It is amazes me what people will do sometimes. Can you imagine wanting Easter Eggs bad enough to knock people over and run around like an idiot to get them? That … and the fact that the event was for kids!!
Oh, but don’t worry. My kids played quite a few years of youth sports and believe you me I lost most of my respect for my fellow man after experiencing first hand the shenanigans that go on with out a shred of shame by parents who are, surprisingly, otherwise normal people.
@Hunt - my H and I were involved in our church Easter egg hunt for years too. He and several of the other dads used to leave Mass after Communion to be “egg bouncers” and keep kids from jumping the gun. Our parish is set on several acres of land and it is easy to set aside an area for the smaller ones. That’s never been a problem.
This is not the first time I’ve seen aggressive behavior by parents who think their child should be “first” or “best”. I learned a long tine ago to avoid these events.
As for the attitude, well why but just to go Walmart if your child didn’t get any eggs misses the entire point of the hunt. It’s the joy of participation, and of discovering and picking up the egg on your own, not necessarily to get a chocolate.
The best hunt I’ve seen was for a spring birthday party. The very smart parents had the children pick colors out of a jar. When each child had a color, they told the kids to find the eggs matching that color. Every color matched six plastic eggs. Once a child found all six eggs, she or he could help a friend, if asked, to search. It turned a competitive event into a cooperative activity. I think kids got prizes by order of finishing (so it was a little competitive but not insane). Ages ranged from four to ten.
Count me in as one of the moms that never took my children to these kind of events. There is a rather large Easter egg hunt in our neighboring town which attracts locals and tourists. I read in the paper the other day that 2000 kids were there….on the beach picking up eggs.
I didn’t hear of any bad behavior , but I have seen what obnoxious parents are capable when they want their little darlings to be the winner of this or that.
I never cared for large events with too many participants.
When my daughter was in pre-school , she was invited to a backyard Easter egg hunt with all the little ones from her class. Parents were there , but the hosting mother made it all so laid back that the kids seemed happy to just get what they could without it being a competition .
There is something about that particular party that sticks out in my memories because it really was fun for all of the kids , plus the mother made a nice spread of food for the parents and children
My friend took her son to the White House Eastern Egg Roll about 20 years ago and vowed ‘neveragain.’ Son # 2 never got to go, and I’m sure son #1 one doesn’t remember it.
Slackermom–the attitude of, just go to Walmart and buy eggs and candy, was not directed to the people whose kids were run over and didn’t get any, I believe, but to the louts who knocked over other people’s kids in their need to get stuff at the event.
@SlackerMomMD, I did something similar yesterday with my college-age D, her friend, and my sophomore D. There were 12 eggs, and I put varying ranges of money in the eggs. I told them this beforehand, and suggested they decide before the hunt whether to pool their findings, whether it was finder take all, etc. They decided to pool their egg booty and that each would stop after finding 4 eggs. It was fun for me and for them.
I think it is more fun when it is smaller scale and manageable with family and few friends.
My dd is born in April. When I was expecting her our office had an egg hunt on our office parking lot for the employees. (mostly women in this dept) You can imagine what a sight I must have been ready to have a baby in a few weeks walking around looking for eggs. I didn’t find even one because all my athletic coworkers were moving around faster than I was. It was still fun.
We lived in an apartment when our kids were young, so I hid everything indoors, in the living room. After we moved to a house, we kept that tradition and didn’t have to worry about increment weather, rain, or forgotten plastic eggs with chocolate melting in the sun.
I remember on Easter egg hunt at a hotel we were staying at in HI. The kids were 6 and 1. D1 was very protective of D2, so she was running around trying to find eggs for D2. Then D2 picked up an egg all by herself. She showed it to D1. There was no chocolate or toy inside it, but a piece a paper. D1 was just able to read, she showed it me. It was the grand prize - free dinner at their seafood restaurant for a family of 4. The hotel didn’t tell us there was such a prize. If they did, we may have behaved like those Pez parents.
@oldfort Love your story. It’s not about who gets the most eggs. It is the fun of finding the eggs on your own and opening the plastic eggs to see what’s inside.
I like that idea of NOT advertising what the prizes will be @oldfort . The big crowd drawing egg hunt in our local resort town is probably what brings so many people. I know they do it to attract families to the local businesses who have been pretty much dormant for several months , but that doesn’t actually mean people looking for the freebies are going to shop in the stores .
Our business used to participate , but thankfully, the organizers have stopped hitting us up.
I am now curious if this event gets crazy with 2000 kids , and the parents there at the same time
During Passover, Jewish kids hunt for the affecomen, a piece of matzah wrapped up in a napkin. Uncle N would give every child $1.00 I noticed that his 2 kids always found the prize. He clearly saw where the matzah was hidden, and gave his kids the clues. I complained to my parents to no avail, then just got passive. No point in really looking, if you are always going to lose.
When I was in grade school, I remember going to a Easter egg hunt at a local park that was hosted by a local radio station. The eggs contained tickets, some of which corresponded to really nice prizes (electronics and the like). Things got nasty really quick, and I can’t remember if I managed to get any eggs. My little brother was in the younger division, but there were some older kids whose parents had put them there to get them a competitive edge. One of the kids from my grade was in a wheelchair and he was put in the younger division, and these older kids rushed him so hard they broke his wheelchair. My mom was horrified and we never attended this event again.
We used to have egg hunts in our backyard with the pretty hard boiled eggs. The fear was always missing one and having it rot! One person would hide all the eggs and then the others would look and whoever got the most eggs would get to hide them next time. That was the real treat - it was often difficult to find good hiding spots when the grass wasn’t even growing yet. Everyone would end up with a turn hiding them but things did get competitive between the kids and especially with H. The kids were older then so they enjoyed trying to outrace Daddy to grab the egg on the tree branch or fence.
Littler kids need to be protected though, and just allowed to have the joy of finding things without worrying who got their first or how many someone else has.
this reminds me of the sad fact that it took about eight years of home and church egghunts to learn that it’s important to count the eggs before you hide them…so you can figure out if you found them all! it was always fun at home, always tense at church, because really everyone there should be on their best behavior but if they aren’t what can you say? my response was to carry extra eggs in my pocket to accidentally (on purpose) drop in front of the slower kids.
Only once did we do a big egg hunt. I was smart enough to bring a few eggs in my pockets so my D could “find” them. It was okay but the whole event was over so quickly it seemed anti-climatic. So we stuck with doing it in our own back yard.
But I hated the thought of so much candy…and of chocolate melting outside. So one year, we put in little pieces of paper in each egg. After all the eggs were found the kids took out the papers and put them together as a puzzle. The result was the first clue of a scavenger hunt. They loved figuring out the clues and finding the next one. At the end of the hunt was a basket full of goodies (toys, games, books etc.). It was a last minute inspiration one year and became a tradition after that for many years.
Although in the scheme of things small, just another example of the increasingly common, daily, and scary example of the fine line between civilization and chaos
