Over the weekend Olivia was part of a ballet production here in town.
A few days before dress rehearsal a set of production notes were sent out and in those notes was a sentence (in bright red text and all caps) that basically said do not bring any kind of nuts backstage for snacks.
This directive was due to the fact that there are a couple dancers (Olivia included) who are allergic to peanuts and/or tree nuts.
So...the first night of rehearsal I saw at least one dancer eating a peanut butter snack.
Night two of rehearsal one of Liv's friends came running upstairs to tell me there was an open bag of almonds backstage in the dressing room. So...we told the production manager about it and she quickly went downstairs to repeat the NO NUT directive.
My one thought was: SERIOUSLY? And then I thought "Can people just not read"? ... or do they just not care? And I decided it was mostly the latter.
Parents of kids without food allergies see the "don't send nuts" directive and either choose to ignore it or think it only means PEANUTS. Or (again) maybe they're just clueless and don't care.
Over the course of the weekend I had to tell another dancer she couldn't eat a doughnut that was coated in peanuts (!!!!!) and she then threw out TWO MORE doughnuts that were swimming in nuts (WTH?) and then ANOTHER dancer said "Can I eat pistachios? They aren't peanuts."
Um....NO. You can't eat pistachios.
Or peanuts.
Or hazelnuts.
Or Nutella.
Or almonds.
Or walnuts.
Or anything that is a peanut and/or tree nut.
Honestly people - if your child is involved in dance or theater or sports or anything where food might be involved and you get a note sent home that asks you to NOT send in any snacks that contain/might contain peanuts and/or tree nuts please FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING HOLY listen to that request and honor it.
No one is trying to deny your child's God-given right (insert eye roll here) to eat a PB&J or a bag of almonds. We're just simply requesting that it isn't done in close proximity to our kid who could get sick (or even die) from a reaction to said PB&J or bag of almonds.
You think we're kidding?
Watch this video and then reconsider sending those peanut and tree nut snacks.
