she did.
What are your thoughts on allergies? Do you think parents of allergy kids don’t appreciate the sacrifice that other parents make? Have you had a run in with a Nut Allergy Nazi?
