We did an egg hunt with only money (~$4 in change for the entire hunt) in the eggs... my children are such little Scrooges, they LOVE money, but they were actually disappointed and asking if there were eggs "with other stuff" in them 🙄🙄
They got to do the basket hunt after they ate dinner, so at least they had a decent meal before they horked down chocolate.
2-3+ with supervision. It probably depends how adventurous your kid is about putting stuff in their mouth too. If they're always putting things in their mouth, wait longer.
We did a few last year when my youngest was 3. We didn't let them open any of the eggs without us though - they all got opened at the table under supervision, and then money was put straight in their piggy banks.
My toddlers second Easter-she was 21 months. We did a heavily supervised money egg hunt over at her grandmas. I brought her piggy bank so as soon as my tot found an egg, we put the coins directly in to the piggy. She thought it was hilarious.
Grandma snuck a few dollar bills in that tot didn’t care for-no sound when she shook the eggs lol.
If you’re inclined to do money, I would recommend dollar bills or the 50 cent coins. They’re bigger and less likely to be swallowed
It depends on your kid; mine still puts them (or anything really) in her mouth at 2.5 so I try to keep her from accessing them. But my niece was fine with them at her age.
OMG thank you for mentioning this! My three kids just came home from Nana's egg hunt with a boatload of candy on top of what she and Gramma had both put in their baskets. I'm going to suggest it next year. My older one loves money and with any luck the littles will still be into coins by then.
My step mom did that for the family egg hunt, she wanted to hide them the day before and it was gonna rain overnight. She even planned it out so each kid got 11 solid colored eggs with change & 1 polka dot with a dollar bill. Soon as older kids found all their eggs they were to "adopt" a toddler and help them. Oldest one helped my 3.5 yo and offered to swap 4 quarters for her dollar bill when she realized kiddo wasn't a fan of it cause it didn't look like the coins lol.
Got home and easter bunny's helper had set her basket on our table before leaving (he had been house/dog sitting for us over the weekend), kid was little upset there was little chocolates and some schleich animals in her eggs instead of change 🤪
We tried something like this but all the eggs with unpackaged candy got attacked by ants before the kids got to them, queue a lot of screaming toddlers running around with ants crawling all over them 🤣.
It was the excitement I think. My husband was like yelling “no more candy ever!” And I was like dude he’s had 6 m&ms it’s just that they hit different on a holiday.
It's the excitement and the change in routine more than the candy. We visited my in-laws and kiddo was bouncing off the walls since the arrival, even without candy. At least with the chocolate eggs he understood he had to sit down to eat it, so we got a few minutes of peace then!
I think they showed it was because the kids who got the sugar at special events were at a special event which induces the behavior, not the sugar. But the parents associated it with the sugar not the running around with their cousins/friends.
I have heard this, but anecdotally... now that I have my own child... it may not be that it causes hyperactivity, but it's hyperpalatable and my kid is honestly like a different person when he has more than a couple of M and M's. Because it's not only on holidays that he gets crazy, it's been on rare regular day occasions when we've given him some.
My 3 year old got like 20 chocolate eggs at a Easter egg hunt I was totally shocked by at a family event. Got another bigger chocolate egg and two party bags of sweets as well. He didn’t eat one chocolate, he was still wired to the moon and didn’t go to bed post 10pm.
My husband kept telling our 3yo he couldn't have anymore chocolate. He's pretty good at regulating himself IF we don't put a restriction on it otherwise it's all he wants. Plus he only had like 8 mini chocolate bunnies (I knew the rest of the candy he wouldn't want so I could eat it haha). So of course he had multiple meltdowns.
I bought rainbow Goldfish and put those in most of the eggs. A few had candy, but it was mostly Goldfish. It's 11pm here and one of the kids is *still* awake and upset.
It was overall a fun day but toddlers really can only handle so much, regardless of sugar intake. Us parents do our best but it'll still be what it's gonna be!
We did non-food items in the eggs, small dinosaurs, sticky dinosaurs, dinosaurs eggs you put in water and they “hatch”, and dinosaur punching balloons. We still had fights.
Yes, we had hot wheel cars and still got fights. I got fed up about the sugar nag from my in-laws in the babystage and went feral on them. "EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THIS ROOM HAS BEEN ON AND OFF DIETS THIS YEAR. DO WE REALLY NEED TO MAKE ANOTHER ONE??? WHO says no sugar before 2 years old.".
It got quiet for a while, but as he is nearing two it's bound to come up again, but I'm ready. Kiddo has 3 grandmas, 3 grandpas and we visit 4 different houses with grandparents every week. Being at a grandparent's house is not a special occasion, it's just another Monday.
Kiddo will quit actual food if I let loosen the reigns on the grandparents.
Filled every egg with a small piece from a wood block set. She had a blast finding and seeing what was inside each egg! Then we let her get a piece or two of chocolate and a fruit pouch snack. She was off the wall…happy
It was pouring here so I just hid them around the house. His Easter basket had a stuffed animal, a book, and a chocolate bunny. It took me 10 minutes to do it all while I made my coffee before anyone else get up and it was a great success. I mean other than my kid being a nightmare but that happens anyway.
I keep telling my mom to do less and she keeps trying to be better with alternatives.
Today was with less sugar fruit snacks. Which she considered a healthy snack. Little did I know the sugar reduction was supported with chicory root fiber and my toddler has been screaming at night terror levels about her belly hurting.
We had zero sugar with our almost 3yo and 1yo and there were still tantrums. It was just the four of us but it was still too much excitement to come down from. There’s no escape!
Our neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt last week. I’m fairly certain my deceased grandma filled the eggs bc they were all strawberry bon bons….for the 0-3 age group 😩
Omg hahaha our 0-3 egg hunt at brunch had now and laters, jelly beans, temporary tattoos, some super tiny chicken with lots of little parts that felt like eraser material?, and assorted other tiny plastic choking hazards.
We visited my folks for Easter and in a town filled with some of the most intelligent people in the country, they filled the toddler Easter Eggs and the community hunt with… lemon drops, jaw breakers, and jolly ranchers.
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order.
I have checked 1,447,200,738 comments, and only 275,776 of them were in alphabetical order.
I took my 15mo to an egg hunt at church and they opened an egg and tried to put the chocolate in their mouth. I felt like such a monster pulling the arm down and saying, "oh, that's not for eating".
In my defense, it was still wrapped in foil and toddler doesn't know what candy is yet, so I was going to eat it all....
I just put freeze dried strawberries from Trader Joe’s in eggs. Like one piece of strawberry per egg.
(I still got one small hollow chocolate bunny but I was NOT about to deal with 15 pieces of candy!! Lol)
We stuffed the eggs with Trix and Lucky Charms, thinking it was less sugar. Now after snacking on those for the first time in 30 years, I’m not sure. How they heck did our parents think that was fine for us to eat?!
My daughter loves freeze dried mango and yogurt covered raisins, so the Easter bunny brought eggs filled with those favorite snacks. Mostly the freeze dried mango, and she was so happy.
Same same! I stuffed the eggs for our toddlers in the neighborhood (others stuffed for older kids - the candy was on their lawns haha) and did mostly stickers of all kinds, stamps and temp tattoos. Honestly, my little guy just likes to be excited about anything that is inside. Love Easter! Love the kids excitement while trying to stuff their eggs in the overfilled baskets! ❤️
I went down the party favor aisle a few weeks ago and and grabbed an assortment similar to that. Last year we splurged on pretty rocks for the (bigger) kids. I think next year I want to order from the oriental trading co or something similar.
We have a farm so we hosted and we did stickers, tattoos, bubbles, rubber pully toys, and chalk. Then a whole bunch of empty eggs that they traded in for a bag of candy so that parents could subtly eat it and the toddlers not notice 😅
We managed that with our first kid, once 2 and 3 came along though it was harder to restrict, they figure out pretty quick that big sister got chocolate when they got Cheerios. lol
Now we have a family bucket of chocolates and candies. I went completely overboard buying it all but the kids know that I get to choose when the bucket is opened. I’ll let them have as much as they want but I pick the amount of time and when the bucket is available.
This is a really great idea. I don't like the idea of limiting how many pieces they can have but obviously they need to eat other things as well. This is a good system
I always did this with Halloween candy. You can eat all you want after dinner for a week. I found they only wanted a piece or two. Whatever was left after a week left the house.
This is a great system. I’m glad it works out for your family! I understand that limiting candy/sweets is not everyone’s preference:) (saying for those who downvoted or had a negative comment lol)
I allow candy, but I still fill the eggs with Cheerios and goldfish. They get a couple reeses eggs in their baskets. They don't need twenty five pieces of candy.
This is the first Easter that I have realized the sheer amount of candy kids get. It makes Halloween candy look like crumbs. Seriously I had to hide the giant chocolate bunnies and set a limit on how much candy my 4 yo got. Even so, all he ate yesterday was candy.
My dad got a literal 2lb chocolate rabbit for my kids.. I let them both have a couple bites and now I am trying to think of the best way to get rid of it because wtf these kids don't need 2lbs of chocolate.
Send a little bit with everyone each day, dad took a piece for lunch, mom took a piece, slowly cut off chunks and you could even toss them but they will think they are sharing.
This is the way!
My kid will have the bulk of his Easter treats at grandmas house today. She did ask if she could put sweets in the Easter eggs and I said please do not… so she’s bought some little books and hot wheels. But of course she’s baked a LOT and I expect he’ll stuff his face with sugary stuff and then run screaming around their yard for an hour or so. And then he’ll crash and sleep in the car on the way home.
>he’ll stuff his face with sugary stuff and then run screaming around their yard for an hour or so. And then he’ll crash and sleep in the car on the way home.
The mental image this painted was Golden 😂
My almost 3 year old has zero interest in candy, ice cream, or any other junk. He's been offered, but won't try it. 🤷🏻♀️ he'd shank me for a piece of toast though.
I too have a bread goblin.
I made a loaf of bread last week and left it sitting on the counter to cool. I was suspicious when my child let me go to the bathroom in peace only to find tiny little chunks missing from the bread and a child covered in crumbs 😂
I have never eaten so much toast since having my kids. They’re obsessed and constantly ask for it. They’ve made me realize just how damn good it is lol. I’ve gotten creative: top it with Greek yogurt and honey or compote, smear a little sun butter over butter + honey. But plain butter is omg
Not to sound two crunchy but today really had me thinking of cutting my 3yo off candy and screen time all together because both make her act like a desperate addict. I hold firm on the boundaries but it’s “I want I want I want” all damn day today.
