Easter over indulgence

[briecranberry]

Anyone dreading Easter?

Im trying to heal my bad habits and be a good influence on my small child and set a good example

But thinking about Easter, im already wound up by the sheer volume of chocolate everyone will give my small 5 year old

Grandparents, aunts, uncles, her father.

Mounds and mounds of sugary crap wrapped in colourful foil

Why does everyone like feeding kids so much?

No one lets their children sit there and eat them all in one go!

It’s one day in a year to have some chocolate eggs!

Like other posters have said share it out across the year and use for baking etc too or tell others no chocolate eggs could they think about a book voucher or something!

I agree that people generally give dc way too many sweets.

No child needs several Easter eggs. One or two nice eggs are more than enough. I don't think it's having issues to recognise this.

I haven't got issues and I absolutely cringe at times at the amount of crap my dc get given.

So I’ve just checked - a small egg has the same chocolate as one dairy milk bar (the single serving type, not a monster sharing bar!). Does that help you visualise how much chocolate it is? It’s usually thin egg and a lot of packaging. I’d say half an egg is a child’s “portion” so how many portions will you end up with - 10? 20? Don’t let your child just eat it in one go, but also don’t throw it out / give it away (teaching “eat up treats quickly or they’ll be taken away!” ) - just portion them out as desserts after healthy meals, assume it’ll take a month or so to all go if eaten sensibly and you can teach how to incorporate some “fun but unhealthy” foods into a balanced diet in a reasonable way.

(I shall pop on my hard hat for the “all sugar is bad” posters who believe the only acceptable way to raise children is without any chocolate or sweets )

We give our 4yo child other presents instead.

Her grandparents and aunts might give her a small egg/lindt bunny - and then we ration it out over a week or so.
We give her a small toy or book.

Just have a word with some of them and ask them if they’d mind buying them an inexpensive toy/book instead.

By having chocolate in a cupboard she isn’t eating? This makes no sense

Why wouldn't you just ration them?

Also I get people saying “buy a book or toy instead!” but think about the budgets of those doing that - a chocolate egg can be picked up for £1-2, books and toys you are probably looking at doubling that so be mindful of the budget of the person who are asking and how many gifts they’d have to buy.

Because saying “oh honey I know those are your gifts, but I don’t want you to get fat, so we need to give them all away!” Is obviously way, way better.

Just chill the fuck out is genius advice

Im cuuuurrrred forever and no longer fatty food issues

🤣

It's not just one day a year though is it?

Christmas they get given chocolate coins, often several selection boxes, chocolate Santas, plus all the treats in the lead up to the celebrations.

Then there are parties regularly where they are given sweet cones. Easter if you have family that go over the top. Halloween. Every time my dc go to the one set of grandparents they give them so much sweets and cake.

One of my dc still has chocolate leftover from Christmas.

Neither of my children are remotely overweight but it's not really the point. People give way too much sugary junk food.

Don't give your child's Easter eggs to the food bank, buy your own eggs to donate to the foodbank. How joyless to grow up remembering that your parents gave away your Easter eggs because of their own issues around food and healthy eating.

Putting them away for another is obviously what we do

No, its all the extras. Bag of mini eggs, the multipacks. The Lindt eggs box etc

They go on and on

I would just warn friends and relatives not to get Easter eggs if I were you. Just say you get far too many.

Are you overweight yourself OP?
Why are you so worried about a few days of feasting?
Go for lots of lovely long walks/bike rides/ over Easter. Cook lots of delicious nutritious meals. A bit of extra chocolate over the holidays is harmless if they are otherwise healthy.

There’s another thread running about a woman on a diet who is incapable of not eating the biscuits/ chocolate /crisps that are in her house. Lots of posters saying they only cope by not having those foods in the house at all, they are incapable of not eating them all of the “bad” food comes into the house.

“hoarding food” is actually learning mentally healthy approach to treat foods. This is important if your child isn’t going to live alone as an adult and might need to know how to show restraint around treat foods someone else has bought. Learning to have what you want now then leave the rest until later is so important to avoid binge eating.

@Minieggbrownies

Agree. Why do they feel the need to do it? Is it showing love and kindness?

I don't remember being indulged quite that much on such a regular basis

DM has already given DD two eggs . One last weekend and one last month

It's not always about weight. What about their teeth?

DD is 7 and gets sometimes up to 15. Our neighbour gave her 4 big ones alone last year! She likes the sweet packets in them but doesn't really eat the egg. We sometimes put the eggs in the freezer and DH and I crack them later with a coffee. If we gave loads left over we melt them into crispy buns. Worst is if a family member does an Easter egg hunt and she comes home with like 30 small cheap chocolate eggs that taste horrible. They never get eaten so we melt those too.

I think it is part of the general trend to make more of events- think things such as 'Valentine's weekend', 'big birthdays', 'Christmas Eve boxes' as examples. Ways of trying to get us to spend more money.

Food bank to donate to is a good idea that was suggested earlier.

Ours lasts ages. We still have a few bits left from Christmas. Just means I don’t have to buy much. They didn’t ever have free access when they were little and now they are good at making it last and not eating it all at once. It gets eaten gradually so not a problem.

Yes that's why I let them gorge for a week and then it's all gone. I just make sure their teeth are brushed extra well when they are eating lots of sugar. Dentists recommend this over spreading it out for weeks on end.

@3WildOnes

Yes; you're right

I think that people do believe they're showing love and kindness, but if you believe plying kids with shitloads of sweets is love then you're a bit hard of thinking imo.

I certainly don't have food issues, i like a bit of chocolate as much as anyone, I can take it or leave it.

The amount of adults who have a mouth full of fillings, are overweight and it's affecting their health or have other weight and food related health conditions.

If people really believe that 15 Easter eggs is a bit of harmless fun they are sadly kidding themselves.

Yes dentists would say that eating it in one go is better for teeth.

But still totally unnecessary to have a shitload of eggs.

Which you’re passing on to your children. Slow clap