These parents are killing me

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Community Health, School Health.

So I get an email last night from one of my new K teachers, telling me that one of her students is to have "no dairy products at all, under ANY circumstances", per mom at pick-up yesterday. I of course start panicking, thinking I missed it on the health form. We provide school lunch for all students for free, and have a few with dairy/egg allergies that we order a special egg free/dairy free meal for.

So I just get to work and run to my files and pull our the bright orange sheet that all parents fill out. Allergies? NO. Food sensitivities? NO. OK, so I am feeling like at least my butt is covered. Then I look at the signed health form from physician. Allergies? NO. Hmmmmmm...

I just spoke with mom. She says "Oh, it isn't that she is allergic, it's that I am a vegan and would prefer she not have any dairy products, or any animal products". So I tell her that unfortunately, while our meal service can provide a vegetarian option and an egg free/dairy free option, there is no vegan option. She says no problem, I have been packing her a lunch every day so it is fine. So then I say "And what would you like us to do when a child brings in cake/cupcakes for a birthday celebration"? She says "Oh, then it's fine and she can have one- I don;t want her to feel left out". :banghead: Is it just me that finds this completely ridiculous? This picking and choosing drives me NUTS. If you are going to make a huge stink about your snowflake consuming anything with a drop of dairy, then why is it suddenly OK for her to have cakes and cupcakes????

OK, my daily vent is over.

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Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..

Yes, the parents that pick and choose when their child has allergies. It's like they know they are making our lives miserable.

I had a parent of a kiddo that had a peanut allergy and epi-pen. Per mom (and the doctor form) the student was to have a nut-free table. I let the principal know, who tells me "We don't do nut-free tables". So I let her know who the kid is and she says, "Really?! He comes over to my house all the time to play with my kid and I've fed him peanut butter sandwiches. His mom never told me he had an allergy!"

Well, good to know I guess?

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Community Health, School Health.
Yes, the parents that pick and choose when their child has allergies. It's like they know they are making our lives miserable.

I had a parent of a kiddo that had a peanut allergy and epi-pen. Per mom (and the doctor form) the student was to have a nut-free table. I let the principal know, who tells me "We don't do nut-free tables". So I let her know who the kid is and she says, "Really?! He comes over to my house all the time to play with my kid and I've fed him peanut butter sandwiches. His mom never told me he had an allergy!"

Well, good to know I guess?

:nailbiting:

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Specializes in School Nursing.

Sounds like my student last year who had cold induced urticaria that required an EpiPen. She had to be kept inside during recess if the outside temperature is below 40 degrees. We live in Minnesota so that's several months that this kid had to sit in the main office for part of the day. There was a nature center across the street and the kids would go there several times throughout the year. Well on the day of the field trip during the winter the temperature was below 40 degrees so you would think the student would not be able to go, right? Nope. Mom insisted she be allowed to go. So how is it that being outside for several hours in cold weather is ok but 15 minutes of recess isn't?

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Specializes in NCSN.
This picking and choosing drives me NUTS.

Yup. I have a bunch that are all CRAZY for accommodations during the 504 plan. They come with pages of things we "have to legally provide" because google says so. The meetings take forever.

But then when it comes to socializing with their peers, they are all about ignoring the rules they insisted were needed. The peanut free table is too isolating; everyone loves pizza day at lunch including my dairy free kid; my child has to be indoor for recess, but can go roll around on the grass with me during the eclipse.

If there is a top ten list of frustrating things in a school nurse is life, this in definitely in the top 3

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Good grief.

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Ladies (and Gents, but usually it's ladies...) I have endless admiration for you. I would lose my noodle!!!!!!!

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Sounds like my student last year who had cold induced urticaria that required an EpiPen. She had to be kept inside during recess if the outside temperature is below 40 degrees. We live in Minnesota so that's several months that this kid had to sit in the main office for part of the day. There was a nature center across the street and the kids would go there several times throughout the year. Well on the day of the field trip during the winter the temperature was below 40 degrees so you would think the student would not be able to go, right? Nope. Mom insisted she be allowed to go. So how is it that being outside for several hours in cold weather is ok but 15 minutes of recess isn't?

What was Mom's explanation for that discrepancy?

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Specializes in ICU; Telephone Triage Nurse.

The answer to that question is actually quite simple: parents (or in a hospital setting - the family of a patient) are blissfully unaware of the actual work involved that goes into something they decide as an afterthought, snap decision.

Sadly, "Make it happen" is an attitude some people adopt as their "right" without truly understanding the effort it requires to fulfill this week's whimsical decision. As is often the case when people have no clue, the requests can at times become quite time consuming, and they never once give it a second thought of how they would feel in the same scenario at their own place of employment.

Children aren't the only one's who can be snowflakes - I know quite a few of their adult counterparts too.

Apparently "snowflakism" is actually a predisposing condition genetically passed down as an autosomal dominant trait on the karyogram portion of the DNA strand, which is the cytogenetic basis of certain phenotypes of the snowflake parent.

Because this disorder is autosomally dominant, you don't need two snowflake genetic donors to result in the trait, as the child needs to inherit only one copy of the deleterious allele to manifest snowflakism.

On a positive note, due to the capricious nature of those effected with snowflakism - which is subject to change without warning, these pseudo-dietary restrictions may suddenly vanish without warning once the littler snowflake begins to protest to mom.

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Apparently "snowflakism" is actually a predisposing condition genetically passed down as an autosomal dominant trait on the karyogram portion of the DNA strand, which is the cytogenetic basis of certain phenotypes of the snowflake parent.

Because this disorder is autosomally dominant, you don't need two snowflake genetic donors to result in the trait, as the child needs to inherit only one copy of the deleterious allele to manifest snowflakism.

On a positive note, due to the capricious nature of those effected with snowflakism - which is subject to change without warning, these pseudo-dietary restrictions may suddenly vanish without warning once the littler snowflake begins to protest to mom.

Is there a vaccination? How do we make it a requirement?

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Sounds like my student last year who had cold induced urticaria that required an EpiPen. She had to be kept inside during recess if the outside temperature is below 40 degrees. We live in Minnesota so that's several months that this kid had to sit in the main office for part of the day. There was a nature center across the street and the kids would go there several times throughout the year. Well on the day of the field trip during the winter the temperature was below 40 degrees so you would think the student would not be able to go, right? Nope. Mom insisted she be allowed to go. So how is it that being outside for several hours in cold weather is ok but 15 minutes of recess isn't?

Wouldn't a dr note be required to keep the kid in on those days? Then the dr note would also apply to the nature center excursions. Mom would have no say.

I had a kid with cold uticaria a few years ago and we had the fire alarm go off (burst pipe) when it was -10 degrees out. I was scrambling to figure out a place we could go until the warm fire trucks arrived!

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Specializes in NCSN.
Is there a vaccination? How do we make it a requirement?
:roflmao:
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