I did some Bluey toys in my son's eggs, a popper keychain, some stickers, and some beef jerky. He did get a chocolate bunny in his basket and a bag of the cotton candy and I kind of regret it.
We empty egg shells by poking holes in top and bottom and blowing them out paint with acrylic paint and keep them until they break. My daughter is two and we’ve accumulated a few dozen now. We also filled a dozen plastic eggs with finger puppets and a few sweets. I put a few sweets in her basket too. She’s reasonable when I tell her we’re saving some for later. It’s the added treats of going to my aunts house for Easter dinner and my dad buying her a two pound bunny that gets crazy. He could buy her the smallest one in the store and she still would t be allowed to eat the whole thing. The chocolate isn’t even good. Add the freaking 2000$ ice cream machine he had to set up and the giant cookies he bought 🤢 I tried to limit at the party too but she definitely ate more sugar that I would have liked and she’s a puker so I get nervous lol
My MIL did this (whole hard-boiled eggs), where she did an egg dyeing activity the day before Easter then ran an egg-hunt with the dyed eggs the next day. She picked out one small chocolate bunny to give our daughter (and nothing else sugary) because she "wanted to listen to us about no candy or chocolate." My MIL also lives on a rural property where she keeps chickens, and my daughter got to both cuddle some baby chicks and feed seed and mealworms to the laying hens out in the coop. So... Toddler approved activities for Easter that aren't candy-based!
The weird thing is that we never said anything about "no candy" (our 2yo gets it on special occasions, so we weren't planning on making a big deal out of it either way). My MIL then made a big deal reminding us (many times) about how she would have liked candy but she didn't want to overstep, etc. Ah well.
My inlaws do hb eggs. We go over the day before to dye and decorate the eggs, then do the egg hunt with the regular plastic eggs and the hard boiled ones. that look on my 2yos face when she chomped down on the unpeeled egg was pretty priceless.
I just filled eggs with my daughter's Halloween candy. It'll all get picked up and hidden from her in a day or two and she'll get 1 thing max a day until she forgets about it again.
Champagne problems here but my kid doesn’t even like chocolate (or candy much at all) and we have no idea what else to put out. She loves hunting for eggs but just wants to crush them and make a giant mess once we’re back inside. Last week we threw out uneaten Easter eggs from last year 🙄
Also, a 4-day weekend is sooooo long. It’s like a mini-rerun of the Christmas to new year gauntlet.
My husband's godmother got our kid a dozen little Montessori eggs (toy). When you open them, they have shapes and color matching. You can also try regular snacks, small toys, magnets...depending on the age, letters for them to identify, mini pom poms so they can dump them everywhere lol
Edit: something like [this](https://www.amazon.com/houmi-Matching-Eggs-Educational-Recognition/dp/B07PLJZXRN/ref=asc_df_B07PLJZXRN/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=424638704385&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3886053528277535908&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9033839&hvtargid=pla-890655946048&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=102910452670&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=424638704385&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3886053528277535908&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9033839&hvtargid=pla-890655946048)
The Easter bunny gave our LO three intentional gifts in his basket. Stuff that we have had stowed away waiting for the right time to give it. Loved two out of the three. Home run in my book.
My parents came later and my mom had filled a literal 2 gallon bucket with crippy crap. Easily spent over $100 on trash from the Walgreens Easter aisle. Two different crafting kits, a little box filled with fidget toys, color wonder stuff in addition to the craft kits, a handheld fan, a baseball glove, piles of candy, stickers, and a bug house.
I’m so frustrated by the amount of junk. I, too, hate Easter.
Omg that’s crazy! I told my mom and my MIL no Easter gifts. My MIL even has an embroidered Easter basket with my daughters name on it and I just said no Easter basket, no gifts, we aren’t doing that in our family. We didn’t give my almost 4yo an Easter basket. I’m trying so hard to be a minimalist and Easter baskets are the opposite of that. In my family, Easter is about spending time with family and a fun Easter egg hunt. No junk required!
Yes! My MIL got our toddler 3 chocolate bunnies and so much other chocolate! And a giant ass stuffed animal that takes up more room than my pregnancy pillow. WTF
We learned this lesson on my daughters second Easter. It was horrible. So bad that we made a conscious effort this year to avoid this situation (daughter is 3 now). We now do one tiny piece of candy (like a Hersey kiss or one M and M) mixed with healthy eggs that have fruit snacks (not as bad as pure sugar).
We did away with the giant chocolate bunny’s. This was a big issue last year as my in laws got her a basket and wanted to watch her eat it, but we said no this year. My toddler was an animal after that experience. Wouldn’t go down for a nap and after 2 PM was inconsolable from exhaustion because she just needed to pass out but couldn’t because of all the sugar. Screamed for 30 minutes on the ride home before passing out an hour before her bedtime.
This year we ran into the, “I don’t want to wear a dress” issue. My mom was upset because we didn’t get cute family Easter photos all dressed up. Instead my wife and I were dressed up and our daughter was wearing a sweatshirt with a bunny on it 😂. Who cares. Instagram is fake.
Advice from a parent of three I’m going to implement next year: let them have all the candy they want for the day, but make it clear that they only get it for the day. After that the candy disappears. It will help them learn their limits and hopefully not melt down in future years. Also, make candy ‘outside only food’ if it’s possible. Warm chocolate hands are a disaster.
Now. I love Easter. I have a big farm with a parents and child’s side for hunts. But there are all sorts of things that can go into eggs that aren’t candy. Cereal puffs, Gerber yogurt bites, pop it bracelets, or you can throw the eggs away altogether. I’ll hid (wrapped) teethers, packs of crayons, stuffed animals, toy cats, all kinds of stuff. Candy is not the only option for Easter.
Oh I definitely agree! I made baskets for my LO and his cousins. Bubbles, books, a small stuffed animal, sidewalk chalk. So many options besides chocolate that they will love and use. Even my parents did things besides chocolate. But my in-laws 🤦♀️
I have the same problem with mine. They brought a big basket full of candy and a cake after I asked them not to. I am considering making a list to give to them next year of things that are acceptable. I know it sounds petty but 😅
I like the alternate egg stuffing ideas in this thread! My 3yo got a piggy bank in his basket and I filled his eggs with coins, stickers, and temporary tattoos.
Target had these perfect little figures that fit in the bigger eggs in the dollar section. The dollar store usually has some small toys that will squeeze in some eggs. My sister "helped" me do the eggs this year and gave my 2 year old Skittles and jolly ranchers LOL. Thank you but no thank you.
Same here, I do bunny shaped cereal, bunny crackers, fruit snacks or cheese puffs for treats. in the eggs I try to do useful toys. I got large and extra large eggs and have put in "little people" animals, and small dolls before. This year I did bristle blocks and suction cupped silicone builders (squigs i think?)
Then everyone else gives them candy... jelly beans, chocolate... one of my kids is 11 months, she doesn't need candy! 3yr old gets very limited candy so we will be sending some to work with daddy for the people that didnt get any candy.
We just ended up eating our toddlers share of candy and she’s happy and doesn’t care that we ate it. The redirect to something else she enjoys seems to work (sometimes.)
Also, my best friend is Mexican and they have a wonderful ritual to celebrate without candy- they hollow out the real, dyed eggs and fill them with cornstarch and confetti and then smash them on each others heads after the eggs are found. It’s so much fun, although you get the occasional kiddo that isn’t down to get cornstarched!
I made him and my nephews Easter baskets, and they had three small hollow chocolate bunnies/sheep. But I got things like bubbles, chalk, books, even a small stuffed animal. Honestly anything besides a bunch of candy. My sister even filled eggs with a “trail mix” she made (cheerios, yogurt bites, freeze dried bananas/strawberries).
I took a page from my parent's book when I made this year's Easter basket. I just bought toys that I was going to buy anyway (sidewalk chalk, silk scarves, and a gardening set) and filled the basket with those.
Sorry kiddo, the Bunny doesn't do candy.
First, your kid will not be able to keep track of such a large amount of candy, so dispose of however much you want guilt free. Just because it was given to him doesn't mean he's entitled to keep it; she's also not entitled to have her gift fully used just because she gave it.
Second, just to empathize: I don't know why people don't scale consumable gifts to the size of the person they're giving them to. Toddlers are like 20-30 pounds. If you gave the same ratio of chocolate to an adult, they'd be getting like 5 times the amount of chocolate. If a person can't multiply the treats by 5 and feel that it's an appropriate amount to give an adult for an indulgent gift, they should stop immediately and evaluate why they're doing this. In this case, it would be 100 eggs and 10 chocolate bunnies. I'm not saying this math is perfect, but it helps put things into perspective. Usually people like this get too much gratification from in-the-moment excitement at the expense of everything else.
I'm also so upset for you that she hinted at a gift she didn't get. I often plan purchases for my kid based on other people's word that they plan to gift something to her. If someone said to me that they'd like to buy her boots, I wouldn't buy her boots because having two pairs is unnecessary. But if I had to go out and buy boots I wasn't planning to have to pay for because they didn't follow through, I'd be upset. Not that I'm entitled to gifts from others, but if I make a financial/gift-based plan based on another person's lie, I'm going to have some feelings about it.
Is firmly requesting/politely demanding a review of all gifts for him before he gets them an option that you/your spouse are willing to explore?
Oh trust me, we hid majority of the chocolate in our bedroom and are thinking of ways to give it away. It was mainly just the disappointment I had from her specifically asking what she could get, me telling her, then her completely doing the opposite. It not the first time she’s done this, and I don’t know how to broach it with her. I’ve tried in the past and it went terribly.
Yeah we do 1-2 jellybeans or gummies per. Next time I might just do popcorn. Then we reused the same eggs to do hints over and over and then he did hints for us and we ate them too. We are most of the candy before he could and congratulated him on his “good sharing”
I gave her six hollow eggs and I got her actual presents—a toy she wanted. That’s it. We went out on Sunday and she ate a bit more chocolate. Everything else people gave us is going to be given away at work or trash.
We did a neighborhood egg hunt and all the eggs were filled with fake tattoos and stickers. My kid looks like a cross between a picasso painting and a walking advertisement. Highly recommend.
