Owen had his egg carton all ready and had his sights set on a purple egg that he wanted to get. (That was the only thing he cared about was getting that purple egg). The woman starts counting down over the loudspeaker, and both myself and the mother next to me are giving last minute instructions, making sure the kids know what they are supposed to do and will be able to do it on their own. Finally, the woman yells, "GO!" And what happens? It's an instant mad dash for all of the eggs as they are being grabbed up and hoarded into the arms of over half of the PARENTS there!
These parents had barreled through into the taped off area, snatched up eggs for their kids, while other kids were being plowed over and left with nothing but disappointed faces as there were no eggs left for them to find. Poor Owen was standing there with his (nearly) empty egg carton, desperately looking around for some eggs to find, while adults were standing nearby with eggs pouring out of their arms and their children watching them instead of partaking in the fun themselves.
Finally, one of the college students noticed Owen and helped him to collect whatever eggs were left and brought him back over to me and Ben. Owen enjoyed himself and was proud of his egg collection, completely oblivious to the fact that only three of his ten eggs actually had any candy in them because the adults had emptied their eggs while still in the taped off area, and had thrown the empty eggs back on the ground for some poor unsuspecting three year old to pick up.
What is wrong with these parents? It really irks me to see grown adults act like children and makes me wonder... If they aren't listening and following the rules, then why should anyone expect their kids to? In my opinion, they were not setting a very good example. The whole point of the egg hunt was for the kids to have fun collecting eggs on their own. My guess is that it wasn't supposed to be a competition to see which "kid" could collect the most eggs the fastest, but more of a fun activity for the kids to enjoy. Am I overreacting?
Luckily, Owen was unaware of any behavior that wasn't fair to him and he enjoyed himself. I was actually pretty proud of him for doing it all by himself, without Mommy. But most importantly, he managed to get that purple egg he had his eye on and is still talking about it days later.
