to be pissed off that DS1 is already inundated with Easter Eggs

[MeAndMySpoon]

and it's a good two weeks before Easter Sunday? I'm just a tad pissed off that sodding Easter Eggs have become currency in a way that they never were when I were a lass. Back then, I got one large egg from my parents, and a selection of mini eggs that the Easter Bunny hid. No presents (Easter presents??) and nobody else in our family gave us eggs unless they were staying with us.

DS1 this week has managed to accumulate three eggs, all via school. He won a largeish one for his Easter Bonnet, another one in the Easter Fair raffle this week, and today came home with yet another one that he won for a classroom competition to design ... an Easter egg. So he now has three. This is in addition to the weekly bags of Haribo that get doled out by children who have birthdays on a school day and are now regarded as de rigeur. (we made mini crispy cakes when it was his birthday. I'm not such an arse that I wouldn't let him join in, but bloody hell, I'm getting fed up with seeing children coming out of school munching on sweets.) He also managed to amass an incredible amount of sweets from games at his Easter Fair this week. He was having fun and those were the prizes on offer.

Over Easter itself, he'll get a large egg from his grandparents, another one from his aunt and uncle, another from his great-aunt and uncle (we're having a large family get-together) and we would normally give him one too, but I'm offering him the option of a small present instead.

DS1 has newly-diagnosed enamel hypoplasia and I'm getting really concerned about his teeth. We're trying to wean him off sweets - he only really has them once or twice a week but I'm now thinking we need a ban. We make sure his teeth are well brushed but they're still looking pretty bad. I know I'm coming across like a killjoy, but there are lots of reasons why parents don't necessarily want their children inundated with sweets (diabetes, diet, intolerances...) and this week, I feel like that's the word to use. I'm particularly fed up that school keep on doling them out as prizes! I know they're cheap and in the shops at the moment but enough, already!

I've suggested we give some to the food bank and predictably enough, DS1 is really not that keen on giving up some of his stash, but I'll keep gently working on him. I know that he doesn't have to eat them all at once, but he is 6 FFS. When I was 6, if I had a mountain of sweets I'd been given, I'd probably want to keep them all too!

Your last sentence is your answer about getting rid of them.

You already know what to do

In our house, all Easter Eggs are kept till Easter Sunday when we have an egg hunt. You can then eat as much chocolate as you like on Easter Sunday, anything not eaten by the end of the day is put away and rationed as normal or put in my mouth. Make a family ritual out of it, lose a couple along the way, it's fine.

YABU to be pissed off with relatives buying your child Easter eggs, it's nice they care and it's only once a year (although the chocolate companies are probably working on making Easter a quarterly event).

Just tell him he can't eat them all in one go.

Put the eggs away until Easter Sunday.

My kids are allowed sweets once a week for an hour. In that hour they can eat their own bodyweight in sugar if they want to but after that no more sugary stuff for another 6 days and 23 hours.

It's been that way from the start and they never moan, never beg for sweets and only end up eating a packet of Chewits and a Freddo at most!

So you are upset that the staff at school have probably spent their own money buying your child a gift, which they have given out in the last week of the Easter term?!

All my form got a malteasers bunny on the last day of term last week (for us) and my tutees got an Easter egg.

You could send them to me

Didn't think there was such a thing as 'too many Easter eggs'?

Just spread them out. He doesn't need to eat them the day he gets them. Chocolate and sweets can last months if you ration them properly.

It is incredible how many Easter eggs they seem to get from school. One of my dds has a birthday around Easter time and some people even give her an Easter egg as a birthday present.

If I was you I would ask relatives not to give him an Easter egg but maybe something else instead? Also, if you can afford it, you could ask him if he will swap some of the Easter eggs he has for something else (e.g. toy, book, money). I have done that in the past if dd has too many eggs (and eat them myself obviously )

When I was a child, all Easter eggs recieved by any child got put away in the cupboard. After Saturday or Sunday tea, someone would volunteer to share out their egg. Everyone in the family got an equal share - the owner got to break it up into pieces - which we were eager to do, we'd be clamouring to share our own egg!
In fact it was the same with any sweets or chocolates anyone was ever given, including to our parents - into the cupboard and the owner is in charge of handing them out (at a time chosen by the parent.)
I do the same with my own DC now, some parents think I am mean, but I never thought it was as a child, it's nice to share.

My kids never eat all the eggs they accumulate. I end up melting them down for cake toppings and things!

That said, it's nice to recieve a gift. I do see where your coming from tho!

Yabu - it really annoys me to whine when someone gets "too much" of something.

I suggest you try spinning him a nice line about giving to those less fortunate and try and wangle him to take some to the food bank and say you will buy him a toy to replace them, or the Easter Bunny will bring him a toy.

Or do what everyone else does, give him a little bit at a time, store the rest and slowly eat the stash yourself in the evenings till it's all gone.

InAGrump - yes, that's what I've already suggested, that we donate a lot of them to the food bank. He already knows about food banks as his school has regular collections and we've had the talk about people who are in hard times. I've also suggested we swap them for a small toy or a book or something. I think people in the US do this with Halloween candy, don't they? Let them eat as much as they can for a fixed period (say one day) and then swap the rest for something less crappy-for-teeth.

We've always had a stockpile of Easter eggs in this house because DS1 (and now DS2) always did get given a lot by relatives. They live on top of the kitchen cabinets where DS1 forgets about them in time and DH quietly eats them. It's just that this year, we're already 3 up before we've even started, IYSWIM, and it just seems crazy.

DS1's school, like all schools, is now meant to be healthy-eating and promoting healthy snacks, which they do - they're great in that respect and both KS1 and 2 get fruit or veg snacks at playtimes, and the leftovers are handed out at the door at hometime. But they also allow children to bring in packs of Haribo, etc, for birthdays. It's every blooming week now! Of course I don't object to some sweets, but it feels at the moment as if the 'special treat' status of sweets has been undermined.

And Trinity, I do appreciate that some of these treats are often bought out of the teachers' own pockets and I'm really grateful. I also appreciate that sweets/chocolate are a lot cheaper to buy for a class treat (they have a reward jar that the class fills with good behaviour and they get treats when it's full, too) than anything non-edible. I'm not saying there's any obvious alternative. Just that I wish there were.

JonathanGirl, I like that solution.

ISeeSheep, I'm giving your solution serious consideration too.

I am genuinely worried about his teeth though, this sodding enamel hypoplasia seems to have affected his adult teeth too (he only has two of those so far) and although I know there was nothing 'wrong' that I did during pregnancy, and that his diet doesn't cause hypoplasia, I'm really keen to limit the damage. I know it's ultimately down to my responsibility and how I parent him, but I can see that sweets have gone from being a once-in-a-while treat to something he feels entitled to, and the last few weeks aren't helping!