I love celebrations. I love to celebrate the big things, the seemingly small things and everything in between. I love to get excited for others and I love how coming together with a group of people can help make one person (or a few people) feel really special.
Traditionally people celebrate holidays, birthdays, weddings, new babies, new jobs, retiring – the list really is endless. There are a million reasons to celebrate and there are a million different ways to celebrate. There always seems to be one key factor to any celebration though.
They usually centre around food. Cake, pie, cookies, dinners, lunches, breakfasts.
Lots of food.
When I was growing up I loved parties with cake, pies and cupcakes. I loved being a part of these celebrations. If a child has a birthday, parents bring cupcakes or cookies into the school to share the celebrations with their friends. If the school is celebrating or fundraising it is done with chocolate, bake sales and pizza parties. This is all great for the most part.
Until you have a child who has food issues. Then they are left out of everything.
I would love to see a change in the way we celebrate – especially when it comes to in school, in classroom events. I love that parents want to celebrate their kids birthdays in class – include their friends. However, I feel bad for my kids when the parents surprise the classroom with a batch of homemade or store bought peanut free cupcakes to share – only to have my child the only one who is left out.
Because she can’t eat gluten. She is singled out and will not feel included in the celebration. I am lucky in a way that I was not diagnosed until I was older – and could understand and not feel left out.
So, what would I like to see? I would love for you to consider – if you are wanting to celebrate in the classroom – to bring something outside of a food group to share. Stickers, themed pencils, arts and crafts – not food - so no child feels left out of the celebrations.
| check out today’s post on Being Pregnant Blog: 15 Ridiculously Bad Cakes Celebrating Pregnancy |
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Twitter: itsdilovely
November 3, 2011 at 1:12 pm
This is such a tough one. It breaks my heart when I see the kids who have to sit apart from the other kids when they eat every day, because they have such severe allergies… same goes for kids who can’t eat homemade treats that parents bring in. And it’s such an ingrained custom that I don’t see it changing very easily. One possible suggestion – and maybe you already do this – some parents of gluten-free kids have brought in a little stash of gluten-free treats for their own child(ren), and asked the teacher to give their child one whenever there is a celebration involving food… it’s not the same, but it helps – and most teachers are very willing to do this.
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I think Di’s idea is GREAT but I also think stickers etc are nice too. I really feel for children with allergies and will have the same issue with G-Man as he is allergic to peanuts but I feel that it is another thing that the schools would be taking out, instead of seeing it as a teaching tool. Many schools don’t allow for competitive sports because not everyone can win( you don’t always win in life, that’s life), most schools I know don’t allow celebrations such as Christmas and Easter because it could offend someone….I think we need to start with educating people, celebrating all differences. Children with food allergies, physical disabilities etc will have to live their whole life with these things and as they grow the world will bend less for them so lets help them adapt, give them tools to cope, have things at hand to help them feel included, these are things that eventually they will learn to do for themselves but only by someone modelling it for them and having conversations about it. How I see it is, G-man may not be able to have that treat or chocolate bar or cookie but he will learn why and that he is not being left out for he can have his alternative instead and that makes him even more special not different.
I shared this on FB but I don’t think you take it far enough. Or should I say we could take this argument much farther? With the obesity epidemic and diabetes epidemic in the states, there are many good reasons to rethink food being attached to celebrations. Having celiac disease myself, I understand your position but I think even more people will be enlightened if we reach out and include obesity and diabetes not just allergies and intolerances.