Husband spoiled Easter bunny surprise

[Sleepingallday]

I bought an Easter egg for my DS weeks and weeks ago. Purposely bought it during a supermarket shop when he wasn’t with me. Saw a dinosaur themed one and had it in a Tesco carrier bag in the utility room on top of a cupboard. Was looking forward to doing a little hunt and the look on my sons face when he found it.

husband has taken it off the top off the cupboard to get to something and didn’t put it back up. DS just went into utility room and found it on the floor, spoiling the surprise.

AIBU to be gutted and pissed off

Are you only doing one egg in an egg hunt? We’ve always done lots of small eggs for a hunt that the children collect in a basket, then they usually get a larger chocolate egg off family members!

I think being "gutted" is eggcessive.

… and possibly a bit eggocentric.

I never really understand how much kids believe and how much they go along with it to keep their parents happy.

We have always hidden Easter eggs for a hunt around the garden, which now three of our four kids are teenagers is getting a bit of a bore, but they still love it,

But also Santa, which I am sure our youngest (11) knows is not real, but I am not sure our oldest (17) does. Every year he still talks about hearing sleigh bells and reindeer feet on the roof. Is this a conversation we're going to have to have in years to come with his future wife to make sure he always has a stocking to wake up to on Christmas Day??? 😑

TIL that some people pretend the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy are real. Wow.

Even if he knows the Easter bunny isn’t real, there’s still plenty of scope for fun. One mistakenly seen Easter egg isn’t worth ruining an entire celebratory weekend, surely?

Yeah. Time to get the shotgun out!

My two children have grown into reasonably well-adjusted adults without ever having heard of the ‘Easter bunny’ (as hadn’t I), let alone believed he’s real.

I tell you what though, if any giant leporine enters my garden this weekend in order to lay eggs, or whatever it is he does, he will receive from me in return a blast from the 12-bore.

So you may now tell your children that there is no Easter bunny this year because some horrible bloke in Norfolk shot him.

Then made him into a giant rabbit pie.

It was delicious. 😀

We are far from denying ‘magic’…my older kids believed in Father Christmas until secondary school age, similar with the tooth fairy etc. I’ve just genuinely never heard of the Easter bunny being a thing in the same vein, I don’t know anyone who does it. Likewise Easter baskets.

The irony of you taking the time to type out an admonishing reply just to say you consider a post to be so trivial Next time you use MN, I would suggest a topic other than AIBU…

@Sleepingallday We don’t celebrate Easter, but I can understand if you’re disappointed you have missed the look on your DS’s face at the dinosaur egg! Yes of course, we give gifts to give pleasure to the recipient but let’s be honest, as parents it’s such a happy feeling seeing that pleasure on our DCs’ faces! There’s nothing like it, it’s magical for parents too I’d apply this to festival rituals etc and not just gifts, before I get accused of making it all about consumption and presents etc Special food you only have once a year, DC playing a part in asking ritual questions…whatever your religion or occasion, anything that gives your DC pleasure and happiness is lovely for parents too. Moments of celebration should be cherished.

Not on the floor because the dog would get it.

But i might easily move it if I was looking for something else and leave it on a lower shelf that the child could see without thinking I was doing something I shouldn't.

We ask why we have so many infantile bridezillas and childlike 18- and 19-year-olds.

Maybe it's because, instead of young children being helped gradually to navigate the real world, they are fooled into such nonsense as Elf on The Shelf, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny instead.

DD never believed in the Easter bunny. It wasn’t something we ever did. I’m not sure many children do, do they?

Whilst Father Christmas and Santa, and to an extent the (Tooth Fairy) are generally a well known tradition, with children believing on mass, I’m not sure that’s ever been the same with the an Easter bunny. Not round here anyway, and certainly not when I was small or when DD was.

@Calliopespa I totally agree with you in all that you say!

I grew up in Ireland in the 70s & my dad adored childhood magic! He got it from his mother who grew up in a v rural part of the country & while she had strong Catholic belief, she also had a strong belief & knowledge of the older folklore stories & utterly believed in the fairy folk etc. Some of those stories were dark!

Anyway my dad (& mother but it was def driven by him) gave us magical Christmases (& without much money) we had traditions & stories for each occasion & i have VERY clear memories of lying in bed Christmas eve with my dad telling us stories & us hearing Santa's sleigh bells & being totally convinced we could hear them

I also 'saw' fairy clothes at the base of a fairy fort he used to bring me to on a walk on summers evenings. To this day I can see in my mind what I 'saw' then - the tiny jacket & trousers - probably a crumpled crisp packet!

We had the tooth fairy & the Easter bunny & a huge celebration for Halloween.

