And the winner is... MUMMY! (Lighthearted)

[DriveVerySlowlyPastNumber23IWantThemToSeeMyHat]

Anybody else get slightly pissed off at Easter bonnet parades etc when the winners picked have clearly been created by the parents? 😂

Infuriates me. When DD was at primary school they had a cake decorating competition which was, of course, won by the child whose mum just happened to be a professional cake decorator. Totally obvious that the child had nothing to do with it (not an arty or crafty child at all). I don’t get why parents do it. Is their self esteem that in need of bolstering that they have to win a competition against 4-11 year olds? The kids whose parents don’t do it never win and feel shit about their efforts because they’re not as good as the things made by adults, and the ones who win because their parents made something KNOWN they didn’t make it - that must make them feel very odd inside.

If I left my child to his own devices he’s just out a eggshell on his head ( lighthearted)

Not sure why it needs to be a competition? Our school just do a parade and even the parent contribution hats aren’t show worthy

We used to do a cake decorating class in middle school for Christmas. One boy in my year brought in a cake very clearly decorated by his Mum. Every year he won. This has stirred up lots of emotions so I'm evidently still bitter about it 😅

This! For the US Bicentennial, we had a fancy dress competition at school, costume had to be American themed. My mum spent ages making a fabulous Pilgrim style dress out of crepe paper, was genuinely beautiful. I came second to a shop bought cowboy. Still sore about it 50 years later 😆

Secondary school art: I was loudly told off for having had someone draw my homework for me.
I was SO annoyed. The teacher had already taken some of my pieces and not returned them at the end of the first year.
After that I painted/drew and then trashed the image before I left the class.

Anyone remember the Easter bonnet on MN a few years ago.
It featured a horrific fox and some terrified chicks.

Not Easter but dh still occasionally mentions the “create a puzzle” competition in dc infants. Mine went low effort and made a word search (no expectations of winning but I had 3 dc and no time). The winner of the year 1 prize was a hand cut 6-piece wooden puzzle that used a jigsaw saw and had the school emblem burned into it meticulously. Well done that scout dad 🙄 bet he was so proud to beat all those 5-6 year olds!

My DC's primary school just had a parade and no competition which I think was better. Some amazing creations but loads of child-made ones too.

In her last year of nursery, DD had a bonnet competition and made hers completely on her own while I faffed about trying to make a pompom for it a la Kirsty Allsop. We abandoned the pompom anyway as it came out the size of DD's head, but when I dropped off her creation it was literally the only one that looked like it was feasibly made by a 4yo. And lo she came home with first prize, a packet of haribos as I recall, and was delighted with herself. Sounds like we have been lucky!

We used to have a decorated egg competition. The first year we had a lot of clearly decorated by a parent eggs. The second year we said there was a separate category for parent decorated eggs ( with prizes). Solved the problem!

Why didn't you make it with her at 3? I completely agree with OP that parents creations shouldn't win, but not helping her seems mean.

I made one with my 3 year old this week. He picked all the decorations, decided where they would go, and stuck them down.... but I made sure I was there to prompt him to use a bit more glue, suggest that a carrot balanced like that was likely to fall off, and to give things a bit of a squash to make sure they were soundly stuck down.

He would have been upset if his creation had fallen apart because he'd been left to his own devices on a task that was beyond his capabilities to do without support.

She absolutely didn’t want me to! Always been very independent minded 😆😆

When I was at primary school,my face didnt fit and I was bullied by children and teachers alike (this was the 80's and being bullied was considered as 'you need to toughen up')

Every year they did a 'boil and egg and decorate it' competition

Every year,I didnt go near the damn egg as my mother took charge and every year I didnt win a thing as
A-my face didnt fit
B-it looked like an adult had made it (which they did)
C-her craft skills where shite

The kids who where the favourites,won every time (with their eggs who hadn't gone near a child's hands either)

They didnt even bother to hide this fact,it was the biggest open secret ever

All changed the year i left and they got a new head-she had notes of which child had made what but set them out without names displayed

Each egg had been decorated in class to make sure a child had done it themselves

I can still see that one teachers face when one of my brothers won by his own talent (fuck you mrs fisher-you made my childhood hell)

I might need to get over this as it still makes me cross and I kept a very close eye on how stuff was judged when my own dc got to primary age

I'm a teacher. We always pick the crap ones. No mother/father has ever won anything on my watch! Some parents have had the neck to question the winning entry though!🙄

My Mum once came top in the class (in the days when it was still a thing) when we had to do a string picture at home for art. She was so horrified at my effort she stayed up most of the night. I dropped art at the end of the year to her relief.

The new version of this is children winning poetry competitions with ChatGPT entries. We had a recent one at the school and it was so so obvious. I can't believe the teacher couldn't see it.

We didn’t have a TV, but had lots of stuff like that. We’re both losers in that situation 😂.

I totally agree though mind you it's even harder to reign in the grandparents than the parents. Many years ago DH and I had a special anniversary couple of nights away leading up to the school Easter holiday. Grandad 'helped' her on her class project of decorating a boiled egg. Of course she won't hands down with all the enthusiasm grandad, recently retired with time on his hands brought to the project. 😱 He was quite proud of himself and had no idea he had overstepped. Sadly next year's effort, totally completed at our house just didn't meet Grandad's standard. 🤣

I've just remembered my mum 100% on her own did my sewing coursework for my GCSE in domestic science. She made a lovely little toddler sized lined waistcoat in one (late) evening. I expect I helped by huffing and puffing and flopping around dramatically.

@Riapiayes!!! I remember the fox bonnet it was brilliant 🤣🤣

Sorry, just catching up!

DD had her Easter Bonnet parade yesterday and she made hers by herself. Admittedly, it looked like Hobbycraft had thrown up over the hat but she was so proud 🥰

But no, the winner was something Mummy had clearly spent hours making 🙈

We used to have an Easter egg decorating competition at school but it was stopped as so many were obviously done by parents.
Now the kids have to bring in their own stuff and get a couple of hours to make their creations.

My son won when he was in nursery. The staff said it was so lovely to have an entry that was clearly completed by the child. Very lovely.

Except for the fact that I had done the whole thing as he wasn’t remotely interested!! And I was trying to make it look good!

my eldest son who was 11 at the time, had to make a boat in class to race across a pond, each child took their own materials to create the boat. My son was really happy with what he made, they were to race the boats the following week. My son arrived at school the next day and someone had trashed his boat. He was devastated, so I took him around to my brothers house who is great at crafts and they made the most immense boat ever! His boat won the race! I hope whoever trashed his boat the first time was annoyed at his amazing second boat!

I’ve found the sinister fox bonnet thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mumsnetclassics/937597-Sinister-Easter-bonnet?utmcampaign=thread&utmmedium=appshare

it was before we could upload photos to a thread but I’ve found a screenshot of it on a later thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4775216-to-wonder-wtf-easter-bonnet-parades-are-all-about?reply=125070027?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share