Aggressive Parents, Egg Hunts and Church -

Every year someone at our church hosts an egg hunt. Last year it was at my house. My biggest worry was that one of the children would step in dog poo, it didn’t happen.

According to an article I read yesterday I shouldn’t have been worried about the children. I should have worried about the parents.

Colorado parents forced an annual egg hunt to cancel because they were too aggressive. That’s right. They crossed the roped off area that was meant only for children in order to make sure their child found some eggs.

You can read about it here.

I don’t know what my percentage of “getting it right” was as a parent, but I do know I made a lot of mistakes. Even when we try our very best and have good intentions there are still times when we mess up. But ruining a child’s egg hunt because you are too aggressive? Come on people! They’re children and it’s an egg hunt for crying out loud!

It’s supposed to be about fun!

easter egg hunt 011 — a time for children to act silly!

easter egg hunt 002 — and a time for friends and family to enjoy "watching" the children have fun!

After all, Easter is more than just bunnies and eggs. It’s about a man named Jesus who died for our sins and you can read more about it here.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was he replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”—Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)

Perhaps all egg hunters (especially aggressive parents) need to be reminded of this. If we truly love the way we should I don’t think there would be any shoving at a children’s egg hunt.

Take your children and grandchildren to a peaceful egg hunt if you can find one, but take them to church first and tell them the real Easter story!

9 Comments

Agreed, Dave,agreed!

That’s too bad that some parents get competitive with an egg hunt. I agree with you in that is silly. I’ve seen this a lot with children’s sports programs. Seems to me that some parents are living their own childhood again.

Thanks for the reminder to everyone about the real meaning of Easter. 🙂 Also, thanks for linking up with me this week.

There should definitely be NO shoving at an egg hunt. I mean…really!

Teresa, it’s sad when you read stories like the one you shared. We do live in a world that tends to teach self preservation instead of reliance on God. Thank you for sharing that Easter is truly about Jesus and his sacrifice. And thank you for linking up at What Joy Is Mine.

It’s sad when parents are teaching their children all about “me first”. We host an egg hunt at our house every year. I put special prizes in the shiny eggs and had one parent pointing all of those out to their child. Now, I tell the parents that if their child isn’t old enough to hunt the eggs by themselves, they can’t hunt. It stinks that it has to be that way, but when one parent acts that way, it ruins it for everyone.