Back to School Insanity

(Warning, this post is half rant and half rambling train of thought. Don’t mind me, its September.)

So I recently had lunch with some friends and colleagues. And the discussion was all about ‘Back to School.’ As a toddler parent I don’t yet have to worry about ‘back to school’. Nothing changes in our routine between August and September. (Except that my job is NUTS in September… so I go a little crazy.)

But when I started hearing some of the ridiculousness of back to school these days, Wow. Just wow. What are we (as a society) nuts?

Speaking of nuts, I will start with the nuts thing. I get that there are kids seriously allergic to nuts. And it is perfectly reasonable for a classroom to stay nut free if there is such a kid. But it seems that the nut free rule is now 100% across the board, regardless if there is a kid with a nut allergy in the class. ??? I don’t know everyone, I have mixed feelings about this.

I get it, I get that peanut allergies are serious stuff. And if my kid had a sever nut allergy I would be pushing for a nut free environment too.  But these kids are not going to be able to live in a bubble forever. Isn’t it better to teach the kid with the allergies how to protect themselves and be careful, rather then have all the other kids parents searching the supermarket for nut free granola bars that are actually healthy?

I realized from talking to a parent who’s kid is going into pre-school, that of course, the healthier versions of granola bars are made by smaller companies and the smaller companies can’t afford to have special ‘nut free’ facilities… so the ‘nut free’ granola bars also tend to be the ones super high in sugar and fat. Awesome. Also, check out this post a while back from Ask Moxie.. re: pre-packaged food being preferred in Daycares over healthy homemade options, because they can know what is in pre-packaged and not in the homemade (I am guessing you can’t guarantee your kitchen is ‘nut free’.) How crazy is that? Discouraging home made healthy food for prepackaged stuff? WTF?

That being said, PHD in Parenting posted an awesome post the other day about a great nut free healthy granola bar recipe. Check it out.

Also, I heard that they are experimenting with a treatment from peanut allergies which involves exposing kids to very very small quantities of peanuts. And I wonder, maybe if they were exposed from a young age to the tiny bit of peanut residue on a table from Sally who had peanut butter on her bagel from breakfast and then put her little un sanitized hands on the table, maybe there would be less kids with peanut allergies. But I don’t know what I am talking about.

Seriously, as if packing lunches isn’t hard enough.

And then there is the obsessive practice of labeling. Apparently you have to label everything. Sometimes twice. Clothing, pencils, glue sticks, hats, mittens, shoes, water bottles. (Do you need to label your kid too?) Why? Kids loose things. They are experts at it. And no label is going to stop that. Is labeling some attempt to stop the spread of germs by insisting that only Johnny use Johnny’s glue stick? Like that’s going to prevent an outbreak of H1N1. What are we so afraid of? And why are we so obsessive (as a society)? What am I missing?

Also. I hear you have to buy everything on a big list of stuff. And it must be the same as every other kids. So they don’t fight over it. Because that’s not a natural part of growing up and learning how to get along or anything. No wonder our kids can’t solve their own problems anymore- we try and avoid as many problems as possible for them until they leave for college. They all have to win and get a prize for everything. They all have to pass every class. They have to have their work graded in blue pen not red, because red is negative.  I don’t know about you, but I want my kid to learn that we don’t all get the same things. And we don’t all get what we want. And sometimes we have to share and sometimes someone won’t share. And sometimes someone does better then us at something. Cest la vive.

And then there is the obsessive sanitization of everything the kids touch. Amber over at Strocel.com wrote a great post about those hand sanitizers today. But really, I hear they sanitize everything. It seems to me that immune systems need practice to be strong. I am all for letting my kid roll in dirt and lick the floor- fight off those germs! I feel like right now we are producing bubble children.

I really hope what I am hearing was exaggerated for effect. Maybe they were reasonably tired of hearing me complain about toddler mid-night wake ups, food battles and temper tantrums and wanted to remind me it isn’t all fun and games as soon as they start school. I don’t know.

But if it is true, I ask, why? Why is school this label focused, supply list, same as everyone else, santized, nut free land of obsession. Like a ridiculous cocoon from real life? Am I missing something? Tell me. Set me straight.