On my mind...

I read Food Allergy Mama, a food allergy blog written by a recipe book author, and mother to an allergic son. Recently she and her son were featured in an article in the Sun Times because her son wanted to go see the Cubs play at Wrigley stadium. They and other allergy moms lobbied and the Cubs organization offered a Skybox where for one game, peanuts would not be allowed. The article featured them and how happy the little boy was to go see his favorite team play without worrying about anaphylaxis.

The article was published and people began commenting. Here are some excerpts:

• selfish people like this is why i bring my own peanuts on airplanes
• I am sorry and no disrespect toward this child and his family, but this story proves the once mighty America has fallen. What is next, no ice cream day for people who are lactose intolerant? We would not want to make lactose intolerant people uncomfortable by seeing people eat ice cream. How about a pollen free day where the grass is ripped up at Wrigley and the team plays on a dirt field?
• That's right lady, smother the boy until you turn him into a girl.
• In all honesty this is ridiculous to have this set aside for these people. It opens up all kinds of special interest groups wanting their day at the ballpark.
  If your allergies are life threatening than you should just stay home. And if they just give you the sniffles you should be ashamed of yourself for demanding special treatment.
• Are peanuts banned everyone this Crazy Mom takes her kid, i.e. Restaurants, Parks, Schools, High School Football Games. Another example of the majority having to cater to the minority. Get a Life!!
• It's the 3rd line of the Frick'in song!!! Buy me some peanuts!! Thanks Joyce Davis, now we change the song too.
• This is ridiculous, not that the cubs are giving up a skybox, that is nice of them, but lobbying for a peanut-free zone. There has been 100+yrs of baseball, I am sure there have been many people with peanut allergies that have found ways to attend games without being engulfed in peanuts. Instead of complaining about it, figure out how to deal with it.
• Next there will be a "Testicle-Free" Zone. "What about those kids who are allergic to tap water?" What about them huh?
  And the "Bubble Boys?" and the "Pasty White Kids Who Can't Stand the Sun?"
• stay home

Obviously some commenters supported the article and the peanut free skybox, but the majority were awful, mean, and ugly.

I read this article on Tia's second day of school, after she and the boys had went to bed. Earlier, I was making lunch for me and the babies when I got a call from Tia's school nurse. She said, "I have Tia in my office here. She has hives, with new ones forming, a flushed face, and a wheezing cough. I have given her Benadryl, and that seems to be helping." Before she could finish, I told her I was on my way, and I drove as fast as I could to her school, a place where she ought to be safe, but isn't completely. I picked her up and brought her home, where she will always be safe.

I have spoken with her teacher about what we could do. On the first day of school, she asked the parents to please try to avoid sending nuts, but she knows there are picky eaters out there, and understands if they can't find anything else. And that was it. Parents were asked, but in the same breath, given liberty to disregard the request. It will always astound me and hurt me to know that they choose to gamble with a child's life in that way, so that they don't have to be put out.

I honestly don't think parents of children with other diseases have such a battle. Why does the health problem my beautiful daughter happens to be given, cause people such a lack of empathy and impudence?

So, I stopped reading the article that night of the second day of Tia's school, shut off my computer, and went into my babies' room, picked up a screaming Luke, and rocked him and cried.

I just don't get it.