To wonder wtf easter bonnet parades are all about?!

[Theydontknowthatweknowthattheyknow]

My child had her first Easter bonnet parade today. I have never seen or taken part in one so I didn't know what to expect. I helped my child with her's but ultimately it was her doing what she loves best cutting and sticking a bunch of junk on a hat. Then out come kids in tonnes of kids in absolutely immaculate bonnets clearly entirely made by their parents. It was quite cute but what exactly is the point in it?! Who actually has time to sit there for hours with a glue gun etc and surely it's much better for the child if they at least play some part in creating it otherwise it's basically just parents showing off. I really am not miserable about school traditions and get as involved as I can and don't even mind putting in some effort if it's for the benefit of the kids but this one I just don't get. My child loves crafts and is very creative so it'd be a much nicer tradition for her to take the lead with it. AIBU to think this? And in most schools do the parents make them or the kids? The worst part was that my child was obviously quite sad and deflated as I think she knew that lots were 'better' than her's which made me feel really rubbish too

I've never heard of them before - my first thought was Aunt Sally from Wurzel Gummidge!

They do sound cute though.

I'll say one last time... I have heard of Easter Bonnets (I didn't drop off a Christmas tree) I just wasn't aware that they're such a parent contest. That was the point of the post

We held one at school on Thursday. We ones we chose as winners were the child ones.

We asked the children' oooh did you help to make this?' And being little they're reasonably honest. Any who said no, we ruled out.

My DD (5) had an Easter bonnet parade at school yesterday. It was clear that a lot of parents had gone to a great effort with their bonnets. I personally left my DD to hers, she directed me where to use the glue gun and did the rest of his herself. It looked a hot mess when she was finished, but she had so much fun doing it. Can't imagine not letting her decorate it herself

I saw one child walking home from school with his Dad yesterday and there was a Sonic the Hedgehog face cut out on the front of his bonnet with the rest of the bonnet adorned with feathers, flowers and eggs.

When my DD was in reception (aeons ago as she's grown up now) we did the whole 'shit that's tomorrow?' Panic for the Easter bonnet thing.

We handed over glue, some magazines, scissors, some straw and a cereal box. She fashioned the maddest nest hat with stuck on pictures of flowers and birds. We (well DH hurriedly on the school run) put some chocolate eggs in the top.

She won. Against all of the carefully parent made curated offerings.

Very satisfying 😊

Pagan fertility rite meets parental competetiveness; what could go wrong?

Mine still sing the song while they do the parade!

I'm more surprised at the amount of people thinking Easter bonnet is a new thing. I was at school on the 80s and they were all the rage there. We used to walk round the hall, displaying our bonnets to the song, "in your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it"

If Easter Bonnets being made by parents though is annoying but it annoys me more when school asks for home made world book day costumes (which I made every year for the whole of primary x 2) and in the best costume, the school always gave the top 3 prizes (only prizes too) to costumes that had come from the shops!

My DD (9) is sulking as she made an instaworthy hat all by herself, that didn't win because noone believed she did it herself (she has a good eye for design!). DS (11), to add insult to injury, won with a hat we made together, that looked like it was done by a 4 year old but was primarily made by me... (All the ideas but none of the skill for me and DS).

I genuinely like Easter bonnet day. Might make one for me too next year!

Aren’t they an ancient tradition? There are photos from the 1900s onwards of Easter bonnets. I was a child in the 60s and 70s and we used to make them then. I seem to remember they were made out of a paper plate.

My approach to Easter bonnet parade. Get a straw hat, get child to stick chicks, eggs, ribbons etc all over it, wear to parade and watch whilst another parents hat (worn by their child) wins. Go to the pub.

I really love doing arts and crafts, even more so with my son. So he had an elaborate obviously parent made hat. I wasn't expecting or wanting him to win. I had hoped they would choose only child made hats. It's just what we enjoy doing. There was a lot of his work in the decoration but I made the hat and helped him with glue and sewing.

Just putting this out there as a counterpoint, some parents aren't being competitive. It's just what we like doing, we make these sorts of things all the time, this is just the only time the kids bring it into school to be seen. We do arts and crafts at home most weekends and I do it as a hobby in my spare time. To purposely put no effort in and not enjoy the project would be making myself miserable to please others.

Different strokes for different folks. I don't enjoy baking or cooking so if it's bake sale or pot luck I'll bring shop bought. But won't be sad that other people who enjoy it bring in elaborate cakes and dishes.

I am only vaguely aware of Easter bonnets. It wasn't done in my primary school when I was a kid and my children's primary school didn't do them either.

