Did you do Easter hunts growing up?

[Stomachfullofchocolate]

I was a child of the 80’s, teen of the 90’s…I remember going to one Easter hunt as a child at a neighbours across the road, I had no idea what to do.
My parents would get me an egg for Easter for the morning and my grandparents would get me one…I was happy with that as I knew no different. We don’t go over the top in our house but I do plan a lovely egg hunt for Dd, get her some bunny ears/t-shirt etc and we do Easter activities -paint eggs, make Easter nests etc.
I’m not trying to sound like I’m perfect, I just enjoy doing it and it isn’t a massive hassle…I didn’t do any of it..we painted eggs at school and did nests so I suppose my mum didn’t think we needed to do anything else. But when I think about it, it’s like that with so many things…I do so much more with Dd and I work, whereas my mum was a Sahm for years. She wasn’t an awful mum, I’m not saying that at all, but things seem so different these days…even dinners were easy and things you just bunged in the oven (fishfingers, Findus crispy pancakes, chips etc) then she’d maybe cook from scratch on a Sunday. Breakfast was cereal in a bowl, no fruits, avocado on toast, eggs etc really like a lot of people nowadays. I think of all the things I bust my ass over and wondered why it wasn’t like that then or why just she wasn’t (not sure if that was the case or all motherhood was similar back then)
The thing she did do differently to me was a lot more daily cleaning…I’m rubbish and hire a cleaner as a treat as I prefer to put effort into spending time with Dd when I’m home and make better meals in general than in the 80’s.
Why didn’t my mum or maybe it was lots of other mums? Do these things?

DH and I were both children of the 80s and both grew up doing Easter egg hunts.
My parents were pretty uninvolved with my life though compared to parents today. My DM always says I do too much with/for my kids.

Yes every year. I didn't know anyone who didn't.

Sounds like the ones, yes. I don't think I ever knew what they were made of. Ah I see, so that's from the weekend before Easter (after a quick google), I am clearly not religious XD

Nope no egg hunts in my childhood 🤷‍♀️I’m not sure I did them when my dc were small either, certainly not every year. I got one egg from my parents, maybe one from a neighbour.. friends with bigger families got more. Christmas was quite low key as well although we did usually go to the pantomime. We also had lots of “stuff and chips”, but I think that was pretty normal for the 80’s.

My most fond memories with my family were the rare times that we actually did things together as a family, picnics and kite flying in the field opposite our house, treasure hunts in the car together, the 1 family holiday we had (caravan in a caravan park). My childhood wasn't unhappy, and I loved being independent, being able to go to the shop after primary school then meeting my Mum at her work, and hanging out with my sisters or my friends and being out and about without parents, but I felt ignored a lot, or left out a lot and my best friends Mum was more hands on, took us out more, swimming, to the pub for lunch, to the library, it felt like she took more interest in her daughter than Mum did with us, so I think my children will appreciate more effort and attention being focused on them, personally. I don't think my family are close, we don't care to drop in to visit Mum a lot and I would like to think if we are more hands on with our children that they will want to actually spend more time with us when they are grown up.

@MammaTill2Pojkar Yes, I get that, I’m much more involved too..I just want to be..naturally 🤷🏻‍♀️

What are treasure hunts in cars? A few people have mentioned this.

@Stomachfullofchocolate

What are treasure hunts in cars? A few people have mentioned this.

From my experience - fathers driving around drunk and over the limit on a wild goose chase for "clues" that inevitably lead them to the next pub then DMs thinking this is normal healthy behaviour.

No drunken driving involved with us... but a bit like orienteering I think, just further afield. Someone would go around and put clues in plastic pockets in random places and you would drive around and try to solve each clue to get the next clue and would usually end up at a pub. We lived in the countryside so would be driving all around little villages and up tracks by fields and such. We'd all get involved trying to solve the clues and then have a soft drink (maybe a pint or glass of wine for Mum and Dad) at the end. We did a walking one once with just Dad too, around a random village. There wasn't much to do as a family round us, no soft plays or anything and Mum couldn't swim so she never went swimming with us, so we loved this, driving round solving clues, listening and singing to classics on the radio.

Easter Egg Hunts are a cultural appropriation, as are Christmas Trees!

I’m in my 50s and I never heard of Easter egg hunts as a child. Nobody I knew did them. It just wasn’t a thing around my way.

80s child here, we had them every year, my mum would always organise them for us just in the house, or in a caravan if we were away for Easter! She passed away a few years ago and I now do them every year for my family and my sisters families, even though the youngest is now 17! We have an Easter hunt in the morning, then cooked breakfast for lunch.

Everyone gets involved and it gets quite competitive! But we have such a laugh, my DD is 2 now, so was really into it this year with the help of everyone else!

@saucerfulofwater 🥺Shit

@MammaTill2Pojkar Have never heard of that before 😌

Late seventies to mid eighties primary. Never did egg hunts, trick or treat (we did guising though), softplay, theme parks, eating out - except fish and chips when on holiday and poached eggs on toast at local department store after we'd been shopping for new school uniform, clubs (did brownies, and swimming because parents were insistent about learning to swim but that was all). Mum was a great cook - plain, home cooked, very delicious food.

