I feel like at this stage I have to helicopter to some extent due to food allergies. Other kids running around the playground with a bag of peanuts makes me rather anxious to say the least. I try to remind myself that that is the only reason I am doing it, and it is good to be reminded to stay out of his friend conflicts and other such stuff, as the food-police need for helicoptering can over-extend into other areas quite easily.
It is nice to have articles like this to help remind me what the goal is - to raise an independent, problem solving kid, who can cope with the world around him. As much as I whole-mindedly subscribe to it, it can be hard to put it into practice when you are so worried about the safety (for me food allergies) of your child. But if I conscientiously try every day to let him be his own problem solver, he will be better of for it. I think (since I know there are many of us here with food allergy concerns) the combination of having extreme smarts and life-threatening or life-altering diagnosis makes it harder to stand back and let life skills develop on their own. We feel an obligation to aid- to max out their potential. I am sure all parents do. Because when you see such astounding potential, as in gifted children, maybe we take a much too nurturing relationship to that. Maybe our job isn't to nurture their academic skills so much. Maybe that really in the long run is better left to them.
THIS! I know I am a helicopter parent and I so do not like being one but majority of it is because I worry about DS's allergies. It was a big step for me to let him attend public preschool and every day I have to worry and we have had our issues with that. And today, I too another HUGE step when he started his very first ever summer camp through the therapy place we go to. The go far and beyond trying to make all their kids safe (there are more kids with food allergies) and if there is a camp I would trust, THIS one is IT! Yet at the end of the two our camp today when I went to pick him up, his face was covered in hives. I have no idea what he reacted to but even after giving him allergy meds it still hasn't completely disappeared 3 hours later. I so hope this was a one time occurrence and it won't happen again when he goes back on Friday but if it happens again, I know my helicoptering will kick in and I'll want to pull him out and not take any more risk
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Needless to say, I spent those two hours in the waiting room in that same building wanting to be there should anything happen. I was the only mom there the whole time.
