• Skip to content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Recent Articles
    • Interviews
  • Uniquely Canadian
    • Canada 150
  • Canadian Blog House
  • Travel
    • Ottawa
    • Prince Edward Island
    • Nova Scotia
    • Florida
    • New York
    • Experiences
  • Recipes
  • Giveaways

Canadian Blog House

Life. Experienced.

  • Reader Favourites
    • Where To Find…
  • Blogger Resources
    • Social Media
    • Top 10 Fun Facts
  • About
    • Media Mentions
    • Product Reviews
    • Giveaway Rules
    • Disclosure Policy
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms Of Service
    • GDPR โ€“ Disclosure & Privacy Policy For EU Citizens
  • Contact
    • Partner With CBH
    • CBH Partnerships
You are here: Home / Favourites / This Is Nuts! Where Has Our Common Sense Gone?

This Is Nuts! Where Has Our Common Sense Gone?

August 26, 2015 by Sandy

ThisIsNuts

If you have a child with a life-threatening allergy to peanuts, you are probably very grateful for schools and summer camps that have instituted a “no peanuts” policy. After all, this type of policy is meant to keep your child safe, right?

X-Man lives with a very severe peanut allergy. While all foods brought into the home for X-Man are checked and rechecked to make sure they don’t contain peanuts, we all still live with a daily fear for what peanut-laced foods X-Man may come into contact with in the “outside” world.

This week, X-Man is attending a day camp at a local recreational facility. It’s an excellent camp, and this will be the 2nd full week of the summer that he has been able to enjoy at this camp.

Like most camps these days, there is a great deal of paperwork to fill out before leaving your child at camp for the first time. One of the pieces of information they need to know is if your child has a peanut allergy.

While the camp X-Man is at is in fact “peanut free”, ย they still needed to know this information. For any child with a peanut allergy, their parents are also required to leave TWO EpiPens with staff at the camp while your child is there. You can never be too safe.

All reasonable, and for parents with children who have severe peanut allergies, a welcome relief to know they take this issue so seriously.

X-Man’s first week of camp went well. He was sent off to camp with his two EpiPens and a “peanut free” packed lunch. There seemed to be no issues, and no calls from the camp.

After his first day back at camp this week, the camp called to advise that only one EpiPen had been sent to camp that day, and that two were required to be sent. We screwed up and forgot to send the second EpiPen, so we promised to make sure a second one was in his bag the next day.

What happened the next day defies any sort of logic – at least in my head.

X-Man’s mother went to pick him up at camp yesterday (two days into this week of camp), and was met by a camp staff member telling her that X-Man’s packed lunch was NOT labelled “peanut free”.

WHAT???

That’s right. X-Man’s mom had sent him off to camp with a lunch box full of food in reusable containers – none of it labelled “peanut free”.

The camp lost me with that comment, but then it gets worse.

Due to the fact that none of X-Man’s lunches for the previous 2 days had been labelled “peanut free”, X-Man told his mother that they were required to place him in the lunch room with all other kids who had come to the camp on those days without their lunches labelled “peanut free”.ย 

So, let me get this straight. The camp has a child in their care with a known severe peanut allergy, for which the camp requires his parents to provide 2 EpiPens to them while he attends the camp, but because his lunch contents are not labelled “peanut free” they make him sit with the other kids who could potentially have peanut-laced foods in their lunch boxes.

That makes total sense. NOT.

Apparently, labeling EVERYTHING in X-Man’s lunchbox was one of the rules of this camp that we had missed seeing in the paperwork provided to us from the camp.

This immediately made me wonder what happened during his first week of camp when all his lunch items were sent to camp WITHOUT being labelled “peanut free”, yet we never received a phone call at that time. Does this mean X-Man spent his whole week eating with kids who “may” have had peanut-laced items in their lunches? *Shudder*

While we all understand the thought process behind this rule they have, WHERE is the common sense in this case? Do they actually think that X-Man’s mother is going to send him off with ANYTHING in his lunch box that may contain even the slightest trace of peanuts?ย Of course she wouldn’t!

