Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Don't put the kibosh on the Easter egg hunt

Ok, serious mom vent.

So D2 has her Easter party and egg hunt today at preschool. It's fine, I have no problem with it. The kids love it, the Easter Bunny was there, all good fun.

Parents were asked to bring in a dozen plastic eggs filled with treats. No chocolate (as it might melt), no nuts, no peanut butter. I'm ok with that too. I put fruit snacks in D2's. Yep, I'm that mom. But I figured it was a pretty safe option and D2 asked for them. I told her we could put Skittles in them, and I also thought about Smarties or something like that......something appropriate for this age group. She wanted fruit snacks. So we got fruit snacks.

At the preschool, the eggs are pretty much just strewn about the playground. There's no "hunting" involved. The children were instructed to only pick up 12 eggs each, as each parent only brought a dozen. Seriously? Try telling your four year old to stop picking up every egg she sees because she has to stop and count. I get that it needs to be fair, but it was honestly like wrangling cats.

We stand there and D2 is trying to decide which ones to put back, as she has more than 12 (I actually brought 18, but who's counting). As we're trying to narrow it down, she sees some on the ground that she "doesn't have yet." You can imagine how long it took us to get down to 12.

So we get home, and she's all excited to open up the eggs. Now keep in mind, these are preschoolers. The children who were out at this time were no older than four, and most of the ones who were four have just had their birthdays. Just keep that in mind.

I told D2 she could open one egg. As each egg was opened and I saw what was inside, I let her open another, and another. And this is where I decided the "no chocolate" rule was going to have to include some more specific instructions. Because apparently, people just don't think.

Here's the rundown:

Egg 1: Twizzlers (she didn't like them, I'm not surprised)

Egg 2: Double Bubble Bubble Gum (this is PRESCHOOL)

Egg 3: Jawbreakers (seriously?)

Egg 4: 3 Jolly Ranchers (ok, this is just getting ridiculous....)

Egg 5: Smarties (Hallelujah! She loves those.)

Egg 6: A small rubber bouncy ball. (Not in this house. Years ago I knew someone who had a 5 year old daughter who put one of those in her mouth, it got stuck in her throat, and the EMT's couldn't get it out because of its texture. She died. These kids are all younger than 5. They scare the crap out of me (the balls, not the kids). They are not allowed in my house.)

Egg 7: more bubble gum

Egg 8: Starburst (ok choice, but difficult for preschoolers sometimes)

Egg 9: stickers (damn you.......just damn you)

Egg 10: Skittles (to my chagrin D2 doesn't like them, but yea for me)

Egg 11: Laffy Taffy (really, it's like eating wax)

Egg 12: A tiny little booklet on how "Jesus Loves You" - I kid you not. Who stuffed those eggs? Probably the same person who gives out pencils at Halloween.

So yes, I am bothered by this. At least I took the time to think of something preschoolers could or would actually eat. I'm starting to wonder if D2 just somehow found the duds in the egg hunt, but come on. I know very few preschoolers who can actually chew bubblegum, much less have patience enough to eat a Jawbreaker.

What about Sweet Tarts? We could have done M&M's, even if it was warm they would have been fine. Skittles were fine (yes, D2 doesn't like them.....more for me, don't judge). Smarties, jelly beans, gummy bears, Dots, Lifesavers, Runts, Sour Patch Kids, caramels, candy coated eggs, lollipops, ring pops, even individually wrapped Peeps would have been great. Got any more to add?

I'm actually feeling a little better about the Fruit-Snack-Eggs now, thank you very much.


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