Should I have given him another egg?

[stivesholiday]

On Sunday it rained and each of my children was allowed a friend to play, so I had 6 children here. Rain = arts and crafts. So I decided to teach the children how to 'blow' eggs and then they could decorate them with glue and sparkles and paints etc.

The 2 girls, who were the youngest, didn't break their eggs at all and the 2 eldest children didn't either. My middle child and his friend (both 8), were another story.

My son used 3 eggs, his friend used 5. His friend was increadibly heavy handed and no matter how many times I said to be gentle, he broke the egg. He broke them within a minute of handling them.

After the last egg I said he couldn't do more but he could draw on a piece of paper. He was upset but I didn't worry very much about it. I felt he had been given a fair crack at it (no pun intended).

This morning I received a call from his mum to say he came home really upset and she felt I was unreasonable to not let him have another egg. I explained he had had 5 and wasn't getting any more gentle so I believed he would just continue to break each egg he had. However, I had not excluded him from the table as he could draw.

She said that it was normal behaviour for an 8 year old boy to be clumsy etc. Okay, that is true but should I really have given him egg after egg after egg?

No, he had 5 already. If he broke them all til you had none left, his dearest mother would still have complained.

YANBU. Can't believe his mother called you!

My God, woman, you're a saint. Your kitchen must have been covered in yolk. For the record, rain = dvds.

Honestly, what the fuck. I'd be overjoyed if someone even attempted this with my kids. YANBU, but surely you know that.

I've got an 8 year old boy, he can be very heavy handed but can also be very gentle When hes told yo be.
She was bu in my opinion, let her buy some eggs to blow if he was that upset.

Well yes I do think I was reasonable and other parents have often commented that their children like coming here as I will bake with them, take them to the park or with the girls do their toe nails etc. However, I think this mum thought I was somehow picking on her son and perhaps bullying him as his behaviour was normal.

You could have boiled one then if he cracked the shell it wouldn't fall apart so much.

Saying that YANBU and 5 eggs was clearly enough.

Had that been my son I would have simply said 'Next time you might be more careful'. Actions have consequences

Maybe she doesn't realise you're not actually a hen, and that eggs don't magically appear in your house either. Eggs cost money, are you supposed to buy six dozen just to keep her son in eggs to break all day?

Quick add up and you'd used a dozen eggs already, did you even have any left? You deserve a sainthood not complaints.

Isn't there some kind of rule that you should handle small animals with the same levels of care as you would an uncooked egg?

Let's hope the boy in question doesn't have a hamster.

Flippancy aside, YANBU.

See, I think after two breakages, I'd have hard boiled him one. Not his fault if he's a bit of a klutz and seems to obvious solution rather than handing him endless eggs or making him do something different from everyone else. Not U to not keep handing over more, but maybe a bit U for not finding a better solution than telling him he couldn't join in with what everyone else was doing.

I thought you had to blow them in order to keep them. After a while, you'd have a rotten egg wouldn't you?

Did you laugh at her and say reeeeeaaaalllllllly ? That it=s the onlt reply you should of given

Of course YWNBU! If the boy couldn't manage to be more gentle with the eggs, with 5 chances, maybe that was what was upsetting him, and he just needed his mum to understand him.

I'd be tempted to give the woman a box of eggs for the lad to practise with at home, the next time I saw them!

Attic, the OP isn't a teacher or a kids' activity leader; she just kindly took the time and effort to play with her kids' friends. Good for you if you'd have thought of 'a better solution' but it's not the OP's job to do so.

OP, I think your solution was fair and the other mother was being cheeky.

That mother is ungrateful and rude.
OP, I wouldn't invite this child to your house again.
Lesson learnt.

YANBU!

She is being ridiculous.

I never thought of hard boiling them. But yes, it would have gone off quite quickly. But I didn't think about it anyway.

He is a nice boy, but from the look of confusion on his face when all 6 of them sat down to do arts and crafts, I don't think he does it very often. He is an outdoor type of boy, much like my boys, normally they would be outdoors, but the weather was dreadful.

You could go and chuck eggs at her front door and say, "there, happy now?"

OnlyLovers I'm not a teacher or a kids' activity leader. It just seems mighty likely that ham-fisted kids are going to smash blown eggs, and extremely obvious that there's an easy way to make it more robust. I don't think the OP was unreasonable, but I can see why the boy got upset - even if his mother was being a bit daft in expecting someone to keep handing over eggs for him to break.

No wonder some kids grow up thinking that the world owes them a living with a parent like that!

bloody hell, he wouldn't have even got to 5 if he'd been at my house!