Dreaded Easter Egg Hunt

Daddy (blue hoodie) and the little girl (in stripe pants)
waiting for the egg hunt to start.

It's that time of the year again.  Easter Egg Hunts organized by local parents, town municipalities, schools, etc.  I am excited and dreading these event. Last year, we took our then 3 year old to one, set up by the neighboring town, on the local high schools football field. When we got there, the parking lot was completely packed. The field was separated into 2 sections, one for kindergarten and younger, another for the older kids. We lined up in the younger kids section, with 50 kids and 100 parents.  The excitement was palpable.

I wasn't worried about the 50 or so kids.  I worried about the 100 parents.  They were much bigger than the kids.  The moved much faster than kids.  And they were more vicious.  Signs with "Kids Only" were everywhere.  But, when the whistle blew, and the rope separating the wave of humanity and the colorful eggs was dropped, all hell broke loose.

Parents of pre-schoolers ran to pick up the eggs.  I'm sure the event was not meant for 35 year old moms and dads to push each other and little kids to get at plastic eggs with candies inside.  Granted, I stood back with our newborn.  My husband was with our little girl in the crowd.  But, I can say for certain, he did not pick up any eggs for her.  He pointed to the eggs and told her to pick them up.  But, the important job for him was to make sure she wasn't trampled.

My little girl picked up 10 eggs, because she can count up to 10, and that's the number she wanted.  Some eggs had candy, some had stickers.  All that goodies were more than enough for a 3 year old. I don't see the point of fully-grown adults regressing to children just for some candy.

This year, we are going to the town's Easter Egg Hunt event with my daughter again.  She is excited.  Now, at 4, she knows that she'll get candy.  I hope that, I implore, other parents to let the kids do the egg picking themselves.  It's their event, not yours.  Your job is to make sure that your child is not trampled and that your child enjoys herself.  Not to take candy from little kids.

Working - Defined to a 4 Year Old

Now that my 4 year old is mature enough to handle money and grasp the concept of it, we let her keep her loot from her Chinese New Year red envelopes.  A total of $60.  Instead of putting it in the bank account, I gave her the two $20 dollar and two $10 dollar bills.  I told her that we can go on amazon.com and pick out whatever she wants that her $60 can buy her.  She loved that idea.  She joyfully picked out Play-Doh, Crayola water color, and a crayon melting contraption.  With tax and shipping, she is now left with $5.  Not enough to buy anything else.

So, my teachable mommy-self steps in.  I said, "you can earn more money by working".  My little girl asked, "what's work?"

Hmm.... what is work?  I wake up early, take the train to the big city, sit in a cube in front of several computers, write email, look at data, talk to people on the phone, but those things mean nothing to a 4 year old.

So, here's work that will get her paid, defined to a 4 year old, "something you do for someone else that you normally would not do".
such as:
1 - help feed your baby sister
2 - clean the cats' litter boxes
3 - clean up after your baby sister
4 - help shovel the snow
5 - make sure the cats have fresh water in their water bowls

work that will not get her paid:
1 - clean up after yourself
2 - feeding yourself
3 - hugging your sister
4 - be nice to people

So far so good.  Now I just need to define how much her jobs should be paid.

Allergies

I have one those kids.  I'm one of those moms.

Yes. I use to silently mock (in my own head) the kids who have dangerous allergies and the moms who sent lists of forbidden foods to the hosts of playdates.  I felt sorry for them.  I thought that their kids are just not as sturdy as they should.

Karma sucks!

After dealing with my now 4 year old's eczema since she was 3 months old by lathering her with daily regiment of lotions and potions, we found out it's due to food sensitivities and allergies.  About 6 months ago,  I read Robyn O'Brien's book "The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food is Making Us Sick - And What We Can Do About It", a light bulb blinked on in my head.  Food.  Can my little healthy sturdy girl be really allergic to the food I feed her?  Eventually, slowly, I remove the one thing in her diet that I thought was the healthiest, dairy milk.  Miracle!!  She stopped scratching.  Her blistered, sore, red skin turned into healthy smooth kid's skin.  No more crying, no more yelling, no more potions.  It was like magic.

Now that I know food is a big factor in her overall well-being.  They next thing I noticed was the very rare times she ate a tiny bit of peanuts, she started coughing and complained that her tongue feels weird.  We are not a family of peanut butter sandwiches.  It just wasn't in our list of food in the pantry.  But every so often, peanut M&Ms or trail-mix with peanuts would make it across our house's threshold.  Another light bulb blinked on in my head.  Peanuts?  Could it be?  What else?

The pediatrician took her blood for an allergy test at her 4-year check up.  Positive.  All came back positive for peanuts, cashews, coconuts, nuts, nuts, and more nuts.  We were also given an Epi-pen for 'just in case'.  So, she is one of those kids.  I'm one of those parents.  I will be sending the list of no-no foods to the hosts of playdates.  And I apologize to all the parents that I silently mocked for so many years.  I'm sorry.