Time magazine- Joel Stein

[SilverLining]

Time magazine- Joel Stein

[ajasfolks2]

Joel Stein's wife's blog/article:

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/my-kids-food-allergy-makes-your-life-hard-2595976

[momma2boys]

 

[AllergyMum]

After reading Joel Stein's wife's blog, I can see why they are married.  Two peas in a pod

[maeve]

I thought the same thing AllergyMom.  I feel bad for their son because I don't get the sense that he has the two stongest advocates for him because his parents still seem somewhat in denial.

[CMdeux]

Maybe.

And maybe they're just fortunate that their son has a pretty high threshold.  <shrug>  The vast majority of people with a PA do, fwiw.

I'd like to offer my personal assistance with Broccoli Dad.   

Other than that-- a recommendation--

the comments following the blog post are rather typically awful.  Darwin, homeschooling, and GMO foods make an all-too-predictable appearance early on...     Can't say you weren't warned.

[YouKnowWho]

Shrug, I thought she was doing her best.  I loved the humorous take on it.  Did I miss something where she didn't say she was advocating for her child?  I enjoyed the humor.

I don't think I ever wished an allergen on his family.  The road sucks.  I think I did wish his fingers would shrivel off so he couldn't write anymore drivel.  Or maybe it was his manhood. 

[catelyn]

Yeah I am peach mom. 

[maeve]

YKW, it was more in her comments to other posters in the comments section.

CM, it could be that the child has a high threshold but I was basing my comment more on this:

"Okay... No peanut butter." I said, "No! No nut butter! All nuts!". My husband, whose fear of being socially ostracized might override his fatherly protective instincts, said, "Um, other kids can have nuts. Our son can be around them.... He just can't eat them." Joel defended the class rights to nuts because he doesn't want to be a party pooper.

This is in a preschool.  While it might be fine for older kids to have nuts around a child with a nut allergy, it's not a good thing among young kiddos and I don't see a parent willing to undermine protections for their child because of social discomfort as being an effective advocate for them.

I also kind of see this as in denial to the risk (at least with younger children) that having nuts in the classroom poses.

We're sorry if you think your nut butters are so important during that half hour of the day. And personally, we'd actually be cool with you bringing your nut butters to school. Laszlo won't have a reaction to it from it's mere presence in the room.

I'm sorry but to me she came across as one of those parents who thinks their child's allergy isn't that bad.  It might not be but you never know what that next reaction is going to be like and it's best to prepare for the worst.

[CMdeux]

Eh.

I think they're still learning.  They're only about a year or so into things, after all.  I daresay that we probably weren't much better at that point in time.

Sure, they still come across as being a little.. er...

"WE are never going to be reactionary and awful over this... not like SOME people..."

But honestly, they are learning that it doesn't even MATTER how 'reasonable' you think you are being-- because people like Broccoli dad are always going to be out there.

Unless you're willing to be so reasonable, of course, that you simply take your inconveniently afflicted child away and shove him or her into a cupboard under a stairwell and make sure that the rest of humanity never has to see or hear about the problem...

well.  Y'all know what I'm getting at.

I'm guessing that in another four or five years, they may well be singing a different tune.  Because she seems to be seething about the same things that we do-- that how no matter HOW much we try to take on for ourselves in the way of responsibility, it's never enough for some people, and the only explanations are that those people really ARE that malevolently ignorant, or that they are irretrievably devoid of any and all compassion for anyone.  I find the fact that she's noticing that and remarking on it so early is a good sign, mostly. 

[Mezzo]

I actually think it's really a good article.

[SweetandSour]

I thought it was funny, and well written. I don't understand though why she is in denial about the allergy? I don't know that if our kids have an allergy that I would push a nut ban, and I have nut allergies to base my choice off of.