But it's missing the point though and sadly does cause upset. And from experience it just causes eye rolls from parents and teachers alike.

It's the kids activity. It's them who are supposed to do whatever craft activity is being asked. It's to allow them to be creative. Instead they often feel their efforts are not good enough. It's not about whether you as the parent enjoy it, it's about the kids getting the chance to express their creativity.

It's not the same as baking for the cake stall. In that instance it is the parents being asked to either bake or buy. The kids are not expected to do it.

There's also the Egg Decorating Competition. It's supposed to be 'make two holes in an egg, blow out the contents, then decorate it with patterns in felt tip or smeared scraps of crepe paper or make into a character by sticking on bits of felt to give it clothes or bunny ears', but it turns into 'create a multi level diorama with assorted characters animated with the assistance of Lego Technic because Dad's got himself involved with this one'.

I won the bonnet competition with the assistance of some yellow fluffy chicks, shredded tissue paper and a hat that came from my recently deceased grandmother with two lengths of ribbon stapled onto the back and then, two years later, the egg one with two eggs, one a scientist (I drew glasses on it and gave it cotton wool beard and hair), one Frankenstein's Monster, the lid of a shoe box and half a packet of drinking straws. It was a Science Eggsperiment (yes, I know, but I was 11 and thought I was a genius for that).

Even then, there were clearly entries made by parents.

Just you wait for the holiday homework project. There will be miniature versions of War and Peace and longform essays all word processed (because otherwise you'd see that the kid has had nothing to do with the the thing) and, hopefully, one where the parent's persuaded the kid to write small paragraphs that can be stuck onto a sheet of A3 with a nice image/collage because 'a poster presentation is a perfectly acceptable method of conveying knowledge' and I'll be damned if I'm going to let the teachers set me homework

The teachers will always choose a child that has made their own hat as the entry into the Easter egg competition. We had 23 children in our class and only two or three of those had been made by the kids.

That's been the case for my daughter until yesterday, she's 6 and the two winners were clearly made entirely by parents. They were ridiculous, to add to the insult the dad of one winner even posted on his social media "I've finally finished A's bonnet" clearly lacking any other interests in his life.

My daughter wasn't bothered, her crepe paper monstrosity won last year and she knows you can't win every time but I'd have much rather see the child with the bonnet covered in stickers, shredded paper and other crap win than an insta bonnet.

My children's school is definitely overly competitive with things like this though, the parents are so neurotic. One hat in my son's nursery class was so obscenely OTT and definitely had not been touched by the hand of a three year old was so huge with trailing painted eggs attached that the poor kid couldn't get it to stay on his head 😂

It’s the same with the decorated egg comps. My DD’s school never used to do them as being a catholic school, easter lead up is a solemn occasion so no fun child actually be had until Easter Day. One year they eventually did a bring in an Easter garden. Not competition but just for display. I had to research them as had no idea. Then went and bought the various bits for the kids to make it. Not many actually brought them in. Few years later and by the time eldest had left they introduced the decorated egg comp as they had a new head teacher and fin can be had. DD2 was in y5 by this point and never been involved in a decorated egg comp so she wanted to do it herself and literally painted the egg in pretty colours. I did try to explain that most I’d seen involved designing a whole ‘set’ and character wrap but she wanted to just decorate the egg. I think she was very disappointed when she saw the others and realised her pretty egg she had hand painted stood no chance against the master pieces that were entered into the now competitive event. Many appeared to have been completed by parents though. I know some of the kids and no chance they did them themselves. Lesson learned. She didn’t even bother this year to enter. They were told on the Friday to have them in by Monday and we had a busy weekend involving them staying at their dad’s for half of it, so no chance really!! Lol.

They did do bonnets in nursery and had the parade. She also did her herself and it was very basic compared to some of the elaborate designs that turned up.

I won one in the pub when I was 7. I'm 56 now so they have been around a long time.

I don't think a four year old can use anything that keeps a hat held together by themselves or any of the adhesives that keep decorations on long enough for the parade. I don't think they will feel bad that their parent makes a lot of the hat under their direction. I think they might feel bad if their hat falls apart because they can't access the right materials by themselves though. Obviously, the older the child is the more work of the hat they should do. I wouldn't expect a parent made hat on a 10 year old.

From what I remember, making them
in school, we were given a paper plate each, we punched two holes opposite each other on the rim, threaded a ribbon through to tie under the chin. We made lots paper flowers out of coloured tissue paper and stuck them on.

Seasonal bump!

Fantastic @Lamelie, it was the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title!