Today is the girls' first school Christmas party and they are really excited about it. I use to be excited when M & R had their school parties but things have really changed regarding what you can and cannot bring in as a treat, making it harder for me to find a snack that all the children can eat.
In the last couple of years it has become more difficult for children to enjoy their parties at school because of the food allergies they are out there. I have never heard of food allergies until a few years ago and it just seems that more and more children have them. The Kings cousin has a daughter that has food allergies, and you can't help but feel sorry for her because she cannot eat a lot of the things she loves, however her mother had mentioned to me a while back that there are tons of substitutes out there and although the food is expensive it is what they have to buy in order for their daughter to stay healthy. I cannot imagine how kids that have food allergies feel. But it still gets me upset because now if I want the girls to take in a snack, I have to buy it first, cut out the ingredients label fill out a school form and send them to the school for approval, this needs to be done 2 weeks before the event. The Principal, the nurse and the teacher have to sign the form and return it to you. A lot of parents are now just buying holiday pencils, holiday plastic cups, erasers and little note books, not to mention this stuff adds up pretty quick too. You are spending more money on these little things when you can buy a whole tray of cupcakes for less. So needless to say the girls are upset that they are not taking anything to pass out, but I can't see myself spending money on dinky little things especially since I am not working. Besides if the majority of the parents are buying these things all the kids should be getting a head start on their school supplies for next year. I do hope though that for the sake of the kids that one day down the road there is a cure for food allergies, I hear that a lot of kids have it so bad that they can actually die. Here I am ranting about it and I just realized that the people running the school lunch rooms must really hate working in there now seeing that they have to order specific kinds of food to feed the children.