Easter Egg Egos

Happy easter

 

 

 

 

 

As we look forward to the Easter weekend, the one tradition we still hold dear is the Easter egg. The symbol of the egg is still central to the celebrations, most notably chocolate Easter eggs and egg decorating competitions. Unfortunately, years of egg decorating has taken its toll, and even my friend Debra, who could always be relied upon to muster the maximum of enthusiasm for egg decorating recently expressed her relief that as her youngest child was now in Year 6, this was the last year of the dreaded decorating an egg for Easter competition at primary school. The school Easter egg competition is prime territory for parental egos.

School Egg Competitions

School egg decorating competitions should always be fun and an opportunity for the students to truly express themselves. Unfortunately,  they can be totally marred by the parents who make the competition into the equivalent of the Turner Prize. There were always some highly impressive contributions – but it was always apparent where there had been a massive amount of parental support. As far as I am concerned it should be an opportunity for the children’s creativity to shine through, but such competitions can become unnecessarily traumatic. My contribution to my own children’s egg competitions were without exception woeful. Unfortunately, for my children, if I helped decorate their eggs, they looked WORSE than if a 6 year old they had just done it themselves.

The Creative Process

When my daughter was in Year 1 she wanted to create a princess for the school Easter egg competition. I thought, “Even I can cobble that together.”

Step 1: Boiled egg successfully – no cracks

Step 2: Painted the whole thing pink

Step 3: She drew some facial features – all was going well.

Step 4: We needed some hair. In a split second of logic, as one of my son’s walked our way, I thought – he needs a hair cut, so I cut a clump out of his hair. Sorted. Glued it on – and hey presto, an egg princess with long flowing blonde hair. My daughter loved it.

The Reality

When our daughter proudly presented her egg to her dad, his look of horror highlighted just how bad it truly was. He said it looked like Norman Bates’ mother from the film ‘Psycho’. Despite this honest and accurate analysis of the egg, my daughter still loved it. On reflection, I begged her not to take it in, but she was having none of it! In she went, proudly presenting her egg princess. To be honest, I thought it was hilarious. I felt no shame when I saw the other egg masterpieces the other children had brought in. There were all kinds of wonderful creations that undoubtedly put our effort to shame. But, it is a good lesson for my daughter, she wasn’t really bothered about winning, she just wanted to show off her egg. I saw the teachers afterwards to apologise, and they said that in private, it was the best laugh they’d had about an egg in years.

Norman Bates Mother

The Bonus

Where I found it hilarious, my good friend Debra was thoroughly ashamed at my total lack of shame. Thankfully, from then on she organised the egg creations for future competitions. My contributions to egg decorating days were over before they had barely begun.

The Message

Realistically, such competitions should always be an opportunity to be individualistic and allow the children to be creative and produce their own egg. What it has become in some schools is a bizarre competition where parents feel they are being judged and it is their sense of worth that s being measured. Most children seeing the fantastic creations of other kid’s parents would feel inadequate and that they couldn’t possibly compete. Where I take a special sense of pride in our joint creation is that children would take a look at ‘the princess – Norman Bates’ Mother’ and think, ‘Even I could do better than that.’ And give it a go. Parents need to put their own egos to one side.

Motivating students is not always about being exceptional, it is about giving them an avenue to create their own successes.

 

Happy Easter!

 

by Christine Thomas

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