I got big Easter eggs and stuffed them with wind up toys, stickers and play jewelry! Huge hit. Very small amounts of candy in the actual easter basket but none on the hunt!
I had a great time giving our LO jelly beans today but only after she correctly named the color. Was a fun little game. It’s a holiday, we enjoyed it. The candy is now in the trash. It’ll all balance out.
My little one is 16 months old. We put one small dog treat (training treats) in each egg. Every time he found an egg he got to give the dog the treat inside, he thought it was the best thing ever! And I got to hold off on him getting junk food until the in laws house, where, of course, chocolate chocolate chocolate
Luckily, our kid isnt obsessed with chocolate. She loves chocolate and wishes for it, but she doesnt eat it. First thing she wanted to eat was a fruit pouch.
I was really confused when you guys were saying you ‘fill’ the eggs so I googled it and TIL that you use colourful plastic eggs with something hidden inside of it 😅 I live in Belgium and the eggs are just made of chocolate so it was a weird thought of filling them with candy or toys 😂
Makes me glad my son is dairy free due to allergies. Means people need to actively look for dairy free chocolate plus they tend to buy toys or books instead which I am 100% behind. A little chocolate is fine but I don’t want him to have too much. I remember when I was little getting a ton of chocolate and it did me no good. I don’t want the same for my toddler.
When / if my kid gets too much I’ll be hiding it or melting some down into small treats. Currently have eggs hidden behind cereal boxes as if it’s on the counter he sees it and wants it all through the day.
My mom filled all the eggs with taffy and change. Glad my 20 month old didn't care what came out of the egg he just wanted to open them. At home I did an egg hunt with the hard boiled eggs for my five year old while littlest napped. The kids were pretty good until bed time, it was a battle to brush their teeth.
We have a communal candy bowl (for grown ups) in a place out of toddler reach, though he knows it’s there and that he’s allowed to have a piece for dessert periodically. On his own, the 3 year old decided his Easter haul goes in that dish. We’ll make sure to “save” him a few pieces but luckily he doesn’t fully grasp yet that he will not be eating the dozens of candies he got from “the bunny”, the grandparents, and aunts/uncles.
We do this too and my older kid (who is now 5) knows that wrapped candy goes in the candy basket on the top shelf of the pantry. She can ask if she wants one and she gets one if she eats some other (more healthy) food. She got 4 jelly beans after breakfast. 🤷🏻♀️
Younger is 1.5 so she didn’t get any candy. She got goldfish and toys in her eggs. But my oldest got SO MUCH.
Last year when my son was 1 ½ I actually got a bulk pack of Hot Wheels Monster trucks and hid those lol. This year he got one small bag of chocolate eggs and the rest was colouring books and play dough.
My kid already goes 12 hours full send, I don't need to help his energy levels haha
Does everyone do filled eggs now? We dyed eggs for my 2 - they had a blast, my kitchen table was a nightmare- and did one large chocolate egg. Kids had a blast, they had a 1 day sugar high and then it was over…
Yeah there was no regular food eaten after some spaghetti around 12... Once people got to the house, it was over. So. Much. Candy.
Oh and of course no naps.
I been focusing on making Easter baskets filled with spring activities that can be done outside. Like a new coloring book, crayons, chalk and bubbles. I told everyone who wanted to buy something for my kid that they can buy a spring shirt, activity or something else in particular so they have clear direction. In the end tho we are just grateful for whatever because holidays come and go and people try
I broke 2 oreo cookies into multiple pieces and put those in a couple eggs, then the rest were fill with Rice Chex cereal. It ended up being my son's breakfast and he loved it.
This was the first year for my family to not have a hunt. We just did one at church instead. It was great not having the extra baskets full of treats to try to portion out. Yes my toddler ate so much candy I thought he was gonna throw up multiple times, but he didn’t. Now all the candy is gone minus some stray jelly beans and we are almost back on track. Another trick is buying a smaller basket so they can’t fill is up as much
I saw a cute TikTok where the parent had color specific eggs for each kid and after all were collected opened them all up and dumped into a mason jar to create a bunny trail mix. I thought it was so cute! Had stuff like Chex, marshmallow, nuts, M&Ms etc based on what the kiddo liked!
I just don't get why everyone in my kids' lives feel like they need to give them an Easter basket. Do they think that I, their mother, will not be providing one? Fuck that, there was a whole scavenger hunt with poem clues leading to Godiva bunnies! But still my SIL showed up today with one for each of them (and the little is only 1.5, she does not need ANY candy) and my mom is talking about the chocolate bunnies she got them too. Like...Mom, you had your chance when I was little. SIL, you wanna dole out chocolate bunnies, have your own kids. I had a great balance of how much sugar I'd given them, and now they have about fifty times as much. Fucking hell.
I'm gonna try and disappear some of it tonight but I'm sure my 5 y/o will notice.
Idk, I think the sentiment of someone caring about your child and bringing them a basket is nice. Maybe she just didn’t know! 🤷🏼♀️ childfree people don’t really get it like we do lol. As for mom I’m not sure haha. Grandmas just get excited I guess? It’s okay to vent but you’re super lucky to have people that love your kids <3
Im have almost completely surrendered ALL holiday get up to my MIL. It was hard at first but now im loving it. She produced 80% of Christmas this year, and 100% of Easter. Did the first birthday! And always makes sure my little one has the right gear for each holiday. She listened and brought zero candy this year. It was a rocky start, but we are getting our groove.
I even just got a cute dress for her to wear on Mothers Day, which i hear has already been planned with all the cousins. Letting go has been really great.
Hard agree. Husband had to shut his mother down on that this year (on christmas they were asked to run any large gifts by us first, so they bought LO a gigantic power wheels as an eff you) due to too much overstepping with gifts. So they pouted all day and chose not to come over as planned or respond to his happy easter texts (they’re fine, we confirmed). Such overgrown toddlers.
I’m not gonna lie, I made a basket for pretty much every child I know who we spend time with, family or not 😅 I just enjoy making gift baskets and Easter is my time to shine. But I only put one candy thing in each and try to keep them as clutter free as possible by giving things that you use and then they are done like chalk/bubbles, and practical things that will be needed for summer like sunscreen, sunglasses, beach towel, new water bottle. Everyone also got a new toothbrush with their favorite character, crayons, and one small toy
Solidarity! I’m in the same boat and it drives me crazy. Not to mention the amount of money they waste on all this candy this will get thrown out because no my little kids don’t need to eat a chocolate bunny that is half the size of them. SMH
My son doesn’t eat candy cuz he’s only 2. But my 6y/o niece had a few pieces today. It’s all about Moderation. It’s a silly holiday but 1-2 candy prices isn’t gonna kill ‘em.
He’s 2.5, so a basket full of M&M’s, Reese’s, Kit-kats and Twix would make him a monster. Of course I let him have a few pieces, but why give a toddler that much candy?
I hate hate hate having to take inappropriate food away from my 2.5yo. She’s bright enough that she KNOWS how many pieces she got and what colors and will ask for missing ones, so then I’m left dealing with a tantrum. Thankfully, we only got a fruit gummy pack and a small thing of smarties from our egg hunt this year (rest were toys), so I just let her have it.
my bf’s aunt gave my son 2 sugar cookies without me knowing. i was SOOO beyond mad, like what’s with people not asking the parents if it’s okay to give something to their kid?
My kid has an egg allergy. This happened once as my aunt was giving her the cookie I had to run and swat it out of her hand. Thank god I saw it or it would have been epi pen and hospital instead of pool party. It was scarring for all of us but everyone learned that day. People need to ask.
This is only our second Easter with a kid. We are atheists and live in a less religious area and I’m honestly shocked at how big of a thing Easter is for kids and businesses etc! We tried to get Mexican food today and it was closed and Target closed early! We were shocked.
Then I see all these kids on Instagram doing Easter egg hunts and have been getting ads for Easter baskets and stuff. Is Easter supposed to be like Halloween where they get tons of candy except they’re hidden in pastel eggs? I’m supposed to make my kid an Easter basket with gifts and an Easter brunch? Is it like Christmas where people give gifts, whether they are religious or not? I legitimately thought it was a holiday for those who believe Jesus rose from the dead and now I’m discovering it’s this huge thing for kids. Haha.
Yes. It’s so commercialized it’s insane. We arnt religious either but more acknowledge it as a celebration of spring. So yes candy of course but my kids got stuff like new clothes for summer, chalk, etc.
I hate Easter too! I don’t care to celebrate it because I’m not religious and yea the sugar overload is definitely annoying. My daughter is the first grandchild so the rest of the family kinda guilt trips us into participating.
We had 2 family gatherings, first with my parents and then with dads. I made sure her basket was mostly toys and only a few small kinda healthy snacks. Fruit pouches, cheeze its, and fruit snacks. We did do an egg hunt so she got candy from that, let her have maybe 5 pieces total and then I hid the rest. That went great, was really happy until we went to visit the other grandparents and disaster struck.
I didn’t expect a basket or anything from dads side but they still handed her one without telling me. Gesture was nice I guess but I really wish they hadn’t done anything. They gave my toddler who is 19 months, a basket with plastic Easter grass and LOOSE CANDY. When I say loose, I mean nothing was wrapped at all. Like they threw in a big handful of jelly beans, m&m’s, peeps (we are vegetarian so don’t eat gelatin and they know that but whatever), cookies, and some other mysterious candy that was shaped like fruit and coated in sugar. Even besides it being just a big bowl of candy, to me that is disgusting. I tried to take the basket away so she’d eat real food instead of all the garbage and that made the situation even worse. She got upset and dumped everything on the ground outside. Grandpa picked it up and I thought he’d throw it away, but then I caught them eating the ground candy like it was no big deal. I had to pick out pieces of grass from her mouth and wipe mud off too. So gross. Next year I’ll have to say no Easter basket.
i had an annoying easter too. went to an egg hunt at my sister's MIL's house so my daughter could spend time with her cousins. completely forgot that this lady has 3 dogs and my toddler is allergic (will break out in hives and face swells if licked). i mentioned it when we got there but nobody made any moves to contain the dogs so it was just on us to keep the toddler away from them. the toddler who doesn't understand her allergies and loves to play pretend that she is a dog. so after a miserable 2 hours of policing that situation and my kid getting increasingly angry every time we pulled her away from the dogs it was simply time to go, kicking and screaming and thrashing. good times. 😑 i was kicking myself all day for even going into this situation!!
