Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This can’t be a true story when 11yos are involved. If true, your friend is way out of line. There are nuts in the world and an 11 yo is old enough to navigate that.
OP here. It is true, but not difficult to understand if you know my friend. She’s very much a helicopter parent and there’s a lot of codependence and micromanaging. Still, she trusted me enough to remember something important, and I blew it.
Gee, do you think she’s micromanaging and helicopter-y because a lot of adults like you have “blown it” and act like it’s a “goof”?
Did helicopter mom tell OP that her house must be entirely nut free in order for her son to be there? That's an impossible standard for a house that isn't already nut free.
That’s not what it’s about. It’s very hard on a kid when a trusted adult or a grandparent/aunt/whomever—who has known about the allergy for years—“goofs.” It makes them feel unsafe with someone they are supposed to trust.
Good god. Please. The world is not responsible for kowtowing to the needs of every kid with an allergy. Really sick of this mentality. This 11 year old needs to toughen up and recognize that it is his job to navigate it. And whining to your helicopter mom is a sure fire way to find yourself uninvited to the next event.
People are so cruel. This is a story of a 11 year old who was served an allergen at the home of a long time family friend.
The boy did nothing wrong. He didn’t eat the allergen and - because he is 11 - told him mother about it as I am sure he has been instructed to do.
The mother flipped out as one can easily imagine. Her kid had a scare at a place she thought was safe. If it was a family she didn’t know well, the content of your response (if not the delivery) might make some sense. But the issue here is she is mad at her friend and lashing out.
The OP made a genuine mistake. No problem. But failing to understand why her friend is upset, and then trying to shift the blame to a 11 year old boy and his mother is where she exposes herself as being unkind.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I think people are missing the candy was in a bag mixed in with some candies with nuts and some without handed out WHILE the kids were watching a movie. That is an easy time for a kid to let their guard down. You are engrossed in a movie you eat a plain chocolate candy think the bag is all plain chocolate and absentmindedly grab another one and eat it not realizing it has nuts.
Agreed. And eleven year old should read labels and have their epi pen etc etc., but they are still very much a kid.
OP made a mistake in that it was a dicey situation that could have easily been avoided. Maybe the other mom could have handled it better, but the OP needs to stop making excuses for herself.
She. Apologized. But the other mother wants a pound of flesh. I'd be done with that mom and kid. Too much trouble, too much entitlement.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This can’t be a true story when 11yos are involved. If true, your friend is way out of line. There are nuts in the world and an 11 yo is old enough to navigate that.
OP here. It is true, but not difficult to understand if you know my friend. She’s very much a helicopter parent and there’s a lot of codependence and micromanaging. Still, she trusted me enough to remember something important, and I blew it.
Gee, do you think she’s micromanaging and helicopter-y because a lot of adults like you have “blown it” and act like it’s a “goof”?
Did helicopter mom tell OP that her house must be entirely nut free in order for her son to be there? That's an impossible standard for a house that isn't already nut free.
That’s not what it’s about. It’s very hard on a kid when a trusted adult or a grandparent/aunt/whomever—who has known about the allergy for years—“goofs.” It makes them feel unsafe with someone they are supposed to trust.
Good god. Please. The world is not responsible for kowtowing to the needs of every kid with an allergy. Really sick of this mentality. This 11 year old needs to toughen up and recognize that it is his job to navigate it. And whining to your helicopter mom is a sure fire way to find yourself uninvited to the next event.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This can’t be a true story when 11yos are involved. If true, your friend is way out of line. There are nuts in the world and an 11 yo is old enough to navigate that.
OP here. It is true, but not difficult to understand if you know my friend. She’s very much a helicopter parent and there’s a lot of codependence and micromanaging. Still, she trusted me enough to remember something important, and I blew it.
Gee, do you think she’s micromanaging and helicopter-y because a lot of adults like you have “blown it” and act like it’s a “goof”?
