“Mammy, which do you love more, Christmas or Easter?” For me, the answer would be Christmas, hands down, but it made me realise how significant Easter is for a child if they’d even think to ask the question.
For the past few weeks at school, they’ve been flat out producing Easter arts and crafts, by all accounts. My kids have proudly carried home all manner of woven paper baskets, sock bunnies, glittery chicks and cotton wool lambs from school.
They’ve made beautiful Easter cards and have even been treated to Easter eggs from their very kind and generous teachers. So really, I suppose it’s no wonder they’d put Easter up there with Christmas. There has certainly been an exciting build up to it.
It amazes me when I visit a friend’s house and see an Easter egg stashed in the fridge in July. Excuse me, how does this happen?! If I’m honest, in our house, we’re lucky if all the eggs remain intact until Easter Sunday. My kids aren’t allowed to gorge on chocolate just because it’s Easter, but they do get a pretty steady supply of it at the best of times.
I’m not going for parent of the year here, so I may as well tell the truth! I try to be mindful that it’s my responsibility to ensure that they don’t eat too much rubbish, but at the same time, I’d rather normalise a bit of chocolate than outlaw it and for them to go off the rails when they inevitably get their hands on it. (To any dieticians who are reading this and think it’s a terrible strategy, I can only apologise!)
Any Easter eggs that are left over will be given away or melted down to make rice krispie treats. If they stayed in the house, I can tell you now that there’d only be one outcome… I’d eat them all myself!
As for the Easter bunny, he seems to be doing the rounds to more and more Donegal homes these days. It’s far from the Easter bunny I was reared myself, so I find it a little hard to get on board with it.
As I’ve already mentioned, there’s no shortage of Easter cheer (or chocolate) in our house, but the Easter bunny doesn’t feature. When my kids ask why, I shrug and explain that different families have different beliefs and traditions, and the Easter bunny isn’t one of ours. That’s not to say that other families don’t enjoy a visit from the Easter bunny! Without a doubt, the Easter bunny creates magical moments for lots of families and that is to be respected. He most certainly comes
to loads of my kids’ friends and they know that. He just bypasses us and that’s fine. I see it as a good opportunity to show my kids that we can be respectful of other people’s customs without having to participate in them ourselves.
I’m a french teacher, and my kids were bamboozled to be told that in France, it’s actually the church bells that drop the eggs in the garden as they fly across the sky on their way back from Rome. True story!!! So, this Easter, if my kids want an egg hunt, I’ll happily organise one for them, but I’m not letting a bunny – or a bell – take the credit for it!
Louise Flanagan is an admin of Letterkenny Babies Facebook page and the author of the children’s book series, Dragonterra. www.dragonterra.ie
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