HI LADY,
Your idea was a very good one. Candy hearts are basically sugar, colouring, and artifical flavour. YES IT WAS A GOOD IDEA!!! Few children have allergies to these things. Strawberries have seeds that are an allergien for many children. Chocolate dips contain seed/nut products and can be contaninated by allergens as well.
Your idea was a traditional one. Haven't we all ooohhh and aahhhed over the messages on the sweet hearts? Haven't we all dared someone to suck on 5 to 10 cinnamon hearts and watched their eyes water???
Perhaps the room mother should have put up a list ??? That is what our day-care, and after-school people do. But just to say that perhaps the error was in the original organization and not with you Lady. The room-mother was not trying to trigger any of your feelings, she just did not explain what she needed before hand.
Lady, is valentines a tough period for you to start with?? I hate christmas because my past comes bubbling up, so maybe this day does stuff for you? Everyone reminds me that I have to do stuff for me at christmas, and leave the past where it belongs... and everything still triggers the negative at the holiday season. So is valentines' a stress point for you?
I hope you can find what has pushed you off the edge of the slide. Is it the room-mother? is it the "season"/holiday? is it the idea of not following a tradition/routein? are you fragile right now?