Did helicopter mom tell OP that her house must be entirely nut free in order for her son to be there? That's an impossible standard for a house that isn't already nut free.
That’s not what it’s about. It’s very hard on a kid when a trusted adult or a grandparent/aunt/whomever—who has known about the allergy for years—“goofs.” It makes them feel unsafe with someone they are supposed to trust.
Anonymous wrote:This can’t be a true story when 11yos are involved. If true, your friend is way out of line. There are nuts in the world and an 11 yo is old enough to navigate that.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have a kid with allergies and I can’t imagine this happening with an 11 year old.
Granted my kid is 5 but he’s had allergies since was an infant, but even he doesn’t get upset when he can’t eat something. Granted, at his age I always remind the parents every time and he knows to announce that he has allergies before he accepts any food from anyone. I just can’t imagine an 11 year not being able to handle this.
Do you have any 11 year olds? This is a little bit like boasting that your 3 year old loves to sweep so you're sure her room will be perfectly clean when she's a teenager.
Keeping a 5 year old with food allergies safe is far easier than keeping an 11 year old. 5 year olds usually go places with their parents, so strategies like "ask your parent before you accept food from anyone" work well. They have one teacher in Kindergarten, as opposed to one for each subject, plus coaches and extracurricular leaders. 5 year olds are also at an age where compliance is at it's peak, unlike 11 when kids are starting to lose their minds due to upcoming puberty and are impulsive, easily embarrassed, and starving all the time.
The risk in the situation was low, but if OP truly forgot, then she just as easily could have forgotten in another situation, and ended up with hidden nuts. It's not hard to believe that the kid who was feeling safe and confident, realized this and ended up feeling scared, and that fear is what mom reported as upset. We had an incident in our family where an adult, who absolutely should have known better, gave a wrapped but not labeled candy with nuts to a nut allergic 12 year old. The child was upset, not because she cared about the candy but because she realized it was a close thing. Your 5 year old isn't developmentally able to put together what might have happened so they wouldn't have reacted the same way.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Stop beating yourself up. This kid is a year away from middle school and probably goes trick or treating without any parents, or soon will. He’s a little old to go home and go crying to a parent over this. At 11, he needs to triple check everything before eating it. And yes, my kid has an allergy too.
Weird, we tell our kids to tell us if they’re uncomfortable. It doesn’t mean he’s “crying”. Near misses aren’t fun for anyone, I wouldn’t want my kid to feel they had to cover up for an adults screwup.
Anonymous wrote:I have a kid with allergies and I can’t imagine this happening with an 11 year old.
Granted my kid is 5 but he’s had allergies since was an infant, but even he doesn’t get upset when he can’t eat something. Granted, at his age I always remind the parents every time and he knows to announce that he has allergies before he accepts any food from anyone. I just can’t imagine an 11 year not being able to handle this.
Anonymous wrote:"The next day I got a nasty text from my friend, wondering why I had served candy with nuts when it was so upsetting to her son."
What exactly did the text say, OP? What you think is nasty and what actually is nasty may be two different things.
Anonymous wrote:Here’s the thing, it would make my kid sad not to have any safe candy when everyone else around them had a treat. But the bigger realization would have been that the person I trusted had a lapse in judgement before they served the candy, then they could have had a lapse in judgment before they made the cake or ordered the pizza. To say “oh well I forgot, but it’s OK because I forgot in a way that didn’t happen to lead to a disaster” is still scary.
Anonymous wrote:So much for it takes a community to raise a child.
Parents of kids with allergies cannot win. If we remind you, we are neurotic, annoying helicopter parents. If we don't, we have failed our kids. Our kids have to always be vigilant, because adults cannot be relied upon.
I wonder how many of you non-allergy parents have made excuses for your 11 year olds forgetting things (blah blah blah, he's still a kid). It's an endless double standard.
I taught my kids a long time ago to check everything or skip when in doubt, because no adults, even well-known ones, can be relied on. Sad, but true.