When I was seven, my mom married my stepdad, and we all moved in together. That\u2019s when everything changed. My stepbrother, Jake, was allergic to dairy, and my stepsister, Emma, had a seafood allergy. To make things easier for everyone, my mom decided that our home would be \u201ccompletely allergen-free.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first, it didn\u2019t bother me. But as I grew older, I realized how strict it really was. No milk, no cheese, no shrimp, no takeout, and no restaurants that couldn\u2019t guarantee a nut-, shellfish-, and dairy-free menu. We had exactly one restaurant we could go to, and we went there for every birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every year, I asked if we could go somewhere different for mine, and every year, my mom said no. When I protested, she\u2019d say, \u201cSome families can\u2019t afford to eat out at all, but sure, let\u2019s bend over backwards because princess doesn\u2019t like the menu.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the time my sweet sixteen came around, I was sick of it. They booked the same place again, ignoring every hint I dropped. I tried to smile through it, but inside, I was angry and disappointed. My best friend, knowing how much I hated the food, secretly brought me a small box of seafood as a joke and a treat \u2014 just to make me feel seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We ate a little in the parking lot before going inside. I thought no one would notice. But when my stepsister caught a whiff of it later that night, all hell broke loose. She didn\u2019t have a reaction, but my mom went ballistic. She accused me of trying to \u201ckill\u201d my stepsister and said I was selfish and cruel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I tried to explain \u2014 it was just a tiny portion, eaten far from her, and I never brought it into the restaurant or house. But she wouldn\u2019t hear it. My stepdad told me I was \u201ctoo old to act like a brat,\u201d and my mom grounded me for weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That night, on what was supposed to be my sweet sixteen, I sat in my room crying, wondering how my birthday turned into such a disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I didn\u2019t want to hurt anyone \u2014 I just wanted one night to feel normal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was seven, my mom married my stepdad, and we all moved in together. That\u2019s when everything changed. My stepbrother, Jake, was allergic to dairy, and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":243,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10694,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10692\/revisions\/10694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}