School bake off- why do parents do this?

[tangerino]

Argh. There was a baking competition at my daughter's primary school a few days ago- a note came home asking parents only to give minimal supervision and we were even ask to sign a form confirming that this was the case. My daughter worked hard making some cupcakes and icing them- she did it all on her own and was v proud of what she'd done.

Of course when she got to school, she found that other people had brought in incredibly elaborate creations, some featuring spun sugar(!), almost all obviously done by the parents.

One mum has just put a picture of five tier rainbow cake her son took in, with a caption saying "Do I win mummy of the year?" No you do not, you fucking cheat.

Gaaargh, it drives me crazy. It's so unfair on the kids that do follow the rules. And what message does it give the children? What's the point?

I think every school has this. A couple of years ago my child's topic was the Vikings and we had to make a Viking Longhouse for a project. I did help - he was only 6 - but the help extended to instructions such as "paint that bit brown" or "stick wool on the roof to make it look like grass" or "where does the firepit go?"

Other children came in with houses which were obviously the work of parents. One even was even wired up so that when you flicked a switch the fireplace lit up. FFS. It wasn't even a competition.

Agree too that teachers and judges are not stupid and parents doing this is not going to win their children any prizes. My youngest when he was 4 won a "best decorated biscuit" competition in the local County Show with a lurid blue icing, marshmallow and glitter effort as it was crystal clear that it was actually a 4 year old who had done it, not a 40 year old.

My Ds won the annual poster competition once..I was so shocked.. I was told by the teacher..They remove the ones the parents have obviously done then look at the ones that look like they have put the effort in.

Hope your school do the same.

It would be easy to talk to the children how they made it...I have done rainbow cake with my DS a couple of years ago...( although not 5 layers.) He would of been able to tell teacher how he made it..

Argh like the pumpkin carving competition at dds school this year now granted I helped her open it and scoop but she picked and printed the design stuck it on and pricked it out using one of those ridiculously blunt pricker things in the Poundland kits and carved it with close supervision from daddy and was so proud I don't think there was one other even carved! Rest were painted multi tiered stuck efforts which the children couldn't even identify which were theirs

Yep another Mum her whose kids' scrappy efforts have won prizes against obviously assisted efforts. Teachers aren't daft.

This happens with Easter egg decoration at our primary. It turns out you actually are expected to send on a sort of tableau in a shoe box (or bigger) rather than just a decorated egg.

Who knew?!

I agree OP, 'those' parents are arseholes. If your DD's school is anything like mine, they will choose a child's creation that has very obviously been done by the child. Hence my DD regularly wins things because I don;t turn into a control freak and take over.

We have to get dh his own pumpkin now Farmmummy - otherwise he just takes over the kids . Not for a competition though, just to sit on our front wall.

That's really rotten - these stupid parents who think they're something special and shove all their own creations on facebook make me sick - let the children be children and enjoy what they do however it may turn out

Claraschu 'My sister was an incredibly talented artist as a small child. One of her pictures was rejected on a similar occasion and the teachers wouldn't believe she had made it all by herself, but she had. This was deeply hurtful'

Yep, been there, too. My Brownie story was rejected on the grounds that it 'clearly hadn't been written by a 7-year-old'.

Yes it had. The message I took home from Brownies was that you've more chance of reward for wonky buttercups than for actual talent.

Scarred for life, I am.

Thing is, if I don't do it my little buggers just wouldn't bother. It's not really a problem though as my inept attempts look like a four has made it anyway.

At the same time you have to be aware that some children do produce things that are brilliant.
I remember watching a 3yo play with playdough. She produced some roses (like the ones made from icing) which were far better than any I'd made. Her mum was astounded-she'd never shown her how to do it, but she made a lot of cakes and she'd just watched.

I also remember entering the village craft competition with a soft toy I'd made. I had a book from the library and carefully cut the pattern and sewed it without any adult coming nearer than to stamp my library book.
As I went to collect the prize there was a loud remark about it not being fair as I'd obviously had a kit. Really upset me.

