Parents guilty of pushing, shoving at Easter egg hunts

Parents have been acting more like children at Easter egg hunts locally and across the country. (AP Photo/File)

Pushing and shoving: It’s something we tell our children
not to do.

So why are parents stepping over kids at Easter egg hunts,
tearing plastic, treat-filled eggs from the hands of other
children?

That’s what 97.3 KIRO
FM’s Don O’Neill asked. He and his son were out at the
Woodinville Fields on Sunday at an Easter egg hunt
organized the Emmaus Church in Kirkland.

There were over 15,000 eggs on the field and Don told his
son, nearly 2-years-old, that he just needed one or two
eggs – then if he wanted to keep picking up eggs, he
should give them to the other kids who didn’t have any
eggs yet.

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So that’s what little G-Force did. He picked up one pink
plastic egg with a tootsie roll inside, gave it to dad Don
watching from the sidelines, then he continued picking up
eggs to give to the other kids.

But despite the very clear announcement from Pastor Gary
with Emmaus, parents were flooding the field.

“I insisted that people not go on the field, and in
particular parents, because we did not want to see
children being hooked up with older people who might
trample them. So we asked them to stay off the field. Just
let the kids do their thing.”

Parents didn’t, and as Don’s son did as he was asked,
picking up eggs to hand to other children, parents started
snapping them away from his little hands.

“They ruined all the fun,” Don said of the parents.

These parents aren’t the first to ruin an Easter egg hunt,
in fact, it’s a growing trend. Recently in Colorado,
organizers canceled an Easter egg hunt because of
“helicopter parents.”

Too many parents determined to see their children get an
egg jumped a rope marking the boundaries of the children-
only hunt at Bancroft Park in Colorado, last year. The
hunt was over in seconds with many children left eggless
and rule abiding parents fed-up.

Organizers said the hunt was too big for their park. They
canceled the 2012 hunt.

Some frustrated parents have taken to YouTube with videos
like this:

Parents push, pick up eggs for their children, drag them
across the tennis court – just to get a few extra treats.

What does it teach their kids?

G-Force only needed one plastic egg, but he still wanted
to go out and pick more up to give them to other kids.
Maybe we can learn something from a 2-year-old.