Funny enough, as I write this email, I'm listing to Billie Eilish's Bad Guy. hehe

Overall, it was a pretty decent holiday 'break'. Two of my kids went to the amusement park with my mother in law and I'm so thankful she was able to take them. Buuuut...

It started out with the kids spending the night with grandma which is normally just fine. They hung out in her swim spa, then my daughter hopped out to help with dinner and play card games. My son finally jumped out once dinner was ready to be eaten and this is when things started to go downhill.

Dinner was spaghetti, but we know my son won't eat it, so grandma bought bread and jelly so he could have a PB & J. She pulled out two different peanut butters (crunchy and smooth) and apparently my son forgot what kind he likes, or maybe he was in a rare mood to try something new? He chose crunchy. One bite and it was over.

The texture. He just couldn't get past it, but grandma said he needed to eat it so it wouldn't go to waste. And he tried. Then ran to the bathroom. Grandma felt awful. While grandma and I chatted on the phone, grandpa drove him home to be in his own bed for the night.

I told her multiple times that it was okay. He'll be fine and ready to go to the park the next day (he was and had a blast). She really did feel like a real heel and I reiterated that if it wasn't for the internet and meeting people with similar families, I wouldn't have known half of what I do about his type of issues, either. We were raised to eat the food we choose, to eat the food we are provided. I felt bad that she felt so awful!

Here's where I become the bad guy: Sometimes you have to experience the bad to see the truth.

I'm glad that she finally saw, first-hand, what my husband and I see daily. After being told, in various ways by various people, that the way we parent is encouraging his less-than-desired behaviours or that we are imagining issues, it was nice to have someone see that it's not a parenting-style thing or a delusion.

My view holds true with product safety, if I can be blunt.

We see it often across the internet. Makers cross their arms and ignore the product safety laws because... well, a number of reasons and more. Then they tell other makers they don't have to do it either because of those reasons.

It is obnoxious. And dangerous.

And the 'bad guy' part of me wants them to receive a letter direct from the CPSC so they can see it first-hand. Experience that bad moment to see the truth that these laws do exist and they do include us.

*sigh*

I don't really wish that on anyone. I would never want someone to experience that kind of anxiety, but the thought is always there, you know? Does that really make me the bad guy?

I'm frustrated that the information is not known and incredibly hard to pull together to even try to make sense of it, so I'm glad I fell into it. I'm glad that those who have gone through the process of becoming compliant are generally willing to help and pop a note of warning in for anyone else reading those conversations.

Are you one of those people who says something? If so, thanks for being a voice of reason. If not, don't hesitate to say something, you don't have to be an expert in the matter. Point them to the CPSC website directly [this page in particular] and [this one] and offer up your view of the process! It's so much easier to navigate when you know someone in your shoes has already done it.