To be frustrated with the school about the Easter egg situation?

[FrustratedMum2025]

So, the school sent home a note last week about the “Easter egg raffle” they’re doing, asking for donations of Easter eggs for the kids to win as prizes. Fair enough, I thought, seems like a nice thing to do.

But here’s the issue: they want each child to donate an Easter egg by tomorrow. Fine, except… my children have been having Easter eggs since early March because, well, they’re kids. The idea of giving yet another egg just seems so unnecessary to me. I’m already drowning in chocolate from my own absolutely brilliant planning of Easter, and I’m not sure I want to add to the pile just for the school raffle. Plus, when I mentioned it to a few other parents, it turns out they all feel the same!

It feels like they just don’t get it. I already pay for everything (I’m talking school trips, PTA fundraisers, fancy dress days, the whole shebang) and now it’s Easter eggs as well? I’m all for supporting the school, but they never ask for things in a way that’s actually affordable or considerate of family budgets. AIBU to feel like this is just another example of unnecessary school demands?

Also, they’ve made it clear that if you don’t donate, your child might not get to participate in the raffle. I get the whole “voluntary contribution” thing, but when it’s linked to something like this, it just feels a bit much. Honestly, I can’t be the only one who thinks this is all a bit tone-deaf.

Am I being unreasonable or is it just another case of the school not understanding how much we’re all juggling at the moment?

TL;DR: AIBU to be frustrated that the school expects us to donate an Easter egg on top of everything else, and if we don’t, our kids miss out on the raffle?

I want to find out more about this fundraiser - we don’t do anything for Easter at our PTA and this sounds like an easy little activity. We have a very mixed catchment and are always mindful not to set situations where families can’t take part for financial reasons, but we do have to get some money in if we want to keep doing everything we want (Christmas parties, cinema trip, uniform bank, school library books are out goals this year) and I’d like to bring in a few more easy ideas.

How does it work?

A misunderstanding of the point. I don’t care whether you participate, and I don’t think you’re a bad parent for not doing so. My point is that the alternative to participating should be not participating, not actively characterising the PTA as doing something wrong for organising it in the first place. I have a (more than) full time job too, as do all of the parents on our committee, as well as active social lives and multiple clubs for multiple kids. As did my mum when she ran my school PTA in the 90s 🤷🏻‍♀️ you can absolutely have a job that involves meetings and still access supermarkets, that’s how the vast majority of the working population feeds itself.

I do think that people who love these endless events through school need to get a life.

Those people are young children

This. OP you are being beyond ridiculous, on so many levels.

🤣 good point!

Wish I’d known that Easter Eggs were a £1 somewhere, I bought some from Lidl, and they were all over £5 😒

But I’d still donate to school for their event

Ohhh you’ve just reminded me that my DCs school did this last year and it was a major hit. Everyone donated an egg and I think it was £1. Every kid got an egg. I don’t know why they aren’t doing it this year ☹️

• I would be annoyed to have a days notice though!!

YABU

its not the school’s fault you gave your kids Easter eggs 6 weeks before Easter. Mine have had zero and I’m very much a believer in a balanced diet, they regularly have chocolate but Easter eggs are for Easter weekend

Don’t usually like it when an OP gets a pasting but this one is deserved. Kids been eating Easter eggs since beginning of march and you’re “drowning” in chocolate but having a bitch about donating an egg to the school raffle. Pathetic

Ours is as above - £2 and an Easter egg donation on non uniform day last Friday, and an Easter egg hunt tomorrow with the donated eggs. Depending on school size if you wanted to make it more accessible, you could do a £3 donation instead but included in that, the PTA provides a £1 egg. Wouldn’t be practicable for us as the school is enormous but nearly everyone donates.

We (I’m on the PTA and work full time, as does almost everyone else on the committee) often try to think about how to plug the gaps in our catchment for the kids

we have a cinema night each year in the hall and started a school library as many children in our catchment had never been to the cinema. Or the library. There’s massive poverty and a lot of refugee families with plenty else to worry about and a variety of children in complicated care situations… am sure plenty won’t have an egg or many eggs for Easter. So I think sometimes there is more to an event than how it applies to the privileged at the school.

So someone hides the eggs around the school ground and each kid finds one? Are they the small kinds? Thanks for the help :)

You main issue seems to be that you have been giving your children eggs since march (why??) and have already gone overboard on buying eggs. Sounds like that’s the unnecessary part.

the school raffle does sound a bit annoying and unnecessary but in the scheme of things you can get cheap eggs and it doesn’t sound like the cost of eggs is an issue for you if your children already have lots.

I think it’s a fun idea🤷🏻‍♀️

And I don’t see what difference one egg makes ( either health or budget-wise) if you’ve all been buying and scoffing them through March.

Have you spoken to the school about the apps? How do other parents manage?

And unless your vair important job is on Fair Isle I simply don’t buy that you couldn’t either buy an egg at a station or go to the co-op on your way home. I just came back on the train and walked/ drove past about 5 places. Or just add an egg to your shop in March, it’s hardly like Easter is a surprise…

Why have you been having Easter eggs already?! My kids have been asking for eggs for weeks. I’ve consistently been saying “not until Easter”. It’s annoying Easter is late but it’s the way it is. They can have other treats just not Easter eggs,

I honestly don’t get why you’re annoyed at buying a £1.50 easter egg for school?

I haven’t actually seen it but I think each class will do it in their classroom with a visit from the Easter bunny (a good sport of a committee member!) we’ve got an incredibly supportive set of teachers who happily get involved in PTA stuff during the school day and outside of it.

Oh and we didn’t stipulate what type of eggs but I’d assume most people will choose the small kind, that’s what I donated as a parent and what I bought for the PTA contribution!

Yupppp. I also work full-time, go away on work trip and have “client meetings” but could pop to Sainbos or M&S on my way home to get an egg. Very strange post…

Well it’s not the schools fault that you’ve been piggies and eaten eggs since March 😂😂 one more now isn’t really going to make a diff is it.

So you think it’s ok for 4+ yr olds to miss out on an exciting school activity (to them) because their parents can’t afford or organise for them to “donate” an egg in time?!

Thats cruel.

Anything organised by a PTA should be done in good spirits with children at the heart of it. Asking for donations is fine! But excluding children isn’t.

So I’m now eating a caramel creme egg. 🐣

( Made you weep … 😝)

That's where the OP lost me too

Our school PTA put on a lovely Easter event and all kids went home with an egg, there was the usual shout out for volunteers and because I work full time I'm rarely able to help but I'm grateful for those that can spare the time. I'm not sure how it was funded but the PTA have a few fund-raising events throughout the year and i'm assuming that supports the Easter event, its only at Christmas that we're asked to contribute actual Christmas fair prizes and its not a 'you must or your child can't take part' situation its a request to wrap up a few sweets for the lucky dip so not much to ask really.

Surely if you've been giving your children Easter eggs since March, it's less pressure for you than for most? If they get, say, one egg a week, then instead of eating this week's egg you just keep it back and they take it into school.

I don't understand anyway why your children are already eating them. Surely the idea is that you keep them for Easter Day, and maybe have an Easter Egg hunt? If buying eggs for school makes you feel pressured, doesn't buying all those extra eggs for your children make you feel even more pressured?