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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Easter eggs- how would you react

456 replies

Oilpyi · 04/04/2021 10:02

Asking for perspective, neither DH or I grew up with Easter Eggs or much in the way of things- it already seems indulgent, but I’m aware our perspective isn’t always the norm with the world the kids grow up in. That’s why I’m asking...

We’ve had a crazy amount of eggs this year. DH as a key worker was gifted a very generous pile. I got some through volunteering, kids got some from family and from clubs. I was planning to give some away as it seemed so many. They’d weren’t little or cheap either, ones with Lindt bunnies in, London, fancy M&S stuff etc plus some smaller ones with mugs. Not little eggs.

The ones from work etc were in a stack on a sideboard, along with some boxes of chocolate where they’d been for days. A box or two was open and we’d been sharing them already. Neither of us eat much chocolate ourselves and we generally have no issue with the kids slowly eating their way through it, which is what we normally do with gifted chocolate. Open one at a time/ one each at a time and let them eat.

This morning I had left the eggs from family on an armchair and said ‘Easter bunny’s been’ and left the kids while I showered. Fine them opening and eating.

When I came down they’d collected all the eggs and chocolate boxes from both rooms and had opened the lot, a huge pile of ripped boxes obviously frantically opened. They’d then made a pile each of eggs and chocolate sharing it out. Rubbish from boxes everywhere and they’d opened chocolate each and already the carpet was covered in chocolate bits (whilst I’m not Usually precious it was an instant Hoover need or they’d be chocolate stains over a wide area). The floor was a sea of boxes.

It just looked so wasteful they’d rip in like that, so presumptuous we’d not want any given to us (we normally eat a little of what we get ourselves, but not much) and just so expectant they could do it without even asking. I felt sick walking in and seeing such an expensive pile of chocolate just all opened and piled up carelessly- it was more that than either adult wanting any. It seemed so spoilt. No concept of any value or appreciation of it.

The kids are a range of primary ages from the oldest to the youngest spanning yr 1-6. I’m generally a bit irritated anyway with the older ones being messy and lazy and everything being a fight.

So- how would you react?
Say it’s Easter- enjoy and have fun
Or yes, that’s overly wasteful and spoilt behaviour.

OP posts:
SusannahMartin · 04/04/2021 12:13

I think there is something about celebrations - Christmas, Easter, birthdays that should lets us be free to massively indulge. So long as it's confined to those times then it adds something magical to these days

C8H10N4O2 · 04/04/2021 12:14

YANBU. If all the eggs had been in one room they might just have been able to spin it as a mistake but being given their own and then taking another lot from another room without asking is not great behaviour. They could have been intended for sharing with other family/friends.

You shouldn't need to constantly supervise an 11 yr old every waking moment or give them explicit instructions not to help themselves.

That said, I would deal with the behaviour and then put it behind us. "no eggs next year" is ridiculously deferred punishment.

My eldest was a "people manager", its not uncommon in the eldest of several. You need a strategy to stop them using the younger ones to share blame or as an excuse which doesn't force them to grow up too fast themselves. It can be a challenge!

nancywhitehead · 04/04/2021 12:14

You left a group of four children aged 6-11 alone with a big pile of chocolate, having told them to "enjoy", and expected them not to open everything and go a bit mad?

I think your expectations of your children are a bit unrealistic!

TippledPink · 04/04/2021 12:24

@nancywhitehead She left them with a pile of eggs and expected them to eat them. They then went in another room and took eggs that weren't theirs and they weren't told they could have!

ForgedInFire · 04/04/2021 12:25

Why not just give the children their Easter eggs individually and there would have been no room for confusion. Just leaving a big pile and going off for a shower was inviting either confusion or arguments over who got what. It doesn't seem very fun either.

MotherOfDragons27 · 04/04/2021 12:25

Oh relax, it's just chocolate! It's Easter, they're kids and you left them unsupervised to get stuck in. If you didn't want them to open them all at once you should have said so, or stuck around to keep an eye.

Sansaplans · 04/04/2021 12:25

@nancywhitehead

You left a group of four children aged 6-11 alone with a big pile of chocolate, having told them to "enjoy", and expected them not to open everything and go a bit mad?

I think your expectations of your children are a bit unrealistic!

But that's not what happened.
Shopliftersoftheworldunite · 04/04/2021 12:28

It’s chocolate, not crack cocaine. Kids do dopey shit like this all the time.

midlifecrash · 04/04/2021 12:30

The messiness and grabbing sound really annoying so YANBU. In their heads it was probably gleeful and cartoonish though, a huge pile of chocolate treasure.

The other problem is they might be sick/ have stomach ache later! I did one Easter when I was 7 or 8 and went mad with excitement, having been given some extra eggs. Never really liked Easter eggs since!