My jaw hit the floor when I heard this story last night, and I still haven’t picked it back up.

Rules are in place to protect kids with severe allergies like X-Man, and for that we are all very grateful. Rules like this mean we have to worry just a little bit less when X-Man is away from home.

But we need to bring back some COMMON SENSE people!

We all see evidence of the loss of common sense in our daily lives now. Things like privacy laws, fear of lawsuits, and many other reasons prevent us from looking at a situation for what it is. Instead we just point to the rules and say we have to follow them – with no thought of making an exception when it makes sense to do so.

This lack of common sense is, ironically, common in today’s news headlines, and is rampant on social media.

In most cases, lack of common sense is more of an annoyance than anything. Something to roll our eyeballs at.

In this case, though, the rules put in place to protect children like X-Man, and the lack of common sense, failed to protect X-Man from the very thing the rules were designed to protect him from.

I’m not saying that rules are meant to be broken but, it’s time for all of us to start listening to the old advice that mom used to give us.

“Use your head!”

 

SANDYFONT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oops...
No slides found, please add at least one Slide Template to the choosen language.

Filed Under: Favourites, Health, Kids Tagged With: allergies, EpiPen, Luncbox, Nuts, Peanut Allergy, Peanut Free, rules, Safety, School, School Lunches, Summer Camp

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jenna Em says

    August 26, 2015 at 1:54 pm

    This is insane and so dangerous. If there were any worries, why didn’t they contact you on the very first day of camp before the lunching began? Scary and completely lacking any common sense.

    • Sandy says

      August 26, 2015 at 3:41 pm

      Very good question, Jenna! A simple phone call would have alleviated everything! Thanks for reading ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. Christina says

    August 26, 2015 at 3:19 pm

    Well said Sandy and I will leave it at that:)

    • Sandy says

      August 26, 2015 at 3:46 pm

      Thanks Christina!! ๐Ÿ™‚

  3. Mary says

    August 26, 2015 at 3:30 pm

    that is completely absurd! Where is the logic? How incredibly frustrating to deal with too! Not to mention scary!
    Reminds me of a time I added a gum pack to my eggs and milk purchase at the last second, and the salesgirl gave me my total of $65?? I told her umm I think there’s a mistake, she insisted it was right! I went on to say that eggs, milk and gum do not cost $65…she stared at her till and then insisted it was right. … i told her please use some common sense, logically these 3 items do not cost this much…but I got nowhere and finally left, incredibly frustrated. One example of many…Where has common sense gone?

    • Sandy says

      August 26, 2015 at 3:49 pm

      You are so right, Mary, frustrating and scary all at the same time! Wow…yours is a great example of lack of common sense! I can’t get over that. It’s like if the computer tells me it’s “this” then it must be correct. It’s kind of scary. It’s like we humans are starting to lose the ability to think! Lol…I would have been in the manager’s office if that happened to me. The air would be blue ๐Ÿ˜‰ Thanks for reading and for sharing your story, Mary!

  4. Aimee Geroux says

    August 26, 2015 at 4:07 pm

    Wow I am kind of speechless …. who the heck are these people running this camp? Clearly the kid with a PEANUT allergy is NOT bringing PEANUT filled lunches! ABSURD is an understatement.

    • Sandy says

      August 27, 2015 at 7:10 pm

      Well said Aimee! For them to actually think he may have peanut-laden snacks in his lunchbox is ridiculous, to say the least. Thanks for reading!

  5. Gingermommy says

    August 26, 2015 at 7:13 pm

    We have a few allergy restrictions at our school. My kids are picky so it creates very little options for lunch. But I rather be safe than sorry . I can not imagine the fear of having a child with these allergies

    • Sandy says

      August 28, 2015 at 4:10 pm

      Yes, always better to be safe than sorry, Kim. I can relate to the picky eater problem/peanut free lunches. It’s a tough one! Thanks for stopping by.

  6. Monica says

    August 27, 2015 at 9:59 am

    This is totally ridiculous, come on people, use your common sense. This child, with a severe peanut allergy, was placed in a very dangerous situation, which could very well have been life-threatening! Thank goodness everything turned out okay and he didn’t suffer an anaphylactic reaction.