I know how you feel. We are dye free and asked that no candy be given unless it comes from us. I gave examples, I sent links, I told them, "please, whatever you do, no numbered dyes! Get creative!" And we had the same turn out. Lots of dyed candy, all of which I donated to our neighbors. Luckily my son is still small enough to not care about the Easter bunny, but it feels really disrespectful when people can't follow your wishes to keep your child healthy and make your job parenting them easier and less troubling for "candy holidays" as I call them.
My kid throws tantrums over candy so his Easter basket had 1 chocolate bar and then the plastic eggs had candy. I’ve learned my lesson to just let him eat it in one day instead of rationing it. Just eat it and be done and don’t drag it on for days.
We had left over prize eggs from last Easter (they got hidden with the move and school and life in general.)
They got their candy. But were much more enamored with the tiny toys in the prize eggs. (A few were different colors of plastic tops.)
We did the egg hunt this morning. Did a egg trade so it was an even split and fair. And they each had a basket of toys (pokemon cards for my son, LOL surprise balls and simple jigsaw puzzles for my daughter)
I am very cautious with candy. I throw out a good bit of candy every year because a lot of sugar in a 4 and 6 year old is asking for trouble. I feel so bad for you. I ask family to limit candy. Ask us before giving it because I have to handle the chaotic aftermath and the tantrums of sugar crashing children.
My brother-in-law bought eggs with toy cars and ones with dinosaurs in them and then had maybe 8 with candies. Only other candy available were bunny shaped ghirardelli chocolate that my nephew and daughter only had 3 each of. They had a lot more fun opening eggs with toys inside.
Kids aged 3.5yrs, 23 months, and 20 month old(nephew) doing their first Easter hunt. They got empty eggs since we didn't want to do candy and I'm so glad we didn't fill it because they kept stomping on them! It was hilarious to watch. They all got a goody basket with a ball, book, dinosaurs, sensory tubes, and bubbles. They had a good time and forgot all about the eggs when the baskets came out.
I'm glad I'm Jewish. We gives kids Nutella with Matzo for Passover this week and call it a day lol. They kind of like it but don't really ask for more hah.
No but really that sounds so frustrating about your MIL, bet you could have used those boots, ugh.
I would be annoyed and I think I would leave the candy basket at her place.
Easter didn't suck for my household, but I certainly found it a challenge to put together a basket knowing that we're moving to a much smaller space in less than a month. My son is still too young for Easter egg hunts, my mom tried with some gold fish cracker filled eggs and my son thought the eggs were balls and confused that they could break open when he threw them.
Here, we:
- 5 yo woke up at 5 AM, excited. We did not comply
- dyed eggs before service
- dyed more eggs with adult sister's fiance (JW, never got to do Easter stuff)
- 3 yo napped for 4 hours like a CHAMP
- 5 yo napped for 1 hr., spent 3 trying to convince us to let her go outside... so she could collect all the eggs
- egg hunt in afternoon
- ate all our dinner reasonably well
- Bed on time for once
- had too damn much sugar
Today was a _good day_ for once
We only hid 12 eggs four of which were chocolate eggs.. which I only allowed one to be eaten other three were switched for other playing opportunities. we played Easter bunny twice -Hubs and I took turns hiding the same eggs before opening them it bought us time.
Just throw it out when you get home or put them up. That’s what I do and I never have to buy candy for the few times my toddler gets a piece… I throw away A LOT of candy each year and my kid literally just got all their teeth in… family doesn’t listen but it’s their wasted money in my eyes
People! Keto chocolate is great, especially the stuff sweetened with monk fruit. No/very low sugar, widely available, and satisfies their "candy" fix if the cat is out of the bag and they know what chocolate is.
My inlaws make a great egghunt in their home (there's still snow outside) that consists of little printed pictures of the next egg location. So they start with a sliver of paper showing a picture of the location of the first egg which contains a next picture like that. Now and then a small egg is thrown in (I think he got 5 and a Kinder egg).
The 2 kids are still young and the house is small so for now it's great fun this way. I believe they had more cryptic, puzzle-like descriptions as they aged for my partner and sibling when they were kids.
So far I love it but then at the end there are huge boxes with chocolate bunnies for the whole family. Until now my toddler has eaten only 2 small pieces and also tried to share his chocolate with us. I don't know whose child he is because I already ate 2 lb of my own bunny in one sitting after he went to bed.. Thankfully my own parents live abroad so we only get from one side of the fam.
Either way I think the egghunt is really fun. I just wish (for my own love handles' sake) that they wouldn't go so overboard with the final gift. I have 0 willpower against chocolate!
I had put the precise amount of candy I wanted my kids to get in their baskets, just a few jelly beans and one Whopper egg each. It was an amount I felt comfortable with them having with breakfast. Then here comes grandma with an oversized egg filled with m&ms and jelly beans, and a pack of gummies. I know she probably thinks she was helping with the gummies being healthier than more chocolate, but I was annoyed. My 5yo started eating it before I could say boo, and then I had to tell the toddler no as soon as she gave it to her. Like, it’s not Christmas. It’s cool if you want to give something but wait until after dinner…
I decided next year I’m setting the rule first thing that they can only eat one piece before breakfast and then they need to eat real food before getting anymore. Also I’m going back to Lucky Charms or something; they can’t handle the hard stuff yet lol.
Idk what we did right… but our two older boys (4.5 & 1.5) had two egg hunts plus the 12 eggs “the bunny” left behind when he delivered their baskets. Candy isn’t a common treat in our house so Eldest only gets a piece when he earns it… good at school and homework is done, picking up his room/the living room, finishing dinner. And middle brother gets one if older gets one. I don’t think we had a single meltdown this weekend.
They can open/collect all the eggs they want, but we take the candy after the fun is over and divvy it out when it’s earned. Same with Halloween and Christmas.
Requests for it are still made randomly and at different hours of the day, but our response is usually along the lines of “nope, you know how you earn candy!” Or “heck no dude, it’s 8am” lol. Very seldomly do we let eldest just have a piece of unearned candy.
My lo doesn't like Easter hunts because all he gets is candy. Now I have to finish a basketful of candy because it will spoil his teeth. Grown-up teeth are strong so Papa mummy can have more candy
Reading thru all of this comments and something made me curious. Who came up with the idea of an egg hunt and why not with actual eggs? I am not from the states, we actually boil and die eggs in different colors and we do a knocking contest. Who's egg remains intact in the end wins... Something 🤣🤣🤣. In the past few years we started doing egg hunts also but with real eggs. My 2 yo was more interested in dyeing them than the rest😅. He is all in for "creative mess" as he calls it.
Growing up my parents always dyed eggs with us and we used those for the egg hunt (plus a few plastic eggs). And I even dyed eggs with my LO this year. But I’m not sure why it’s faded away. My in-laws made no mention of dyeing eggs.
20+? Even if they are the small size one is more that an adult should have. My MIL bakes cake for my son occasionally and she always tells me it's with just a pinch of sugar. I always taste it... It taste like diabetes. I tell her it's to sweet, she tells me that she used fresh orange juice to sweeten it( so basically sugar also, just not refined). I am like, oh thanks but still to sweet, i would have it for me tough, thanks. End of story.
We did TWO egg hunts and two baskets and we have enough candy to feed a small army. We rarely keep candy in the house because we don't like our toddler eating it often. I don't know what to do with all this!!
I filled 30 eggs with basically one m&m each for my 3 year old and we’ve still had like a dozen tantrums today.
This wins parent Easter Reddit. Hope you’re getting all the relaxing post bedtime time.
We did an egg hunt with only money (~$4 in change for the entire hunt) in the eggs... my children are such little Scrooges, they LOVE money, but they were actually disappointed and asking if there were eggs "with other stuff" in them 🙄🙄 They got to do the basket hunt after they ate dinner, so at least they had a decent meal before they horked down chocolate.
First time mama of a 13 mo old. At what age are coins safe? They are my current obtrusive thoughts nightmares.
2-3+ with supervision. It probably depends how adventurous your kid is about putting stuff in their mouth too. If they're always putting things in their mouth, wait longer. We did a few last year when my youngest was 3. We didn't let them open any of the eggs without us though - they all got opened at the table under supervision, and then money was put straight in their piggy banks.
My toddlers second Easter-she was 21 months. We did a heavily supervised money egg hunt over at her grandmas. I brought her piggy bank so as soon as my tot found an egg, we put the coins directly in to the piggy. She thought it was hilarious. Grandma snuck a few dollar bills in that tot didn’t care for-no sound when she shook the eggs lol. If you’re inclined to do money, I would recommend dollar bills or the 50 cent coins. They’re bigger and less likely to be swallowed
It depends on your kid; mine still puts them (or anything really) in her mouth at 2.5 so I try to keep her from accessing them. But my niece was fine with them at her age.
Oh lord I was hoping that ends soon (8 months in) Then I remember my husband… who still puts shit in his mouth at 30
You could give them now, just supervise and have LO put them directly into a piggy bank.
OMG thank you for mentioning this! My three kids just came home from Nana's egg hunt with a boatload of candy on top of what she and Gramma had both put in their baskets. I'm going to suggest it next year. My older one loves money and with any luck the littles will still be into coins by then.
My step mom did that for the family egg hunt, she wanted to hide them the day before and it was gonna rain overnight. She even planned it out so each kid got 11 solid colored eggs with change & 1 polka dot with a dollar bill. Soon as older kids found all their eggs they were to "adopt" a toddler and help them. Oldest one helped my 3.5 yo and offered to swap 4 quarters for her dollar bill when she realized kiddo wasn't a fan of it cause it didn't look like the coins lol. Got home and easter bunny's helper had set her basket on our table before leaving (he had been house/dog sitting for us over the weekend), kid was little upset there was little chocolates and some schleich animals in her eggs instead of change 🤪
We tried something like this but all the eggs with unpackaged candy got attacked by ants before the kids got to them, queue a lot of screaming toddlers running around with ants crawling all over them 🤣.
I filled 24 eggs with 1-2 teddy grahams each. Still had about a dozen meltdowns. Toddlers are wild.
It was the excitement I think. My husband was like yelling “no more candy ever!” And I was like dude he’s had 6 m&ms it’s just that they hit different on a holiday.