Blackcat21 · 04/04/2021 12:33

I’m shocked by the amount of Mumsnet excusing this behaviour tbh Hmm

It’s seems to be a blanket view that children are precious angels that cannot do wrong and deserve anything, when in reality they can be demanding ungrateful little shits

YANBU OP, regardless of it being a bad year, that does NOT excuse the children’s bad manners and assumptions Confused

ImInStealthMode · 04/04/2021 12:34

YANBU OP. I'd be horrified too, partly at them taking chocolate they knew (from previous conversation) wasn't theirs to take, and for ripping into everything at once which is greedy and unappreciative. As a child I'd get 2 or 3 Easter eggs from family and they were opened one at a time, with great consideration given as to which order was best and how long I could make them last.

I'm quite shocked by the PPs who consider that children of that age can't possibly exercise restraint & self-control around sweets that are there to be shared, or that the other eggs should have been hidden. I know several kids in the younger end (6-8) of the same age group and can only think of one (with SEN) who might just dive in to something that wasn't theirs without pause for thought or asking.

Cam77 · 04/04/2021 12:37

They were excited and, given lack of clear instructions (“don’t touch the other ones”) they all got carried away. Unless you’re religious, big piles of chocolate is pretty much what Easter is about. I don’t think it’s a big deal.

Cam77 · 04/04/2021 12:38

Not to say I wouldn’t pull them up on it. But it’s not a big thing.

Evenstar · 04/04/2021 12:40

Regardless of it being Easter, my now adult children would have had a consequence for behaviour like that. They knew very well that they were not allowed the other eggs.

If there are any unopened bars, then take them for you and DH, if you don’t actually want to eat them then donate them to a food bank.

YANBU OP and like PP I find it shocking that others are excusing greedy selfish behaviour like this.

Cam77 · 04/04/2021 12:40

It’s chocolate, not crack cocaine. Kids do dopey shit like this all the time.

Exactly. A quick shake of the head and “if you’re not sure ask” etc would’ve done it, rather than an essay on MN.

Kittykat93 · 04/04/2021 12:41

@Boom45

I think if you tell a bunch if young children that there is chocolate for them and leave them too it they will eat it. If you only wanted a 6 year old to only eat 1 egg or whatever you probably should have told them that

Agree with this

Bluntness100 · 04/04/2021 12:42

I’m not adding anything or talking about it strangely. He said he started it off, and he was even telling them how to create their piles

Cool kid, taking the fall for them and letting them enjoy their Easter, so he’s stood up and taken it from you. Good for him.

It’s chocolate op. It’s Easter Sunday, try to put it in context. They were not torturing puppies. They had some fun with chocolate on Easter Sunday. I know you’re tired but it’s some bloody Easter eggs.

Dentistlakes · 04/04/2021 12:42

YANBU. They were well aware which eggs were theirs and going to get the others was naughty and greedy. I would be annoyed too OP and would certainly tell them so!

Blackcat21 · 04/04/2021 12:43

@Cam77 oh give over, just because you can’t properly discipline your own children and seem to have an attitude that children can apparently be greedy and do what they like doesn’t mean you can preach all about it Hmm

Why blame OP for writing an essay when you’re not doing not any better Confused

Bluntness100 · 04/04/2021 12:45

Exactly. A quick shake of the head and “if you’re not sure ask” etc would’ve done it, rather than an essay on MN

Totally agree, never fails to surprise me how uptight and punitive some people like to be to their own children. It’s not like the op posted they do this all the time, in fact she said the opposite, so what, they are good kids who got excited by the Easter eggs on Easter Sunday, hardly the crime of the century some folks are behaving like it is “greedy, selfish,naughty, give the eggs to the food bank”.

Honestly what a way to live.

MadreDios · 04/04/2021 12:46

If they made a pile and divided it all equally I'd be impressed with their sharing skills/negotiating/counting. They have a pile each - they just need a large plastic tupperware box to put it into if they have already removed the wrapping.

Anotherlovelybitofsquirrel · 04/04/2021 12:52

Sounds like its a rare novelty and they're so not used to it they got excited. You should have been there if you wanted to control it. I feel sad for them that you would moan about it. They're little children ffs.

GonnaBeYoniThisChristmas · 04/04/2021 12:53

YANBU. Children of that age should know better.

Cam77 · 04/04/2021 13:02

@Blackcat21
oh give over, just because you can’t properly discipline your own children and seem to have an attitude that children can apparently be greedy and do what they like doesn’t mean you can preach all about it hmm
😂

GreyhoundG1rl · 04/04/2021 13:04

When were you planning to donate the excess eggs to the food bank, op? Before Easter would have seemed logical?
Totally weird to make a huge display for Easter, not allow your kids to have most of it, and then do a Lady Bountiful act to the food bank when Easter is over?

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