social eating

Often times when we take our kids out for a meal away from home, especially at someone else’s house, where you can’t control what is served….we run into the typical, expected issues.

“Mom, Can I have one of those crackers?”

“Sorry, buddy. Those have gluten in them. I brought you some gluten-free crackers. Let me get them from my purse.” (aka: You get the SPECIAL crackers. Everyone else gets these.)

“Mom? Can I have some of these candies?”

“Let me see if I can ask (whoever) about seeing the label on the package to see if they were made in a factory that handles peanuts or treenuts….” (aka: Lets see how uncomfortable we can make the hostess feel and how much unwanted attention we can draw to ourselves. Lets also hope she didn’t throw away the package.)

Then there is the ultimate horror: a bowl of nuts out with the appetizers.

Of course there is also the issue of rolls or bread at the dinner table & what might be in the casserole, etc….

The bottom line is eating out at someone else’s house can be a completely stressful event. The same can be true for walking into the Church Parish Hall for Coffee Hour (although our church does a fantastic job of always having fruit out). Or going to the Preschool Open House where they serve cookies & juice.

Chris & I are very good at scanning the room whenever we walk into a room with food in it. We will find peanut butter cookies, banana bread with walnuts, coffee cake with cinnamon sprinkled on top, or a bowl of mixed nuts in no time flat. We work like a well-oiled machine, steering the kids away from potentially harmful allergens. We pull out little baggies of safe-food for them to have because what other options do we have? Lets face it. Food is a very social thing. When they have to eat their own “special food” that we brought along, it’s often not about the food at all. It’s more about how they feel left out, not part of the group.

That’s why we were SO grateful this past Friday night when we went to my parent’s house for dinner to celebrate my uncle’s 85th birthday. My Mom did an awesome job at making the kids feel part of the group. She had out safe appetizers that they could eat – but the best part was that there were NO appetizers that they couldn’t eat! She carefully studied the ingredients, making sure nothing had a warning about potential nut contamination, and she even kept all of the packages for me to check out.

Everyone had gluten-free crackers & cheese. She also had out a bunch of fruit. She even had out jelly beans they could eat! I think the most impressive thing was she even had gluten-free dinner rolls on the table for everyone to share – again the most wonderful part being that there was not a basket of gluten-free rolls for the kids & a basket of regular rolls for everyone else — NO – it was for everyone!

For families like ours, that struggle with this type of thing everywhere we go, we were super grateful & the kids were very happy. Thanks, Mom.

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