Parents making their dcs Easter bonnets..

[MummyCool19]

Aibu to think children who parents have clearly made their dc bonnets shouldn’t win first prizes at school/nursery.

Dd is 2 and goes to a play school. They had an Easter bonnet comp, Dd absolutely loved making here, sticking it all on. It looked a mess but clearly she made it. Another child made a full on bunny popping out of a basket on top of the hat, another made a huge one. Both won.

Aibu to be annoyed 😂

I’m still annoyed about this after 16 years. YANBU.

Rookie mistake!

Need to up your game next year OP and don't let DD anywhere near it until competition time

Yanbu, my dd worked really hard on decorating eggs for her nursery competition and was really proud of them. There are at least 5 others that parents have made and they're obviously going to win! One is a full dumbo circus scene that obviously took hours 🙄 full big top, dumbo, ring master and audience. It's a preschool competition- who cares that much??

Oh and some one has smashed my dds entry 😡

This has just reminded me of the sinister fox bonnet and given me great joy

I remember turning up about 7 with something I had made entirely and being absolutely mortified as everyone else's was unbelievably good and clearly they had parents that helped/made them lol.

The lesson I learnt from all of this was not to bother .

Your wee ones bonnet sounds amazing btw and it sucks this is still happening.

That’s awful! 😩😩

Parents can even buy winning Easter Bonnets from EBay. The world has gone mad.

Oh yes and don't forget the parents helping at the egg decorating contests. My then 3 year old at nursery glued a bit of red fabric cape to an egg and drew a shaky S on the "chest" and a bit of black wool hair.

Another three year old had a whole Gruffalo egg box scene with all the characters as eggs! Perfection!

Why do they do it?

It's the judges who are the dicks here! It's obvious which ones have been made by parents!

The only answer is to have them made in school or nursery, or not to have a prize for the best if made at home.

Our nursery says must not have too much parental help...I let mine make his on his own and he is very proud. I will be very upset if they let one win that was clearly parent made!!

Unfortunately, I think that children and parents tend to be much more invested in this than the staff in school or nursery. I don't think they care very much.

So, I guess the trick is either not to care or to build your child up in other ways? Eg, a treat for tea that night as their "reward" even if they don't win?

The child who turned up with the winning bonnet 16 years ago, obviously made by a professional florist, has gone on to be expelled from at least one school and has a brother in prison for fraud. Did I hear someone say karma...
These parents believe that it is more important for their child to get the prize than to have any pride in their own achievement, and they are robbing other children of that pride at the same time. The whole “not winning but taking part” thing has passed them by. The judges should also be ashamed of themselves.

Reminds me of a fancy dress competition where the judge, afterwards, asked my son where he had bought his outfit and on being told it was entirely hand-made apologised for not giving him first prize. The situation was made worse because I had done the face-painting of the 2 little girls who beat him!

I think if it is a children's Easter Hat competition it should be the child's work - maybe next year suggest 2 prizes, one for adults and one for children. Is it possible some parents weren't aware it should be child's work or are they just ridiculously competitive?

In the Primary School where I work, the staff always choose the child -made ones to win! It's so obvious which ones have been made by parents and we are annoyed by it too 😉

Even my DD at age 3 commented “I don’t think they made that themselves”, about the winner who had a perfect Easter scene, including fairy lights. We had a laugh about it with her, and how silly the judges were not to have noticed. She was so proud of her gluey, feathery creation, and we thought it was beautiful as well. We still have it years down the line, and it makes me so proud seeing it, as she did it all by herself and really took her time over it. I did feel a bit p’d off at the judges rewarding the others though TBH.

I once spent ages on a project that my son was supposed to do - I just totally took over and got mildly obsessed with it. It didn't win any prizes but the teacher remarked that it was lovely that he had clearly made it himself without any help (he was 5 at the time).

I've been the parent who made her children's competition entries but only because none of my dses could be arsed to do it and it was compulsory. Their schools usually picked an obviiusly child-made one as a winner, usually when the child could talk enthusiastically about making it.
I did once get a special commemdation (sent direct to me ) for the layered cake model of a cross section of the earth. It had to be either edible or a poster and ds2 was insistent on edible. We started the thing together but his interest tailed off during the second layer, as did mine.
It only gets worse as they get older. Easter bonnets are a dream compared to scale models of the solar system, volcanos that have to spew lava, religious buildings and 3D representations of plant cells, in jelly.

YANBU.

My friend who lives on the other side of the country was irate about a bonnet that won because someone had hot glued on a load of hot cross buns onto it. That was it. A load of hot cross buns. And it won. I live on the other side of the country and I know about this hat, that's how cross, (ahem) she was.

I also get the rage about obvious parent creations winning. It's really disheartening for the kids, I think. Thankfully, mine have aged out of it.

I feel your pain!

I can't understand when someone would choose, as a winner, something that had obviously not been made by a child.

Oh, this sort of thing annoys me too.

I make my DC do homework craft projects themselves, and there’s always some children who turn up with the sort of fantastically good craft projects where it’s impossible to believe that it’s not 100% the parents work.

The bit that annoys me the most is when the adult judging gives the prize to the ones that have clearly had loads of adult input. If I was judging I’d be disqualifying those ones.

I have just had the most stressful afternoon ever making my two's Easter bonnets with them, paint everywhere, glue everywhere, glue wouldn't stick and had to break out the hard stuff, terrified I'd glue their fingers together but they did it by themselves.

I'm an Easter bonnet virgin, so I bought flowers, eggs and chicks for them to stick on, rabbits for them to paint and stick on. So they are pretty standard and will probably not win anything.

Kids enjoyed it though, but I need a drink now!

When my son was at nursery the best bonnet winner was a boy sporting a knitted hat in the shape of a nest full of knitted chicks, I'm still fuming over 20 years later! We had gone to the local pet shop and bought straw, he did a lot of the making so it was a bit messy plus the nest scratched his face a lot but he still loved it and was sure he would win.

I always involve mine in her bonnet, but she doesn't like to sew or hot glue, so she has a go and then when her interest trails off, designs it plus project manages me. It's obvious (I hope, lol) and also not a competition.

Anything for a competition she does entirely herself though, or there would be no point entering it.

I'm always amazed how competitive these things seem to get!