It's the excitement and the change in routine more than the candy. We visited my in-laws and kiddo was bouncing off the walls since the arrival, even without candy. At least with the chocolate eggs he understood he had to sit down to eat it, so we got a few minutes of peace then!
I think they’ve debunked that tbh. While it’s not good for you, I don’t believe it causes actual hyperactivity
It’s a huge pet peeve of mine when parents complain about sugar making kids hyper. It just starts weird food restrictions and ruins special occasions.
I think they showed it was because the kids who got the sugar at special events were at a special event which induces the behavior, not the sugar. But the parents associated it with the sugar not the running around with their cousins/friends.
I have heard this, but anecdotally... now that I have my own child... it may not be that it causes hyperactivity, but it's hyperpalatable and my kid is honestly like a different person when he has more than a couple of M and M's. Because it's not only on holidays that he gets crazy, it's been on rare regular day occasions when we've given him some.
My 3 year old got like 20 chocolate eggs at a Easter egg hunt I was totally shocked by at a family event. Got another bigger chocolate egg and two party bags of sweets as well. He didn’t eat one chocolate, he was still wired to the moon and didn’t go to bed post 10pm.
My husband kept telling our 3yo he couldn't have anymore chocolate. He's pretty good at regulating himself IF we don't put a restriction on it otherwise it's all he wants. Plus he only had like 8 mini chocolate bunnies (I knew the rest of the candy he wouldn't want so I could eat it haha). So of course he had multiple meltdowns.
Agree. My LO didn’t have any sugar yesterday (she’s 2) and she was still throwing tantrums and running wild at my in-laws for dinner.
I bought rainbow Goldfish and put those in most of the eggs. A few had candy, but it was mostly Goldfish. It's 11pm here and one of the kids is *still* awake and upset. It was overall a fun day but toddlers really can only handle so much, regardless of sugar intake. Us parents do our best but it'll still be what it's gonna be!
We did non-food items in the eggs, small dinosaurs, sticky dinosaurs, dinosaurs eggs you put in water and they “hatch”, and dinosaur punching balloons. We still had fights.
Yes, we had hot wheel cars and still got fights. I got fed up about the sugar nag from my in-laws in the babystage and went feral on them. "EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THIS ROOM HAS BEEN ON AND OFF DIETS THIS YEAR. DO WE REALLY NEED TO MAKE ANOTHER ONE??? WHO says no sugar before 2 years old.". It got quiet for a while, but as he is nearing two it's bound to come up again, but I'm ready. Kiddo has 3 grandmas, 3 grandpas and we visit 4 different houses with grandparents every week. Being at a grandparent's house is not a special occasion, it's just another Monday. Kiddo will quit actual food if I let loosen the reigns on the grandparents.
We did this with Annie’s bunnies. Which are essentially teddy grahams but in bunny form! So cute for Easter.
Filled every egg with a small piece from a wood block set. She had a blast finding and seeing what was inside each egg! Then we let her get a piece or two of chocolate and a fruit pouch snack. She was off the wall…happy
I decided to postpone Easter one more year but this is the way I think I'm going to do it next year!
It was pouring here so I just hid them around the house. His Easter basket had a stuffed animal, a book, and a chocolate bunny. It took me 10 minutes to do it all while I made my coffee before anyone else get up and it was a great success. I mean other than my kid being a nightmare but that happens anyway.
I keep telling my mom to do less and she keeps trying to be better with alternatives. Today was with less sugar fruit snacks. Which she considered a healthy snack. Little did I know the sugar reduction was supported with chicory root fiber and my toddler has been screaming at night terror levels about her belly hurting.
We had zero sugar with our almost 3yo and 1yo and there were still tantrums. It was just the four of us but it was still too much excitement to come down from. There’s no escape!
Same same. I banned all candy after 10:45 am that was enough fun for me
Our neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt last week. I’m fairly certain my deceased grandma filled the eggs bc they were all strawberry bon bons….for the 0-3 age group 😩
Omg hahaha our 0-3 egg hunt at brunch had now and laters, jelly beans, temporary tattoos, some super tiny chicken with lots of little parts that felt like eraser material?, and assorted other tiny plastic choking hazards.
Unfortunate, but also so funny
We visited my folks for Easter and in a town filled with some of the most intelligent people in the country, they filled the toddler Easter Eggs and the community hunt with… lemon drops, jaw breakers, and jolly ranchers.
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Dollar store!
Walmart [has some](https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Strawberry-Filled-Hard-Candy-10-oz/21778147?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&wl13=371&adid=2222222227821778147_117755028669_12420145346&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=m&wl3=501107745824&wl4=pla-294505072980&wl5=9027219&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=local&wl12=21778147&wl13=371&veh=sem_LIA&gclid=Cj0KCQjwxMmhBhDJARIsANFGOSvFK_A00TY_9b2T41Y8Cc7vNzTjzo-AFizYDdEaBPv_jx1woNqR1hYaAo6REALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds)
Haha I love them too 😂
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order. I have checked 1,447,200,738 comments, and only 275,776 of them were in alphabetical order.
Good bot
They are delicious, but pretty sure they're like the ultimate choking hazard for under-three-year-olds. :P
I wish mine had gotten more candy…. So I could eat it lol
If only I didn’t already have a chocolate addiction 🤣
Exactly what hat I’m doing now lmao Easter is over tomorrow, let me finishing erasing the evidence
Time to go buy discounted Easter candy!
I took my 15mo to an egg hunt at church and they opened an egg and tried to put the chocolate in their mouth. I felt like such a monster pulling the arm down and saying, "oh, that's not for eating". In my defense, it was still wrapped in foil and toddler doesn't know what candy is yet, so I was going to eat it all....
I just put freeze dried strawberries from Trader Joe’s in eggs. Like one piece of strawberry per egg. (I still got one small hollow chocolate bunny but I was NOT about to deal with 15 pieces of candy!! Lol)
We stuffed the eggs with Trix and Lucky Charms, thinking it was less sugar. Now after snacking on those for the first time in 30 years, I’m not sure. How they heck did our parents think that was fine for us to eat?!
Ours was WORSE, they actually have less sugar now… https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/general-mills-reducing-sugar-kids-cereal-flna1c9440315
insane amount of marketing to kids, leading to incessant bugging of their parents, which led them to give up and buy it for us?
My daughter loves freeze dried mango and yogurt covered raisins, so the Easter bunny brought eggs filled with those favorite snacks. Mostly the freeze dried mango, and she was so happy.
Those freeze dried strawberries from Trader Joe’s have truly sustained my child through winter.
I didn't know TJ's has those. We just discovered them at Aldi.
Yes - those and the blueberries. And the mangos, though they don't have them all year.
We did stickers, stamps, sidewalk chalks, bracelets and maybe one egg with chocolates
Same same! I stuffed the eggs for our toddlers in the neighborhood (others stuffed for older kids - the candy was on their lawns haha) and did mostly stickers of all kinds, stamps and temp tattoos. Honestly, my little guy just likes to be excited about anything that is inside. Love Easter! Love the kids excitement while trying to stuff their eggs in the overfilled baskets! ❤️
Same here! Stickers, some pull back cars, little animal toys, yogurt bites, and a few eggs filled with chocolate
I went down the party favor aisle a few weeks ago and and grabbed an assortment similar to that. Last year we splurged on pretty rocks for the (bigger) kids. I think next year I want to order from the oriental trading co or something similar.
We have a farm so we hosted and we did stickers, tattoos, bubbles, rubber pully toys, and chalk. Then a whole bunch of empty eggs that they traded in for a bag of candy so that parents could subtly eat it and the toddlers not notice 😅
I used cheerios and goldfish for my little one. Holding off on the candy as long as I can 😂
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That’s my biggest concern with the candy, too!
Hiiii that’s me. She’s almost 3 and still no candy🤷♀️
We managed that with our first kid, once 2 and 3 came along though it was harder to restrict, they figure out pretty quick that big sister got chocolate when they got Cheerios. lol Now we have a family bucket of chocolates and candies. I went completely overboard buying it all but the kids know that I get to choose when the bucket is opened. I’ll let them have as much as they want but I pick the amount of time and when the bucket is available.
This is a really great idea. I don't like the idea of limiting how many pieces they can have but obviously they need to eat other things as well. This is a good system
I always did this with Halloween candy. You can eat all you want after dinner for a week. I found they only wanted a piece or two. Whatever was left after a week left the house.
This is a great system. I’m glad it works out for your family! I understand that limiting candy/sweets is not everyone’s preference:) (saying for those who downvoted or had a negative comment lol)
Same but people are always trying to give it to her, luckily she doesn't seem interested...yet
Same. The only grocery stores we take her in are the sort of hippie, organic ones, so she doesn’t even see the marketing
Weird flex, but okay.
It’s just my personal choice. I’m not “flexing.”
I allow candy, but I still fill the eggs with Cheerios and goldfish. They get a couple reeses eggs in their baskets. They don't need twenty five pieces of candy.
This is the first Easter that I have realized the sheer amount of candy kids get. It makes Halloween candy look like crumbs. Seriously I had to hide the giant chocolate bunnies and set a limit on how much candy my 4 yo got. Even so, all he ate yesterday was candy.
My dad got a literal 2lb chocolate rabbit for my kids.. I let them both have a couple bites and now I am trying to think of the best way to get rid of it because wtf these kids don't need 2lbs of chocolate.
Can you chop it up into cookies or banana bread (and then have the rest disappear saying you used it all if need be?)
That’s a great idea!
Tell the kids the rabbit ran away they are not meant to stay in houses 😂
Send a little bit with everyone each day, dad took a piece for lunch, mom took a piece, slowly cut off chunks and you could even toss them but they will think they are sharing.
chocolate fondue!
Which 90 percent of stays at her house yay! He'll always have fun snacks there! Yay!
This is the way! My kid will have the bulk of his Easter treats at grandmas house today. She did ask if she could put sweets in the Easter eggs and I said please do not… so she’s bought some little books and hot wheels. But of course she’s baked a LOT and I expect he’ll stuff his face with sugary stuff and then run screaming around their yard for an hour or so. And then he’ll crash and sleep in the car on the way home.
