Peanut Allergies are Not Funny

I know that. I do.

But when I took Henry to soccer tonight I walked by the lunch tables at the school where he practices and there were two tables upon which the phrase "NUT-FREE TABLE" was written boldy and frequently. There wasn't a better name for that table? Maybe, "SAFE TABLE"? I'm guessing that no one actually thought of the slightly more humiliating "NO-NUTS TABLE" or they would have gone with that.

If you're a 10-year old boy with a peanut allergy do you really need the additional burden of being one of the "No-Nuts"? I keep thinking that some poor kid is risking anaphylaxis everyday just to avoid having to sit at that table. Shrinking into himself in an attempt to disappear when the cafeteria monitor shouts out, "Are all of the NUT-FREE students at the proper table?"

Maybe I'm not giving today's youth the benefit of the doubt. I suppose its possible that kids today are more tolerant of the differences among them and they could be more sympathetic to their peers than were the children of my generation but I don't buy it.

For one thing, I know their parents.

I went to school with them.