Easter was an egg off parents, bar of choc and £1 off grandparents, a round of jarping with dyed eggs and a roast for dinner.

Parents didn't 'play' with us bar the odd game of monopoly or Scrabble or cards but we helped dad in the garden and helped mum baking. Days out were a hike and a picnic or bucket and spade at the beach.

Did lots of craft stuff, but little parental involvement other than admiring the results

Brilliant, stress free childhood. All the families we knew were the same.

I wonder if they kind of died out and that's why we seemed to just stop doing them, not exactly the best for the environment, driving around for no real reason. The walking one we did was a fair few years later.

Early 90s child here - I cant remember doing egg hunts until I was around 9 years and over - no idea why we didn't do it before then! Mum left us clues to find a egg.

We didn't do activities until secondary school, mum was part timer. We spent a lot of time occupying ourselves but we did sometimes play- I can vividly remember summers where mum would be reading magazines or chatting to her friends on the landline. Zoos / theme parks / softplays were a special treat.

My kids have quite a oldschool childhood compared to their friends - we can't afford clubs and they play out on the green with the neighbours kids - on bikes and scooters. They do come in for a lot more screen time in cold and wet weathers though 😁

I was born in 88 and have never been to an egg hunt in my life & never heard of anyone doing this until recently! We did get Easter eggs from parents/grandparents etc but don't remember the easter bunny really being a thing. Like pp my mum was a housewife rather than a stay at home mum, her focus was and still is 'keeping' the house. We never did any crafts or anything at home.

No, we coloured in Bible pictures, decorated boiled eggs and got a decent haul of Easter eggs and we were glad . I remember getting a new outfit and going to church (Catholic school). No idea why we had to go to church, Mother didn't believe in God particularly but I guess the conditioning was strong.

We always did one in the garden

My mother was pretty much stay at home.

In terms of parenting then and now - I think that on the plus side, parents are often more engaged with their kids as people and more aware of how child hood experiences will impact on them as adults.

On the negative side we’re bonkers about food, don’t give kids enough freedom and often feel pressured by SM to curate events like Easter.

I don’t think kids are overall happier now.

So I’d say take a small leaf out of your mum’s book and don’t kill yourself.

Late 80s child...we did Easter egg hunts, my most loved childhood teddy is a big bunny from an Easter egg hunt when I was about 6. DM also cooked from scratch more than I do and kept a tidier house. She was a SAHM though, I work f/t.

We do more big days out than my parents did, but we have more disposable income than they did - my parents did their best though and we went on lots of long walks and trips to the garden centre (to look at the pet shop).

80s child. I had a SAHM and I don't remember her playing with me at all. We were taken to the playground, piano and drawing class. The rest of the time she cooked and cleaned. I don't remember her playing with me. I had a brother to play with I guess. 🤷‍♀️

I wonder if it's because there's more information that's available now about how to be a "good parent" - books, social media etc that raise expectations. My mum didn't read books at all so I feel sometimes like she just left us to it. Her love was expressed through keeping us fed and clean and taking us to stuff.

I was a child of the 80s and we didn't do egg hunts. Family members gave us am easter egg and parents gave us one each. As for the other stuff, we didn't do crafts or child centered activities. Sometimes at the weekend we might walk to the park. Once a year we were taken to the fair and once a year we holidayed at the seaside for a week. We had no time/money for hobbies other than brownies. We were expected to amuse ourselves while Mum cooked and cleaned, and later worked. When old enough we would play outside with the neighbourhood kids and roam free. Parenting was very different back then and I don't think you can hold your parents up to modern day standards, but I too think they could have tried a bit harder from time to time.

Grew up in 70s teen in 80s. Never did egg hunt. My Mum worked 2 days a week and never did anything fun with us. No crafts, trips to park or swimming. We had to entertain ourselves basically. Dad took us out sometimes at weekends. Otherwise we just had to play out front with the other kids.

I grew up in the 80s/90s and definitely never did an Easter egg hunt and don't know anyone who did - I assumed it was a new thing, probably imported from the US.

I was just thinking about the differences in parenting across generations today. It was sparked by mum saying how she worked FT and listing all the thing she had to do - cook, clean, take us to activities etc. However, and without wanting to downplay that in any way, it was different to now, I think parental involvement is much more now . For example, I did two activities (Brownies/Guides and music lessons at home), which is vastly less than the array of stuff my DS does. Yes, I know it's a choice, but it's more the norm these days to do several activities than it was back then. Also, I used to play out all the time when the weather was good, but I can't imagine that with my kids. Even though DS is 8, he still needs input during the day and I can't just send him out to play and get on with stuff. I also don't think we had lots of holidays or big days out - just one two week holiday each summer, but we weren't going away for weekends etc. Funnily enough, my mum is often the one who puts the pressure on with this - eg where are you going this weekend? Aren't you taking the kids out somewhere? Etc

Born mid 80s and we had an egg hunt every year. I absolutely believed in the Easter bunny.

I also have a photo of myself at nursery in a bonnet parade.

Easter was a huge celebration for us! I was honestly appalled when I first spent Easter with DH’s family and they didn’t do a hunt.