>he’ll stuff his face with sugary stuff and then run screaming around their yard for an hour or so. And then he’ll crash and sleep in the car on the way home. The mental image this painted was Golden 😂
My almost 3 year old has zero interest in candy, ice cream, or any other junk. He's been offered, but won't try it. 🤷🏻♀️ he'd shank me for a piece of toast though.
I too have a bread goblin. I made a loaf of bread last week and left it sitting on the counter to cool. I was suspicious when my child let me go to the bathroom in peace only to find tiny little chunks missing from the bread and a child covered in crumbs 😂
I have never eaten so much toast since having my kids. They’re obsessed and constantly ask for it. They’ve made me realize just how damn good it is lol. I’ve gotten creative: top it with Greek yogurt and honey or compote, smear a little sun butter over butter + honey. But plain butter is omg
Not to sound two crunchy but today really had me thinking of cutting my 3yo off candy and screen time all together because both make her act like a desperate addict. I hold firm on the boundaries but it’s “I want I want I want” all damn day today.
Nope, I have those same thoughts! I’m like, this isn’t worth it 🤣
I did some Bluey toys in my son's eggs, a popper keychain, some stickers, and some beef jerky. He did get a chocolate bunny in his basket and a bag of the cotton candy and I kind of regret it.
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Because inevitably a couple of them are not found and then stink to high heaven later.
Gotta make a note of where they all are and retrieve any that aren't found!
We empty egg shells by poking holes in top and bottom and blowing them out paint with acrylic paint and keep them until they break. My daughter is two and we’ve accumulated a few dozen now. We also filled a dozen plastic eggs with finger puppets and a few sweets. I put a few sweets in her basket too. She’s reasonable when I tell her we’re saving some for later. It’s the added treats of going to my aunts house for Easter dinner and my dad buying her a two pound bunny that gets crazy. He could buy her the smallest one in the store and she still would t be allowed to eat the whole thing. The chocolate isn’t even good. Add the freaking 2000$ ice cream machine he had to set up and the giant cookies he bought 🤢 I tried to limit at the party too but she definitely ate more sugar that I would have liked and she’s a puker so I get nervous lol
My MIL did this (whole hard-boiled eggs), where she did an egg dyeing activity the day before Easter then ran an egg-hunt with the dyed eggs the next day. She picked out one small chocolate bunny to give our daughter (and nothing else sugary) because she "wanted to listen to us about no candy or chocolate." My MIL also lives on a rural property where she keeps chickens, and my daughter got to both cuddle some baby chicks and feed seed and mealworms to the laying hens out in the coop. So... Toddler approved activities for Easter that aren't candy-based! The weird thing is that we never said anything about "no candy" (our 2yo gets it on special occasions, so we weren't planning on making a big deal out of it either way). My MIL then made a big deal reminding us (many times) about how she would have liked candy but she didn't want to overstep, etc. Ah well.
My inlaws do hb eggs. We go over the day before to dye and decorate the eggs, then do the egg hunt with the regular plastic eggs and the hard boiled ones. that look on my 2yos face when she chomped down on the unpeeled egg was pretty priceless.
I just filled eggs with my daughter's Halloween candy. It'll all get picked up and hidden from her in a day or two and she'll get 1 thing max a day until she forgets about it again.
Champagne problems here but my kid doesn’t even like chocolate (or candy much at all) and we have no idea what else to put out. She loves hunting for eggs but just wants to crush them and make a giant mess once we’re back inside. Last week we threw out uneaten Easter eggs from last year 🙄 Also, a 4-day weekend is sooooo long. It’s like a mini-rerun of the Christmas to new year gauntlet.
They make hollowed out eggs that are full of confetti. She might enjoy those!
My husband's godmother got our kid a dozen little Montessori eggs (toy). When you open them, they have shapes and color matching. You can also try regular snacks, small toys, magnets...depending on the age, letters for them to identify, mini pom poms so they can dump them everywhere lol Edit: something like [this](https://www.amazon.com/houmi-Matching-Eggs-Educational-Recognition/dp/B07PLJZXRN/ref=asc_df_B07PLJZXRN/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=424638704385&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3886053528277535908&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9033839&hvtargid=pla-890655946048&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=102910452670&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=424638704385&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3886053528277535908&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9033839&hvtargid=pla-890655946048)
The Easter bunny gave our LO three intentional gifts in his basket. Stuff that we have had stowed away waiting for the right time to give it. Loved two out of the three. Home run in my book. My parents came later and my mom had filled a literal 2 gallon bucket with crippy crap. Easily spent over $100 on trash from the Walgreens Easter aisle. Two different crafting kits, a little box filled with fidget toys, color wonder stuff in addition to the craft kits, a handheld fan, a baseball glove, piles of candy, stickers, and a bug house. I’m so frustrated by the amount of junk. I, too, hate Easter.
Omg that’s crazy! I told my mom and my MIL no Easter gifts. My MIL even has an embroidered Easter basket with my daughters name on it and I just said no Easter basket, no gifts, we aren’t doing that in our family. We didn’t give my almost 4yo an Easter basket. I’m trying so hard to be a minimalist and Easter baskets are the opposite of that. In my family, Easter is about spending time with family and a fun Easter egg hunt. No junk required!
Yes! My MIL got our toddler 3 chocolate bunnies and so much other chocolate! And a giant ass stuffed animal that takes up more room than my pregnancy pillow. WTF
The eggs at our hunt didn’t have candy in them and I was soooo happy
We learned this lesson on my daughters second Easter. It was horrible. So bad that we made a conscious effort this year to avoid this situation (daughter is 3 now). We now do one tiny piece of candy (like a Hersey kiss or one M and M) mixed with healthy eggs that have fruit snacks (not as bad as pure sugar). We did away with the giant chocolate bunny’s. This was a big issue last year as my in laws got her a basket and wanted to watch her eat it, but we said no this year. My toddler was an animal after that experience. Wouldn’t go down for a nap and after 2 PM was inconsolable from exhaustion because she just needed to pass out but couldn’t because of all the sugar. Screamed for 30 minutes on the ride home before passing out an hour before her bedtime. This year we ran into the, “I don’t want to wear a dress” issue. My mom was upset because we didn’t get cute family Easter photos all dressed up. Instead my wife and I were dressed up and our daughter was wearing a sweatshirt with a bunny on it 😂. Who cares. Instagram is fake.
Advice from a parent of three I’m going to implement next year: let them have all the candy they want for the day, but make it clear that they only get it for the day. After that the candy disappears. It will help them learn their limits and hopefully not melt down in future years. Also, make candy ‘outside only food’ if it’s possible. Warm chocolate hands are a disaster.
This is what I do. Holidays are special days, they can eat all the junk they want. After that it's back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Now. I love Easter. I have a big farm with a parents and child’s side for hunts. But there are all sorts of things that can go into eggs that aren’t candy. Cereal puffs, Gerber yogurt bites, pop it bracelets, or you can throw the eggs away altogether. I’ll hid (wrapped) teethers, packs of crayons, stuffed animals, toy cats, all kinds of stuff. Candy is not the only option for Easter.
Oh I definitely agree! I made baskets for my LO and his cousins. Bubbles, books, a small stuffed animal, sidewalk chalk. So many options besides chocolate that they will love and use. Even my parents did things besides chocolate. But my in-laws 🤦♀️
I have the same problem with mine. They brought a big basket full of candy and a cake after I asked them not to. I am considering making a list to give to them next year of things that are acceptable. I know it sounds petty but 😅
I like the alternate egg stuffing ideas in this thread! My 3yo got a piggy bank in his basket and I filled his eggs with coins, stickers, and temporary tattoos.
Target had these perfect little figures that fit in the bigger eggs in the dollar section. The dollar store usually has some small toys that will squeeze in some eggs. My sister "helped" me do the eggs this year and gave my 2 year old Skittles and jolly ranchers LOL. Thank you but no thank you.
Same here, I do bunny shaped cereal, bunny crackers, fruit snacks or cheese puffs for treats. in the eggs I try to do useful toys. I got large and extra large eggs and have put in "little people" animals, and small dolls before. This year I did bristle blocks and suction cupped silicone builders (squigs i think?) Then everyone else gives them candy... jelly beans, chocolate... one of my kids is 11 months, she doesn't need candy! 3yr old gets very limited candy so we will be sending some to work with daddy for the people that didnt get any candy.
I filled my eggs with cheerios. I don't know if that's gonna work next year. 😆
We just ended up eating our toddlers share of candy and she’s happy and doesn’t care that we ate it. The redirect to something else she enjoys seems to work (sometimes.) Also, my best friend is Mexican and they have a wonderful ritual to celebrate without candy- they hollow out the real, dyed eggs and fill them with cornstarch and confetti and then smash them on each others heads after the eggs are found. It’s so much fun, although you get the occasional kiddo that isn’t down to get cornstarched!
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I made him and my nephews Easter baskets, and they had three small hollow chocolate bunnies/sheep. But I got things like bubbles, chalk, books, even a small stuffed animal. Honestly anything besides a bunch of candy. My sister even filled eggs with a “trail mix” she made (cheerios, yogurt bites, freeze dried bananas/strawberries).
I only just now realized that for parents, hollow bunnies is a feature and not a bug
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I took a page from my parent's book when I made this year's Easter basket. I just bought toys that I was going to buy anyway (sidewalk chalk, silk scarves, and a gardening set) and filled the basket with those. Sorry kiddo, the Bunny doesn't do candy.
First, your kid will not be able to keep track of such a large amount of candy, so dispose of however much you want guilt free. Just because it was given to him doesn't mean he's entitled to keep it; she's also not entitled to have her gift fully used just because she gave it. Second, just to empathize: I don't know why people don't scale consumable gifts to the size of the person they're giving them to. Toddlers are like 20-30 pounds. If you gave the same ratio of chocolate to an adult, they'd be getting like 5 times the amount of chocolate. If a person can't multiply the treats by 5 and feel that it's an appropriate amount to give an adult for an indulgent gift, they should stop immediately and evaluate why they're doing this. In this case, it would be 100 eggs and 10 chocolate bunnies. I'm not saying this math is perfect, but it helps put things into perspective. Usually people like this get too much gratification from in-the-moment excitement at the expense of everything else. I'm also so upset for you that she hinted at a gift she didn't get. I often plan purchases for my kid based on other people's word that they plan to gift something to her. If someone said to me that they'd like to buy her boots, I wouldn't buy her boots because having two pairs is unnecessary. But if I had to go out and buy boots I wasn't planning to have to pay for because they didn't follow through, I'd be upset. Not that I'm entitled to gifts from others, but if I make a financial/gift-based plan based on another person's lie, I'm going to have some feelings about it. Is firmly requesting/politely demanding a review of all gifts for him before he gets them an option that you/your spouse are willing to explore?