    • Sandy says

      August 28, 2015 at 4:12 pm

      Thank you Monica! I think that is the worst part…they were trying to protect those with allergies yet, by doing so, exposed X-Man to the very food he was supposed to be protected from. Thank you for stopping by Monica ๐Ÿ™‚

  7. Suzanne Rudge says

    August 27, 2015 at 8:40 pm

    I am totally shuddering along with you Sandy, that is terrible! What in God’s name makes them think X-man’s family would ever put him in danger. I have to wonder if the age of the staff at the camp had anything to do with it….

    • Sandy says

      August 28, 2015 at 4:15 pm

      I know you can totally relate, Suzanne. I’m sure what you’ve said is part of the problem. I think most/all the staff are fairly young. Perhaps they were told that they must stick to all rules, no exceptions. Thanks so much for stopping by!

  8. Sarah at Journeys of The Zoo says

    August 28, 2015 at 3:22 pm

    Glad to hear that nothing happened to X-Man given the “head shaking” logic that was used and that one simple phone call could have likely fixed. Here’s to better days in the future.

    Besos Sarah

    • Sandy says

      August 28, 2015 at 4:16 pm

      Thanks so much, Sarah! We are all just happy nothing happened and that this came to light. Thanks for stopping by!

  9. Dawn says

    August 30, 2015 at 8:56 am

    Ok, I am stunned at the lack of common sense here. This also makes me think of what my dad says… We are all just a number now. Nobody treats you as an individual anymore. This incident could have had fatal results though. It sure doesn’t give you much faith in the staff at the camp now does it.

    • Sandy says

      August 31, 2015 at 9:51 pm

      Definitely made me lose faith in the staff. Made me think…do they even know how to administer an EpiPen? I’m sure they do…but it made me question that. I tend to agree with your dad, Dawn. It’s sad. Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!

  10. Emily Smith @ The Best of this Life says

    September 3, 2015 at 12:05 pm

    I can’t believe they would put a child who has a known allergy with those who actually possibly have nuts in their lunches…in an isolated room. Common!!! So glad that he didn’t run in to any further trouble.

    • Sandy says

      September 4, 2015 at 10:42 am

      Thanks Emily! We are very lucky nothing happened! We just hope that it never happens to another child with a peanut allergy again ๐Ÿ™ Thanks for stopping by!

  11. Brandi says

    September 4, 2015 at 10:26 am

    Oh goodness. That doesn’t make much sense at all. As you know, we know all too well about peanut allergies in our household and it’s truly unreal the types of situation you encounter that make you shake your head and make you shudder at the potential danger they could have been in! ๐Ÿ™

    • Sandy says

      September 4, 2015 at 10:44 am

      Yes, you can definitely understand this situation, eh Brandi? I’m sure this isn’t an isolated incident either. Like you say, we’ve all encountered other similar situations that make you shake your head. Thanks for stopping by, Brandi!

Primary Sidebar

        

Canadian Blog House Newsletter



Protecting What Matters

PARTNERS

Advertise With Canadian Blog House (1)
Got family and friends in Canada?  Give them the gift of an experience.

FRIENDS OF CANADIAN BLOG HOUSE

Advertise With Canadian Blog House (1) Icon3_OMC_125px
Web
Analytics

Footer

DMCA.com Protection Status
Copyright © 2013 - 2022 ยท Canadian Blog House ยท All Rights Reserved
Privacy Policy ยท Revoke Cookies ยท Contact for Data Inquiries
Canadian Beaver Canadian Blog House
  • Home
  • Recent Articles
  • Uniquely Canadian
  • Travel
  • Recipes
  • Reader Favourites
  • Blogger Resources
  • Giveaways
  • About
  • Contact
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on Canadian Blog House. Click "Okay" to agree to our use of anonymous data research, which we use solely to improve this site. Your privacy matters to us!Okay, I'll allow it.NoRead Our Privacy Policy
Revoke Cookies