And the winner is... MUMMY! (Lighthearted)

I have a really strong memory of an Easter egg decorating competition in primary school. Girl next door but one her dad was painting an elaborate Mr Bump. We weren’t really friends she was very show offy and I can remember her saying she was going to win and her dad had been working on it. The type of paint was acrylic not suitable for children. No pretence of her helping.
My mum gave me some paint and paper. I did butterfly wings and painted egg as it’s body.
I can remember feeling embarrassed to hand it in as it wasn’t immaculate like Mr Bump. My mum said yours is great and they’ll know you have done it. And guess what I won! Great life lesson.

I’m still pissed off 12 years later about the annual ‘decorated egg’ Easter competition at school.
My dd is not artistic but she used to try her best and she always enjoyed it,
She -and the rest of her class- never ever won because her friend friends mum obvs used to bring in the most amazing creations that no kid could ever have a)thought up b) actually done .
Because the class got a different teacher every year the teacher didn’t realise that the child had won every fucking year.
I will admit after several glasses of wine having dark thoughts about where I would have liked to shove the ‘Eggclipse’ that had to be wheeled into school in a sodding wheelbarrow!!
It just made me sad to see all the kids stood with their kiddy creations and a few that were head and shoulders above the rest that clearly parents had done.
Did make me wonder about the intelligence of the teachers though that they couldnt tell the difference between something done by a 6year old and something by an adult.

I’ve found the sinister fox bonnet thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mumsnetclassics/937597-Sinister-Easter-bonnet?utmcampaign=thread&utmmedium=appshare

it was before we could upload photos to a thread but I’ve found a screenshot of it on a later thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4775216-to-wonder-wtf-easter-bonnet-parades-are-all-about?reply=125070027?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

my eldest son who was 11 at the time, had to make a boat in class to race across a pond, each child took their own materials to create the boat. My son was really happy with what he made, they were to race the boats the following week. My son arrived at school the next day and someone had trashed his boat. He was devastated, so I took him around to my brothers house who is great at crafts and they made the most immense boat ever! His boat won the race! I hope whoever trashed his boat the first time was annoyed at his amazing second boat!

My son won when he was in nursery. The staff said it was so lovely to have an entry that was clearly completed by the child. Very lovely.

Except for the fact that I had done the whole thing as he wasn’t remotely interested!! And I was trying to make it look good!

We used to have an Easter egg decorating competition at school but it was stopped as so many were obviously done by parents.
Now the kids have to bring in their own stuff and get a couple of hours to make their creations.

@Riapiayes!!! I remember the fox bonnet it was brilliant 🤣🤣

I've just remembered my mum 100% on her own did my sewing coursework for my GCSE in domestic science. She made a lovely little toddler sized lined waistcoat in one (late) evening. I expect I helped by huffing and puffing and flopping around dramatically.

I totally agree though mind you it's even harder to reign in the grandparents than the parents. Many years ago DH and I had a special anniversary couple of nights away leading up to the school Easter holiday. Grandad 'helped' her on her class project of decorating a boiled egg. Of course she won't hands down with all the enthusiasm grandad, recently retired with time on his hands brought to the project. 😱 He was quite proud of himself and had no idea he had overstepped. Sadly next year's effort, totally completed at our house just didn't meet Grandad's standard. 🤣

We didn’t have a TV, but had lots of stuff like that. We’re both losers in that situation 😂.

The new version of this is children winning poetry competitions with ChatGPT entries. We had a recent one at the school and it was so so obvious. I can't believe the teacher couldn't see it.

My Mum once came top in the class (in the days when it was still a thing) when we had to do a string picture at home for art. She was so horrified at my effort she stayed up most of the night. I dropped art at the end of the year to her relief.

I'm a teacher. We always pick the crap ones. No mother/father has ever won anything on my watch! Some parents have had the neck to question the winning entry though!🙄

When I was at primary school,my face didnt fit and I was bullied by children and teachers alike (this was the 80's and being bullied was considered as 'you need to toughen up')

Every year they did a 'boil and egg and decorate it' competition

Every year,I didnt go near the damn egg as my mother took charge and every year I didnt win a thing as
A-my face didnt fit
B-it looked like an adult had made it (which they did)
C-her craft skills where shite

The kids who where the favourites,won every time (with their eggs who hadn't gone near a child's hands either)

They didnt even bother to hide this fact,it was the biggest open secret ever

All changed the year i left and they got a new head-she had notes of which child had made what but set them out without names displayed

Each egg had been decorated in class to make sure a child had done it themselves

I can still see that one teachers face when one of my brothers won by his own talent (fuck you mrs fisher-you made my childhood hell)

I might need to get over this as it still makes me cross and I kept a very close eye on how stuff was judged when my own dc got to primary age

She absolutely didn’t want me to! Always been very independent minded 😆😆

Why didn't you make it with her at 3? I completely agree with OP that parents creations shouldn't win, but not helping her seems mean.

I made one with my 3 year old this week. He picked all the decorations, decided where they would go, and stuck them down.... but I made sure I was there to prompt him to use a bit more glue, suggest that a carrot balanced like that was likely to fall off, and to give things a bit of a squash to make sure they were soundly stuck down.

He would have been upset if his creation had fallen apart because he'd been left to his own devices on a task that was beyond his capabilities to do without support.

We used to have a decorated egg competition. The first year we had a lot of clearly decorated by a parent eggs. The second year we said there was a separate category for parent decorated eggs ( with prizes). Solved the problem!

My DC's primary school just had a parade and no competition which I think was better. Some amazing creations but loads of child-made ones too.

In her last year of nursery, DD had a bonnet competition and made hers completely on her own while I faffed about trying to make a pompom for it a la Kirsty Allsop. We abandoned the pompom anyway as it came out the size of DD's head, but when I dropped off her creation it was literally the only one that looked like it was feasibly made by a 4yo. And lo she came home with first prize, a packet of haribos as I recall, and was delighted with herself. Sounds like we have been lucky!

Not Easter but dh still occasionally mentions the “create a puzzle” competition in dc infants. Mine went low effort and made a word search (no expectations of winning but I had 3 dc and no time). The winner of the year 1 prize was a hand cut 6-piece wooden puzzle that used a jigsaw saw and had the school emblem burned into it meticulously. Well done that scout dad 🙄 bet he was so proud to beat all those 5-6 year olds!

Anyone remember the Easter bonnet on MN a few years ago.
It featured a horrific fox and some terrified chicks.

Secondary school art: I was loudly told off for having had someone draw my homework for me.
I was SO annoyed. The teacher had already taken some of my pieces and not returned them at the end of the first year.
After that I painted/drew and then trashed the image before I left the class.

This! For the US Bicentennial, we had a fancy dress competition at school, costume had to be American themed. My mum spent ages making a fabulous Pilgrim style dress out of crepe paper, was genuinely beautiful. I came second to a shop bought cowboy. Still sore about it 50 years later 😆

We used to do a cake decorating class in middle school for Christmas. One boy in my year brought in a cake very clearly decorated by his Mum. Every year he won. This has stirred up lots of emotions so I'm evidently still bitter about it 😅

Not sure why it needs to be a competition? Our school just do a parade and even the parent contribution hats aren’t show worthy