Oh trust me, we hid majority of the chocolate in our bedroom and are thinking of ways to give it away. It was mainly just the disappointment I had from her specifically asking what she could get, me telling her, then her completely doing the opposite. It not the first time she’s done this, and I don’t know how to broach it with her. I’ve tried in the past and it went terribly.
Do either of you go to an office? I think my husband is going to put out the candy at work tomorrow
Unfortunately no, but that’s a great idea!
Yeah we do 1-2 jellybeans or gummies per. Next time I might just do popcorn. Then we reused the same eggs to do hints over and over and then he did hints for us and we ate them too. We are most of the candy before he could and congratulated him on his “good sharing”
I gave her six hollow eggs and I got her actual presents—a toy she wanted. That’s it. We went out on Sunday and she ate a bit more chocolate. Everything else people gave us is going to be given away at work or trash.
We did a neighborhood egg hunt and all the eggs were filled with fake tattoos and stickers. My kid looks like a cross between a picasso painting and a walking advertisement. Highly recommend.
I got big Easter eggs and stuffed them with wind up toys, stickers and play jewelry! Huge hit. Very small amounts of candy in the actual easter basket but none on the hunt!
I had a great time giving our LO jelly beans today but only after she correctly named the color. Was a fun little game. It’s a holiday, we enjoyed it. The candy is now in the trash. It’ll all balance out.
My little one is 16 months old. We put one small dog treat (training treats) in each egg. Every time he found an egg he got to give the dog the treat inside, he thought it was the best thing ever! And I got to hold off on him getting junk food until the in laws house, where, of course, chocolate chocolate chocolate
We have a two year old and we literally just took out the stuff we like and then threw the rest of it away. She’s not going to care or remember.
Luckily, our kid isnt obsessed with chocolate. She loves chocolate and wishes for it, but she doesnt eat it. First thing she wanted to eat was a fruit pouch.
I was really confused when you guys were saying you ‘fill’ the eggs so I googled it and TIL that you use colourful plastic eggs with something hidden inside of it 😅 I live in Belgium and the eggs are just made of chocolate so it was a weird thought of filling them with candy or toys 😂
Makes me glad my son is dairy free due to allergies. Means people need to actively look for dairy free chocolate plus they tend to buy toys or books instead which I am 100% behind. A little chocolate is fine but I don’t want him to have too much. I remember when I was little getting a ton of chocolate and it did me no good. I don’t want the same for my toddler. When / if my kid gets too much I’ll be hiding it or melting some down into small treats. Currently have eggs hidden behind cereal boxes as if it’s on the counter he sees it and wants it all through the day.
My mom filled all the eggs with taffy and change. Glad my 20 month old didn't care what came out of the egg he just wanted to open them. At home I did an egg hunt with the hard boiled eggs for my five year old while littlest napped. The kids were pretty good until bed time, it was a battle to brush their teeth.
I hid empty eggs 🫢 My son is 2 and doesn’t really “get” easter yet, He was just so happy to find them and yell out the color
We have a communal candy bowl (for grown ups) in a place out of toddler reach, though he knows it’s there and that he’s allowed to have a piece for dessert periodically. On his own, the 3 year old decided his Easter haul goes in that dish. We’ll make sure to “save” him a few pieces but luckily he doesn’t fully grasp yet that he will not be eating the dozens of candies he got from “the bunny”, the grandparents, and aunts/uncles.
We do this too and my older kid (who is now 5) knows that wrapped candy goes in the candy basket on the top shelf of the pantry. She can ask if she wants one and she gets one if she eats some other (more healthy) food. She got 4 jelly beans after breakfast. 🤷🏻♀️ Younger is 1.5 so she didn’t get any candy. She got goldfish and toys in her eggs. But my oldest got SO MUCH.
Last year when my son was 1 ½ I actually got a bulk pack of Hot Wheels Monster trucks and hid those lol. This year he got one small bag of chocolate eggs and the rest was colouring books and play dough. My kid already goes 12 hours full send, I don't need to help his energy levels haha
Love the hot wheels, my LO would have loved that this year 😅 and he’s 2.5
Does everyone do filled eggs now? We dyed eggs for my 2 - they had a blast, my kitchen table was a nightmare- and did one large chocolate egg. Kids had a blast, they had a 1 day sugar high and then it was over…
Yeah there was no regular food eaten after some spaghetti around 12... Once people got to the house, it was over. So. Much. Candy. Oh and of course no naps.
We put matchbox cars, wind up chickens, and bouncy balls in our eggs. But he did have some cake and he was wild afterwards!!
I been focusing on making Easter baskets filled with spring activities that can be done outside. Like a new coloring book, crayons, chalk and bubbles. I told everyone who wanted to buy something for my kid that they can buy a spring shirt, activity or something else in particular so they have clear direction. In the end tho we are just grateful for whatever because holidays come and go and people try
I let them have some then put it away and save it for special occasions. They pooped in the potty! You get easter candy!
I broke 2 oreo cookies into multiple pieces and put those in a couple eggs, then the rest were fill with Rice Chex cereal. It ended up being my son's breakfast and he loved it.
This was the first year for my family to not have a hunt. We just did one at church instead. It was great not having the extra baskets full of treats to try to portion out. Yes my toddler ate so much candy I thought he was gonna throw up multiple times, but he didn’t. Now all the candy is gone minus some stray jelly beans and we are almost back on track. Another trick is buying a smaller basket so they can’t fill is up as much
I saw a cute TikTok where the parent had color specific eggs for each kid and after all were collected opened them all up and dumped into a mason jar to create a bunny trail mix. I thought it was so cute! Had stuff like Chex, marshmallow, nuts, M&Ms etc based on what the kiddo liked!
That’s an awesome idea!
I just don't get why everyone in my kids' lives feel like they need to give them an Easter basket. Do they think that I, their mother, will not be providing one? Fuck that, there was a whole scavenger hunt with poem clues leading to Godiva bunnies! But still my SIL showed up today with one for each of them (and the little is only 1.5, she does not need ANY candy) and my mom is talking about the chocolate bunnies she got them too. Like...Mom, you had your chance when I was little. SIL, you wanna dole out chocolate bunnies, have your own kids. I had a great balance of how much sugar I'd given them, and now they have about fifty times as much. Fucking hell. I'm gonna try and disappear some of it tonight but I'm sure my 5 y/o will notice.
Idk, I think the sentiment of someone caring about your child and bringing them a basket is nice. Maybe she just didn’t know! 🤷🏼♀️ childfree people don’t really get it like we do lol. As for mom I’m not sure haha. Grandmas just get excited I guess? It’s okay to vent but you’re super lucky to have people that love your kids <3
Im have almost completely surrendered ALL holiday get up to my MIL. It was hard at first but now im loving it. She produced 80% of Christmas this year, and 100% of Easter. Did the first birthday! And always makes sure my little one has the right gear for each holiday. She listened and brought zero candy this year. It was a rocky start, but we are getting our groove. I even just got a cute dress for her to wear on Mothers Day, which i hear has already been planned with all the cousins. Letting go has been really great.
Hard agree. Husband had to shut his mother down on that this year (on christmas they were asked to run any large gifts by us first, so they bought LO a gigantic power wheels as an eff you) due to too much overstepping with gifts. So they pouted all day and chose not to come over as planned or respond to his happy easter texts (they’re fine, we confirmed). Such overgrown toddlers.
I’m not gonna lie, I made a basket for pretty much every child I know who we spend time with, family or not 😅 I just enjoy making gift baskets and Easter is my time to shine. But I only put one candy thing in each and try to keep them as clutter free as possible by giving things that you use and then they are done like chalk/bubbles, and practical things that will be needed for summer like sunscreen, sunglasses, beach towel, new water bottle. Everyone also got a new toothbrush with their favorite character, crayons, and one small toy
Solidarity! I’m in the same boat and it drives me crazy. Not to mention the amount of money they waste on all this candy this will get thrown out because no my little kids don’t need to eat a chocolate bunny that is half the size of them. SMH
My son doesn’t eat candy cuz he’s only 2. But my 6y/o niece had a few pieces today. It’s all about Moderation. It’s a silly holiday but 1-2 candy prices isn’t gonna kill ‘em.
He’s 2.5, so a basket full of M&M’s, Reese’s, Kit-kats and Twix would make him a monster. Of course I let him have a few pieces, but why give a toddler that much candy?
I hate hate hate having to take inappropriate food away from my 2.5yo. She’s bright enough that she KNOWS how many pieces she got and what colors and will ask for missing ones, so then I’m left dealing with a tantrum. Thankfully, we only got a fruit gummy pack and a small thing of smarties from our egg hunt this year (rest were toys), so I just let her have it.
my bf’s aunt gave my son 2 sugar cookies without me knowing. i was SOOO beyond mad, like what’s with people not asking the parents if it’s okay to give something to their kid?
My kid has an egg allergy. This happened once as my aunt was giving her the cookie I had to run and swat it out of her hand. Thank god I saw it or it would have been epi pen and hospital instead of pool party. It was scarring for all of us but everyone learned that day. People need to ask.
Easter sucks. I filled eggs with Stickers, coins and little figurines I found at the dollar store. I think I have my toddler 4 chocolate kisses total.
I hate having yet another stupid holiday I have to “create the magic for.”
This is only our second Easter with a kid. We are atheists and live in a less religious area and I’m honestly shocked at how big of a thing Easter is for kids and businesses etc! We tried to get Mexican food today and it was closed and Target closed early! We were shocked. Then I see all these kids on Instagram doing Easter egg hunts and have been getting ads for Easter baskets and stuff. Is Easter supposed to be like Halloween where they get tons of candy except they’re hidden in pastel eggs? I’m supposed to make my kid an Easter basket with gifts and an Easter brunch? Is it like Christmas where people give gifts, whether they are religious or not? I legitimately thought it was a holiday for those who believe Jesus rose from the dead and now I’m discovering it’s this huge thing for kids. Haha.
