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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think schools shouldn’t be giving out Easter Eggs?

270 replies

TulipsTulipsTulips · 12/04/2019 13:22

My DD4 will be showered with chocolate I'm the upcoming week. It’s part of the fun of Easter. But her teachers have already given her, and all the nursery class, a medium sized chocolate egg each and chocolates were being handed around today. AIBU to think giving out chocolates is for parents to monitor and decide, and the school should focus on other healthier Easter activities? Why are schools spending money on unhealthy treats that have no educational purpose?

OP posts:
PBo83 · 12/04/2019 15:05

My DD4 will be showered with chocolate I'm the upcoming week

This is more of a problem than a child getting a small egg from their teacher.

CupoTeap · 12/04/2019 15:10

The bastards

Acis · 12/04/2019 15:11

This a wealthy fee paying school

It doesn't necessarily follow that the parents are wealthy. The very fact that they are paying fees may well mean that they have very little left to spare, and some children may be there on bursaries anyway.

GreenTulips · 12/04/2019 15:14

If parents decide not to buy chocolate eggs for their children, does the school have a place stepping in?

No different to teachers tying shoes laces or showing them how to use a knife and fork or toilet train. They now teach them social and emotional skills, how to make friends, some kids can’t speak properly or have ever been to the dentist, schools also arrange opticians to come in.

Lots of things most parents did for their kids!

Teachers can’t have all the work and none of the joy can they?

Stuckforthefourthtime · 12/04/2019 15:14

Yanbu. One of my dcs is overweight and I find it frustrating when they are perpetually going home with healthy eating messages, but then get daily pudding at school, endless PTFA cake sales and sweet events, eggs being handed out would really rile me.

havingtochangeusernameagain · 12/04/2019 15:15

Oh why are people so precious about Easter eggs/chocolate as a treat?

A one-off every now and then is not going to make them fat. Nor is it going to rot their teeth. If you have lots, you put some away and make them last. Nobody has to eat them all in one go.

Please let the kids be kids and have some fun.

Faultymain5 · 12/04/2019 15:16

I have never really believed in an obesity crisis until I realised that we all consider food to be a treat, and this is encouraged from our school days.

cuppycakey · 12/04/2019 15:17

YABU and quite ridiculous.

If you think DD will have too many eggs then buy her less or give some to a local refuge.

Mrskeats · 12/04/2019 15:18

How very dare they?
Confused

Faultymain5 · 12/04/2019 15:18

The parent can control it by saying lovely, let's put it up until Easter.
Yes, if the kid hasn't eaten it prior to being picked up from school. Somehow school can't seem to monitor that.

MrsMozartMkII · 12/04/2019 15:21

Really?

Is this is what life has come to. Complaining about people doing a nice thing.

I think I'm going to become a hermit.

DontCallMeCharlotte · 12/04/2019 15:23

and the school should focus on other healthier Easter activities

Name me a "healthier Easter activity". Praying I suppose.

Compared to how Jesus spent Easter, I'd say eating a bit of chocolate is hardly dangerous.

Apologies if I've cross-posted (see what I did there?).

No, I haven't RTFT.

PostmistressMcColl · 12/04/2019 15:30

To the posters saying teachers know about the food allergic kids in their class, this isn't always the case sadly. Everyone in my DD's year 4 class was given chocolate coins at Xmas and DD's old y3 teacher came rushing in to check DD hadn't eaten hers because she'd spotted that there was a nut warning on the main packet. Luckily she hadn't eaten any. She wasn't given an alternative treat and she was quite shocked that the grown ups in charge didn't seem to know how to keep her safe, which was upsetting.
I think it would be best if schools avoided edible treats full stop.

ForeverBubblegum · 12/04/2019 15:36

DS has been given an Easter egg from nursery, and various chocolate treats from different groups we attend. I 'monitor' his chocolate intake by eating it when he's in bed Blush

He's only 2 though so might not get away with it at 4.

It may seem excessive pn top of chocolate from home but for family on low incomes the chocolate could be the difference between having something to celebrate Easter with or not.

LoubyLou1234 · 12/04/2019 15:39

Hospital wards sometimes give donated chocolate eggs over Easter! Such an unhealthy thing to do.....Hmm it's just a nice gesture that's all! Children remember things like that for ages.

PennyArcade · 12/04/2019 15:41

Postmistess. Your dc is year 4. Surely she knows what she can and can't eat - given that she has experienced the consequences of eaten 'forbidden' foods?

Get a life, instead of begrudging all the children in your Dc's class a 'treat' at the end of the school year!

Has it ever occurred to you that some children NEVER get a treat from their parents??

Sometimes, just sometimes, a treat from school is all some children experience. I'm sure school doesn't want to buy for ALL the children, they know who need the treat and who doesn't ... But that wouldn't be seen as PC - right?

cattypussclaw · 12/04/2019 15:51

I'm a TA and I would love to buy the children in my class an Easter egg each but buying presents for the children is absolutely forbidden by our head Sad (she says they get enough, living in the affluent Home Counties Hmm). I did buy them all a pencil from the Science Museum when Space was our topic but I simply sneaked them into the pen pots on their desks and denied all knowledge when questioned as to where they'd come from. Working in a school, I've discovered you can never please all the parents.

Drogosnextwife · 12/04/2019 15:56

Oh FFS, stop moaning about nothing!

malloo · 12/04/2019 16:00

YANBU. Going against the grain here. I think you're getting a very hard time on here OP. The tone of some of these posts reminds me of that thing where the parents were feeding kids chips through the school gates as it was their 'right' not to eat healthy food. Yes, it may be a small treat, but the point is the quantity of these small treats all adds up, it becomes normal to eat loads of sweet stuff on any occasion, no surprise we have an obesity crisis, and kids with bad teeth. Why is it sucking the fun out of things to not eat sweets? This is all about making us buy more, consume more, it's not for fun! I love chocolate but the Easter displays in the shops make me feel quite ill, it's excessive, and getting more like Christmas, totally over the top. It's kind of the teachers to buy the kids something, its coming out of their money and sweets are cheap and kids love them so totally understandable. So I would accept with thanks. But I'm with you OP, i think we should be questioning this.

RaffertyFair · 12/04/2019 16:07

malloo I think it's perfectly reasonable to question the commercialism of Easter but not to single out teachers, particularly as the OP says her DC get showered with giant sized eggs from lots of other people.

Carpetburns · 12/04/2019 16:10

Feel sorry for your kids OP

Lolwhat · 12/04/2019 16:19

What a fun sponge, they’re not giving your child knives, it’s chocolate

Gronky · 12/04/2019 16:22

Presumably you're worried that they're going to end up liking their teacher more than you?

PregnantSea · 12/04/2019 16:24

I'm surprised that the teacher did that because these days children aren't allowed anything fun in case it's offensive or non regulation in some way. She's a brave teacher.

I think if you don't allow your child chocolate then it's best to let the school know just in case, but if they are allowed chocolate then this isn't a big deal. Just take it off her and ration it out like I assume you do with all the other chocolate that she gets.

ballsdeep · 12/04/2019 16:26

Og for christ sake. I hate parents like you. You make our jobs so hard. Get a grip.