 |
| The Crane Game |
During our school vacation I brought my boys to a local arcade. The place that we go to is enormous. They have games, laser tag, a bouncy house, a 3 story playground, and a carousel (just to name a few). To say this place has something for everyone is an understatement. This is the type of establishment you could spend hours at, like we did.
The picture above shows one of the games, The Candy Crane. This used to be one of my favorites, probably because of the huge sweet tooth I have. However, while I was watching my oldest son attempt to win candy I realized just what they put into the game. Peanuts. Sigh... really? Yes, really. There were peanut m&m's and Snickers. At first I just shook my head and shrugged it off. This was obviously not a game I wanted my allergy child to be playing.
We went to the 3 story playground next. He was running around inside playing with some friends he'd made when something occurred to me. What if one of these friends played the candy crane game and put their winnings in their pockets, just like my oldes son did? What if these kids were huddled up inside one of those huge tubes at the top of the playground sharing their winnings? Does my four year old son really understand that he can't take food, even candy, from strangers? Does my four year old have the will power to say no to candy? Sigh. Because our allergy child is anaphylactic to milk that would mean not only are the peanut products hazardous, but so are the Junior Mints, 3 Musketeers, Milky Way, and Hershey bars that were also in that game.
I asked my son to come down from the playground. We went over and over that he cannot take food, especially candy, from anyone. I made him repeat. 'No thank you, I'm allergic' over and over again. I role played with him. Then I let him back into the playground to play as I watched silently convincing myself that he’d be okay.