I am so incredibly grateful for these magical, fabulous childhood memories.

Dh's family are English & he spent the majority of his childhood there & he had the polar opposite experience growing up. He knew the concept of santa but it was v v lacklustre with little effort from his parents.

When we used to chat about our childhoods he was fascinated by my stories & when we had our own dc he asked if we could continue those traditions.

So we did. And he was 100% into it, more than me at times!

Our dc (now in their early 20s) had all the traditions- santa, Halloween, tooth fairy, Easter bunny & they loved it all & have great memories.

Even when they were growing out of childhood into early teens & we started to go away for midterms like Halloween or Easter etc they'd insist on putting up yje decorations anyway as 'it wouldn't be the same without them'

They're not in the least bit traumatised by us having continued the stories.

Childhood is short, a child's belief in magic & fantastical things is a gift to me cherished as life can be hard once they get older.

I do pity children who are raised in such pragmatic, sensible ways

Maybe it’s an area thing.. easter bunny was a big thing growing up in Yorkshire in 80s/90s and now still a thing for all our kids. I’ve lived in villages and towns
Parents who make childhood magic for their kids are awesome.

Of course it is, just because YOU don't do it doesn't mean its not a thing, thats such a mumsnet thing... 'I don't do this so it doesn't exist as a real thing'. I have never once asked people I know their Easter traditions, just as I don't know how anyone else in real life does stocking (and we know how contentious that is on mumsnet). Why would you possibly know that no one you 'have ever known' does that? you simply don't.

My oldest never believed in the tooth fairy, he thought is was the most preposterous shit and refused to play along so we never did it... I'm not going to faux pretend its not a thing and put others down just because its not OUR thing though.

People are pretty ignorant, everyone quoting Christianity it has nothing to do with Christianity and long predates it (especially in the UK), most celebrating these things are atheists even so no need to pretend a chocolate egg is an somehow and honor to god rising from the dead (totally unrelated)... other religions and their traditions are allowed to exist.

And I hate to say it but actually even Christianity is “ allowed” to exist.

I also think a lot of people don’t go in for it as they just can’t be bothered.

Actually the opposite, people forced to grow up too fast tend to disassociate or regress to a childlike state in adulthood more. Its a self protective coping measure.

Whimsy and imaginative play in young children is scientifically proven to be beneficial.

Don't pretend kids aren't exposed to this everywhere, books, tv, films, toys... they are all non factual whimsy of talking animals, made up stuff and non logical scenarios.

Agree.

Forcing children to grow up too soon is, I believe, at the heart of many of the MH issues today. It’s like taking a load of bread out of the oven before it’s baked.

Well said!

Firstly, you are confusing helping children gradually navigate the real world and forcing children to grow up too fast. These aren't the same—in fact, they're opposites.

Helping children gradually navigate the real world means meeting them at their level and guiding them, step by step, as they build understanding and confidence. It’s about age-appropriate learning, honest conversations, and giving them tools to process reality in a safe, supportive way. It respects their developmental stage while preparing them for the world as it is.

Forcing children to grow up too fast, on the other hand, means pushing them into situations for which they’re not emotionally or cognitively ready. In fact, telling a very young child that the Easter Bunny is real can also be disturbing for a the child.
.

Secondly, you don't seem to understand the concept of imaginative play.
Imaginative play is when a child actively engages in creating fantasy worlds, characters, and scenarios, fully aware that it's pretend. The child is in control of the imagination—they know the dragon isn’t real, the tea party is make-believe, and the cardboard box isn’t really a spaceship, but that doesn’t make the play any less magical or meaningful. In fact, the knowing is what gives them agency and creativity.

In contrast, trying to convince a child that the Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy is real involves an adult constructing a fantasy and then asking the child to believe it as fact. This isn’t the child pretending; it’s the adult pretending at the child. The power dynamic shifts: instead of empowering the child’s imagination, it requires them to suspend critical thinking and trust someone else's version of reality—often against their own growing instincts or questions.

So while imaginative play is a child-led exploration of fantasy, fooling a child into believing a myth is real is an adult-led imposition of fantasy.

Yeah, I’m sure all the posters who do egg trails for their kids are forcing them to pray at the altar of a giant bunny and admonishing them if they don’t ‘believe’….
There seems to be a lots of very extreme & defensive views on here. Oh hang on, I forgot I was on MN for a second!

Surely same could be said of a strange elderly man sneaking into your bedroom while you're asleep... 🤔
(We don't do Santa or the EasterBunny which I realise basically makes us child abusers by MN standards.)

@Sapienza excellent explanation 👏

Except that Santa is obviously real so there’s nothing to worry about.