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? 😂

That was nightmare fuel.

This is shocking! 😮

also completely belittles all the other parents with jobs (big or little 🤨) who bust their asses trying to do all of the things.

As a teacher I don't generally jump to blaming schools for problems caused by parents, but in this case schools should just keep it as a parade and not make it a competition, since they know full well that loads of bonnets will be just made by the parents.

Everyone else’s jobs were chopped liver, of course!

I work in an infant school and we have an Easter hat parade every year. The winners are always the children who have obviously made their hat themselves (or with very minimal input) We never chose those that have obviously been made by the parent.

When I was little, about 5, I’m 58 now, my sister, 5 years older, spent hours decorating a really good Easter egg. So my mum quickly painted one for me, just coloured it rather than putting in any major effort. I won, my sister didn’t. When it was announced I jumped up all excited and ran off for my prize. My mum nearly died of the shame. We still talk about it every Easter.

Just a little story rather than addressing the point of the post… I don’t have the gall to comment!

In my mums defence, she really just wanted me to have something to enter, she made no real effort to win.

🤣🤣🤣

This is amazing.

🤣🤣. Fortunately I can safely say not in this case. 🤣

Had it been made by an adult I think it really would have been a cry for help…

I wonder a bit if all the people making their children’s craft projects has resulted in some teachers being wildly unrealistic about what a six or seven year old would be able to make on their own. I mean, I’m sure there is the odd D&T prodigy but those will be rare. Theres nothing much more dispiriting than having a teacher say “Well, I would have expected a bit more effort” to a child who spent hours over a weekend but still produced a pile of shite.

the only time i did an easter bonnet was for work and my teenage dd helped me

my dc never seemed to do them unless they did them at school.

This is why whenever we did these things I would just get a hat and let my kids just stick things on, no making it perfect, letting them stop when they’d had enough. We would then have a giggle about the one that won because it was either clearly done by the mother or was someone who was in the parish council or some such village organisation.

A friend used the same bonnet she had made for her three children in different years’ Easter parades. She won twice!! She was so smug faced. 🙄

It has been mentioned here about Blue Peter and sticky back plastic. I discovered recently that sticky back plastic is sellotape! They couldn’t use the brand name of sellotape on the BBC as it’s advertising! Mind blown. All the years wondering as a child what this magic stuff was that created the Blue Peter makes. Just sellotape!

Doesn't always work. I 'helped' make the collaged cover for my DS's project at primary school. Teacher commented favourably on the project but said the cover was 'busy'. 5 years of art school and a degree in graphic design wasted. And before anyone else says it: served me right.

Everyone’s a critic, @Pliudev!

I remember when ds26 had to make a house in reception. We had wonky windows, paint dripping down house, you get the idea. One kid came in with a perfect house with a conservatory and a white picket fence!

Oh, really? I thought it was double sided sticky tape, lol.

I have always been crafty, arty and when I was little I had to decorate an egg for a competition. My mother wasn't the least crafty or arty. My creation was all my own work. My mother did boil the egg for me though. We always had Swan Vesta matches in the house and that is where I got my idea from. I cut an oval shape in the match box. Painted it blue and used a pipe cleaner and feathers that I took out of the corner of my pillow and stuck them to the egg to make a swan. I won 1st prize but all the other kids said I had cheated and my mother had made it for me! I vividly remember the injustice of it. It doesn't matter if your child makes it or you do because even if it is all the child's work the other kids get jealous and won't believe the child made it!

I doubt it! The teachers see day-to-day what kids are and aren't capable of. More likely the teachers just don't want to get into an argument by judging that certain items are parent-made!

I think that explains my one prize for "best flower arrangement" in Brownies, which looked like a 7-year-old had shoved a bunch of buttercups in a teapot, because, well, that's what I'd done.

Good.

I do get worked up about this kind of thing because I'm painfully aware that parents nowadays often cheat with coursework—even at uni level: "Oh, I just improved the wording."

True story.

I once had a situation at work where a child's coursework was done by the grandparent. It was a clear fail...

What?! For years I've assumed that it was that contact paper that you get for kitchens, or the like.

I used to beg my mum to let me do the Blue Peter makes. Her answer was always "Oh, no. You see, they make the programme in London and they don't sell that stuff in Scotland."

My kids hated doing arts and crafts so rather than them being left out i always felt like I had to cobble something together and vainly try to get them to engage with it along the way. It was never successful so I dont hate on the parents that do their kids projects for them. My DD did win an egg competition one year and the teacher in confidence told me that they picked hers because it was obvious a parent hadn't been involved. I wasn't sure whether to be pleased or insulted!

In our school I though the best bonnets were those that used recycled cardboard boxes, used eggs shells etc. No Amazon, temu or Ross Baker. However, I think the winners where drawn from a raffle. I was fine with that. My reception girl cried but we then talked about winning and losing and how we thought hers was the best simply because we loved it and she helped make it. She forgot all about the tears by the time we got home. And made be laugh today as she told her 4 year old friend: when you are in reception, you will have an easter parade like me, and you will make an easter bonnet (didnt hear the rest of the discussion). Reception kids loved their singing and that was great

So much about schools need to change.
My daughter had to wait ages to be star of the week (supposed to be awarded to a child who had behaved or achieved) .. Every week my DD would say ‘I think I might get it this week because I stayed in and helped miss wash up, tidy chairs, did amazing work, got all my keywords right, helped another child complete work etc etc… and the teacher had told her how kind and polite she always was etc… and then every week she’d come out crushed that once again some kid who had beaten up another kid, or wouldn’t sit still in assembly had been awarded it! It always sent off such a shitty message in the end I told my DD that I thought they just took the names out of a hat a random and then had to find something nice to say about that child… and i don’t think I was wrong!
Then you had school plays with the same kids always being given the best parts, if you had time to be a parent helper, a governor etc your child was always picked, if you were a teacher at the school then crikey…. You were privileged to be the main part in the plays, get picked for sports teams, get in every news letter
(picture of you doing something or other)… my DD had the teachers kid in her class!! Yes taught by her own mother… I found this so unprofessional!… and of course she always knew all the answers… anyone would think she’d had access to the lesson plan in advance!!
Then it’s attendance awards… so anyone with genuine reasons for not having 100% attendance felt they were being punished for picking up a stomach bug, flu, chicken pox or whatever (probably caught at school!) My DD has said that one kid with 100% attendance sits in class poorly but parents won’t pick him up… I’m sick of my DD constantly picking up bugs from children who’s parents don’t respect the 48 hr rule following symptoms of a D&V bug. My DD has picked up so many this past year