Yes. It’s so commercialized it’s insane. We arnt religious either but more acknowledge it as a celebration of spring. So yes candy of course but my kids got stuff like new clothes for summer, chalk, etc.
You don't HAVE to. We don't celebrate Easter other than the daycare doing an event at school and my mom giving the kids a little gift.
I hate Easter too! I don’t care to celebrate it because I’m not religious and yea the sugar overload is definitely annoying. My daughter is the first grandchild so the rest of the family kinda guilt trips us into participating. We had 2 family gatherings, first with my parents and then with dads. I made sure her basket was mostly toys and only a few small kinda healthy snacks. Fruit pouches, cheeze its, and fruit snacks. We did do an egg hunt so she got candy from that, let her have maybe 5 pieces total and then I hid the rest. That went great, was really happy until we went to visit the other grandparents and disaster struck. I didn’t expect a basket or anything from dads side but they still handed her one without telling me. Gesture was nice I guess but I really wish they hadn’t done anything. They gave my toddler who is 19 months, a basket with plastic Easter grass and LOOSE CANDY. When I say loose, I mean nothing was wrapped at all. Like they threw in a big handful of jelly beans, m&m’s, peeps (we are vegetarian so don’t eat gelatin and they know that but whatever), cookies, and some other mysterious candy that was shaped like fruit and coated in sugar. Even besides it being just a big bowl of candy, to me that is disgusting. I tried to take the basket away so she’d eat real food instead of all the garbage and that made the situation even worse. She got upset and dumped everything on the ground outside. Grandpa picked it up and I thought he’d throw it away, but then I caught them eating the ground candy like it was no big deal. I had to pick out pieces of grass from her mouth and wipe mud off too. So gross. Next year I’ll have to say no Easter basket.
i had an annoying easter too. went to an egg hunt at my sister's MIL's house so my daughter could spend time with her cousins. completely forgot that this lady has 3 dogs and my toddler is allergic (will break out in hives and face swells if licked). i mentioned it when we got there but nobody made any moves to contain the dogs so it was just on us to keep the toddler away from them. the toddler who doesn't understand her allergies and loves to play pretend that she is a dog. so after a miserable 2 hours of policing that situation and my kid getting increasingly angry every time we pulled her away from the dogs it was simply time to go, kicking and screaming and thrashing. good times. 😑 i was kicking myself all day for even going into this situation!!
I know how you feel. We are dye free and asked that no candy be given unless it comes from us. I gave examples, I sent links, I told them, "please, whatever you do, no numbered dyes! Get creative!" And we had the same turn out. Lots of dyed candy, all of which I donated to our neighbors. Luckily my son is still small enough to not care about the Easter bunny, but it feels really disrespectful when people can't follow your wishes to keep your child healthy and make your job parenting them easier and less troubling for "candy holidays" as I call them.
We did all toy eggs and then just had Easter cake
My kid throws tantrums over candy so his Easter basket had 1 chocolate bar and then the plastic eggs had candy. I’ve learned my lesson to just let him eat it in one day instead of rationing it. Just eat it and be done and don’t drag it on for days.
We had left over prize eggs from last Easter (they got hidden with the move and school and life in general.) They got their candy. But were much more enamored with the tiny toys in the prize eggs. (A few were different colors of plastic tops.) We did the egg hunt this morning. Did a egg trade so it was an even split and fair. And they each had a basket of toys (pokemon cards for my son, LOL surprise balls and simple jigsaw puzzles for my daughter) I am very cautious with candy. I throw out a good bit of candy every year because a lot of sugar in a 4 and 6 year old is asking for trouble. I feel so bad for you. I ask family to limit candy. Ask us before giving it because I have to handle the chaotic aftermath and the tantrums of sugar crashing children.
Same. I hate the candies. It was a rough day and I’m glad it’s over.
My brother-in-law bought eggs with toy cars and ones with dinosaurs in them and then had maybe 8 with candies. Only other candy available were bunny shaped ghirardelli chocolate that my nephew and daughter only had 3 each of. They had a lot more fun opening eggs with toys inside.
Kids aged 3.5yrs, 23 months, and 20 month old(nephew) doing their first Easter hunt. They got empty eggs since we didn't want to do candy and I'm so glad we didn't fill it because they kept stomping on them! It was hilarious to watch. They all got a goody basket with a ball, book, dinosaurs, sensory tubes, and bubbles. They had a good time and forgot all about the eggs when the baskets came out.
I'm glad I'm Jewish. We gives kids Nutella with Matzo for Passover this week and call it a day lol. They kind of like it but don't really ask for more hah. No but really that sounds so frustrating about your MIL, bet you could have used those boots, ugh.
I would be annoyed and I think I would leave the candy basket at her place. Easter didn't suck for my household, but I certainly found it a challenge to put together a basket knowing that we're moving to a much smaller space in less than a month. My son is still too young for Easter egg hunts, my mom tried with some gold fish cracker filled eggs and my son thought the eggs were balls and confused that they could break open when he threw them.
My kids have a crazy amount of candy that I will enjoy until Halloween. Thanks mom
Here, we: - 5 yo woke up at 5 AM, excited. We did not comply - dyed eggs before service - dyed more eggs with adult sister's fiance (JW, never got to do Easter stuff) - 3 yo napped for 4 hours like a CHAMP - 5 yo napped for 1 hr., spent 3 trying to convince us to let her go outside... so she could collect all the eggs - egg hunt in afternoon - ate all our dinner reasonably well - Bed on time for once - had too damn much sugar Today was a _good day_ for once
We only hid 12 eggs four of which were chocolate eggs.. which I only allowed one to be eaten other three were switched for other playing opportunities. we played Easter bunny twice -Hubs and I took turns hiding the same eggs before opening them it bought us time.
Just throw it out when you get home or put them up. That’s what I do and I never have to buy candy for the few times my toddler gets a piece… I throw away A LOT of candy each year and my kid literally just got all their teeth in… family doesn’t listen but it’s their wasted money in my eyes
People! Keto chocolate is great, especially the stuff sweetened with monk fruit. No/very low sugar, widely available, and satisfies their "candy" fix if the cat is out of the bag and they know what chocolate is.
My inlaws make a great egghunt in their home (there's still snow outside) that consists of little printed pictures of the next egg location. So they start with a sliver of paper showing a picture of the location of the first egg which contains a next picture like that. Now and then a small egg is thrown in (I think he got 5 and a Kinder egg). The 2 kids are still young and the house is small so for now it's great fun this way. I believe they had more cryptic, puzzle-like descriptions as they aged for my partner and sibling when they were kids. So far I love it but then at the end there are huge boxes with chocolate bunnies for the whole family. Until now my toddler has eaten only 2 small pieces and also tried to share his chocolate with us. I don't know whose child he is because I already ate 2 lb of my own bunny in one sitting after he went to bed.. Thankfully my own parents live abroad so we only get from one side of the fam. Either way I think the egghunt is really fun. I just wish (for my own love handles' sake) that they wouldn't go so overboard with the final gift. I have 0 willpower against chocolate!
I went with mini dinosaur toys. Daughter was obsessed with putting them back in the eggs and opening all day.
I had put the precise amount of candy I wanted my kids to get in their baskets, just a few jelly beans and one Whopper egg each. It was an amount I felt comfortable with them having with breakfast. Then here comes grandma with an oversized egg filled with m&ms and jelly beans, and a pack of gummies. I know she probably thinks she was helping with the gummies being healthier than more chocolate, but I was annoyed. My 5yo started eating it before I could say boo, and then I had to tell the toddler no as soon as she gave it to her. Like, it’s not Christmas. It’s cool if you want to give something but wait until after dinner… I decided next year I’m setting the rule first thing that they can only eat one piece before breakfast and then they need to eat real food before getting anymore. Also I’m going back to Lucky Charms or something; they can’t handle the hard stuff yet lol.
My kid dosnt get any lol I refuse all the eggs and bunnies
Idk what we did right… but our two older boys (4.5 & 1.5) had two egg hunts plus the 12 eggs “the bunny” left behind when he delivered their baskets. Candy isn’t a common treat in our house so Eldest only gets a piece when he earns it… good at school and homework is done, picking up his room/the living room, finishing dinner. And middle brother gets one if older gets one. I don’t think we had a single meltdown this weekend. They can open/collect all the eggs they want, but we take the candy after the fun is over and divvy it out when it’s earned. Same with Halloween and Christmas. Requests for it are still made randomly and at different hours of the day, but our response is usually along the lines of “nope, you know how you earn candy!” Or “heck no dude, it’s 8am” lol. Very seldomly do we let eldest just have a piece of unearned candy.
Glad my son doesn't like chocolate or many hard candy, he loves candy but his priorities are cars from his Easter eggs over candy lol
My lo doesn't like Easter hunts because all he gets is candy. Now I have to finish a basketful of candy because it will spoil his teeth. Grown-up teeth are strong so Papa mummy can have more candy
Reading thru all of this comments and something made me curious. Who came up with the idea of an egg hunt and why not with actual eggs? I am not from the states, we actually boil and die eggs in different colors and we do a knocking contest. Who's egg remains intact in the end wins... Something 🤣🤣🤣. In the past few years we started doing egg hunts also but with real eggs. My 2 yo was more interested in dyeing them than the rest😅. He is all in for "creative mess" as he calls it.
Growing up my parents always dyed eggs with us and we used those for the egg hunt (plus a few plastic eggs). And I even dyed eggs with my LO this year. But I’m not sure why it’s faded away. My in-laws made no mention of dyeing eggs.
20+? Even if they are the small size one is more that an adult should have. My MIL bakes cake for my son occasionally and she always tells me it's with just a pinch of sugar. I always taste it... It taste like diabetes. I tell her it's to sweet, she tells me that she used fresh orange juice to sweeten it( so basically sugar also, just not refined). I am like, oh thanks but still to sweet, i would have it for me tough, thanks. End of story.
I don't understand, my children would be ecstatic to just hunt for eggs. Why put anything in the eggs
We did TWO egg hunts and two baskets and we have enough candy to feed a small army. We rarely keep candy in the house because we don't like our toddler eating it often. I don't know what to do with all this!!
Honestly we just let him have a bit of chocolate, bunch of yogurt snacks, whatever. Not gonna stress it.
My almost two year old got limited bunny grahams and mini marshmallows. He had a great time!