I prefer a child to learn they can't always win and that parents are not there to hold your hand forever

This is me too, Soubriquet. I'm widely known as mean, though.

And that's a problem because...? Surely making the connection between not doing something and it not getting done is a valuable life lesson. Far more so than making a cake/decorating a bonnet etc

Oh this really annoys me! My anecdote to add - last week with 4yo ds at a Christmas fun day. There's a game of pass the balloon rings - music stops kids cling through the rings in a race to win a sweet. Ds trying to do it on his own while parents are forcing their way into the circle and shoving the ring over the kids heads 🙄 To win one fucking sweet Ds got the ring 3 times and didn't win - one group was a kid about 3 with older siblings(about 12-13) who passed a ring between the 3 of them then when the music stopped pickedvthe toddler up and shoved her through! Lots of tears from ds about it not being fair, so I treated him to an ice cream sundae for being the real winner because he did it on his own.

Sorry for the essay, still annoyed on his behalf now!

We have similar at our school, only the children had to design a cake, ds 8 did this all by himself. Clearly from the pictures of some of the others the children have not done them by themselves.

For those saying "oh but it won't win", we recently had a topic to design a robot with movable parts. One child had an all singing all dancing fully functioning robot that his dad had made, said dad was proudly telling everyone about it. This robot actually won and he was asked to show his robot at the weekly assembly.

Why on earth the CT thought this was a good idea is beyond me, what message does this send to the dc in the class.

Forward the FB post to the school.

With our school it was the Easter Egg displays that were done by the parents. If I had helped my kids it would look even more like it had been done by a 6 year old so I was never asked!

Surely the easiest way to weed out the parent done without disadvantaging children who just are that good is to ask the child age appropriate questions about making it "what was your favourite bit? How did you decide what design to do? How long did it take you?"

Spun sugar is not hard - my baking mad dd could make it in y5-6ish(?) as she's seen it demonstrated on TV. The rainbow cake would have been too hard though because it would take too long but a marble cake would have been a breeze for her. totally ignoring the point of the thread

I agree that it is frustrating when parents do the work. Ex is notorious for this. He makes models involving wires and spends £££.

Clara and Lance me too!

I totally do don't hold a grudge against my fourth-grade teacher who sneered at me to do my own work next time because I'd used a subordinate clause in a story I was writing, and the word 'replenish'.

For my next piece of work, I remember making sure the content/ answers were all correct but deliberately spelling really basic wurds al rong to mak a dikk-headed pointe

God, yes, I rewrote my Brownie story leaving out all the long words and replacing things like 'delicate gauzy wings' with 'pretty'.
I also left out the bit about the world-famous explorer being overwhelmed by toxic gases and 'giving a last despairing glance before he sank into oblivion'.* Might have mentally substituted 'Brownie Writing Examiner' for famous explorer' in the original, though.

• I was an antisocial, pretentious and book-gobbling small child.

DD wrote her own version of a Rainbow Fairies book at the same age. it was rather better than the originals.

Her cakes, OTOH, looked very much like a 7-year-old had sat on made them.

I was an antisocial, pretentious and book-gobbling small child

You know, in a very real sense, at the age of 37, I still am.

DC's school do a competition for children and one for the parents. They also move items into the 'correct' category :)

The Xmas sweetie cup decorations were very competitive ;)

That's awful. Also because it's hard to judge whether a kid really is genuinely awesome at something or whether the parents are helping.

My DB was like that. He has always been our 'family's baker', ever since DM ruined my birthday cake when I was 4-5 (I think). people were always surprised and assumed that DM had helped him.

When DD was in reception, the children were all asked to make a robot out of a cereal box. All robots were then displayed on a table in the school hall. It was clear to see which had been made by the children and which had significant input by parents.

One had flashing light up eyes that were connected to a battery pack. 😂