So, is the Easter Bunny a thing?

It’s Easter Bunny time again. Or not, as the case may be. I’ve asked around, as I do every year, confused mammy that I am:

Does the Easter Bunny come to your house?

office mum post: Easter Bunny
image: Gastromomia.com

And the answers, though varied, usually have a similar theme:

We didn’t have it when we were kids but my kids seem to have heard about it at school, so I guess we do ….

or

We didn’t have it when we were kids so I’m not going to tell my kids about the Easter Bunny – though they have heard about it somewhere themselves so we might have no choice …

or

We didn’t have it when we were kids so I’m keeping it vague, I’ll see what the kids come up with themselves ….

or

We didn’t have it when we were kids – is it really a thing now? What? Do I have to do it?

You get the drift. And maybe some people know exactly what the rules surrounding the Easter Bunny are, but I’m not one of them.

My kids have picked up the idea somewhere, and do refer to the Easter Bunny. I gloss over it when they mention him. I don’t want to dispel the idea – if they believe in magic, long may it last. And on a more practical level, I don’t want them to go into school and ruin it for any classmates for whom the large, furry chocolate-bearing rabbit is a firm fixture. And mostly, I’m afraid that if there is even a hint of a question about the bunny, it might bring the fairy and the Yuletide man-in-red into question too.

On the flip-side, and oddly, for pretty much the same reasons, I don’t want to validate the idea of the rabbit for them either. If I stand over it; if I say “Yes, the eggs you found in the garden were put there by the Easter Bunny” and then it turns out that 80% of their classmates got their eggs from their parents, I’m in trouble. We’re edging far too close to questions about other magical visitors and the notion that parents might not always tell the truth.

On a side note – eggs in the garden or at the end of the bed? Somehow both happen in our house – I’m sure that’s not quite right, but we’re in too deep now.

So which is it – what’s the rule? Is there a rule? I think we all need to get together and agree for once and for all: is there an Easter Bunny?

(and if there is; I’ll have the Butler’s, Toblerone or Lindt extra-large egg please, thank you)

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If you’d like to read some Irish Parenting Blogger Easter posts, you can find them here:

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22 thoughts on “So, is the Easter Bunny a thing?”

  1. The old dilemma 🙂
    It was absolutely not a thing when we were kids. So in our house we choose our own big eggs and the Easter Bunny hides some small ones in the garden. The boys have been looking already as the Easter Bunny had already visited playschool. It’s a minefield!
    Sinead- Bumbles of Rice recently posted…A Week’s Dinners #5My Profile

    1. It is absolutely a minefield. I’m going with head-in-sand for as long as I can. We’ll hide eggs in the garden – just small ones. Big eggs at the end of the bed. And lots of vagueness.

  2. This is all too familiar. I just found myself using the Easter bunny as a threat this evening. I actually told my children that the Easter bunny had little birdies, like Santa’s elves, that were keeping an eye on them, so they had better be good. (We’ve been having some ‘challenging’ behaviour lately and I was desperate) I have clearly dug my own grave with this one now. We never had it as children, but i have no one to blame but myself that he exists in this house….
    Sadhbh@WhereWishesComeFrom recently posted…Easy Easter BonnetMy Profile

  3. Good grief, I thought at least Ireland was Easter-Bunny-Free and Proud. I was not impressed when I discovered that the Americans had invented an Easter Santa, basically, and that some kids believed in this one just as fervently, and not only that, I’m supposed to put together a basket of goodies – not just chocolate – that the Easter Bunny delivers on Sunday morning. Well, I haven’t done it yet and I’m not doing it this year either. The kids have vaguely mentioned that some people get things for Easter, but I just say “Really?” Easter is always overshadowed for us by my eldest’s birthday, on the 24th, so they’ll be lucky if they get anything special at all, frankly. I might make dinner, I suppose. Maybe.
    Maud recently posted…April Fools (Me Every Time)My Profile

    1. I know, we’re sorry. But it does seem to be becoming more prevalent here. It seems to be spreading from kid to kid, but it must have started somewhere. Maybe it’s all Sadhbh Devlin 🙂
      I like your “Really?” response Maud – I might try that.

  4. My mother didn’t want to do the Easter bunny, but my Grandpa who is from Barbados incidentally always told us about the Easter Bunny and how he saw him one year, and all sort of magical stories etc. So the Easter bunny was a thing in our house. It did raise doubt in me about the other visitors because people at school swore that there was no such thing and their parents got them the eggs. I clung on to my beliefs re the red man but times were different then. Kids know so much now.

    For my own kids I have said nothing, the 5 year old says every so often something about the bunny coming and I don’t really respond. So I’m with you not encouraging or discouraging, I’ll see how things pan out. The bunny used to hide our eggs in the house. I will do this and then we will have a hunt of some sort outside later on in the day. Happy Easter!
    laura @ dairyfreekids recently posted…Easter Chez NousMy Profile

    1. That’s really interesting to hear the other side Laura – the situation you had in school is exactly what I’m worried about! It does seem that we’re all in the same boat though, so I’m getting a sense that talking about it in school would be fine – most kids probably do have a rabbit, even if the parents aren’t actively promoting it? I wrote this on Thursday, and since then, the bunny talk has increased significantly here in this house – it definitely, definitely seems to be a thing….

  5. Oh dear,I’m not sure about this one. Right now my thinking on this is ‘No’ but like everyone else I’m firmly sitting on the fence and humming and nodding in a completely non-commital way when he/she is mentioned. About 10 times a day.
    Oh dear. Perhaps I’ll let my husband decide! hahahahaha!
    Helen O’Keeffe recently posted…Hot Cross Buns and Vikings in the ParkMy Profile

  6. Yes, I keep forgetting I have a stash of chocolate bunnies and chicks hidden upstairs and I have yet to arrange them into hampers of some description. Then will I put them on their beds (maybe not!) or outside their door (for the dog) or on the table downstairs (for the dog) or WHAT? Already I have been asked is there really an Easter bunny and I kind of said not really. Then like you mentioned, the toothist fairy came into question as well and horrors Santy!!!!!! It’s a dilemma! Might have to do a blog post now!
    Wonderful Wagon recently posted…Monday, Monday. So Good to Me.My Profile

    1. Dilemma indeed! Were you able to allay the concerns about the tooth fairy and Santa? We have a wobbler here and the big question now is whether or not the bunny and the fairy are going to bump into each other 🙂

  7. I’m a couple of years late on this but the Easter Bunny (Osterhase) is a thing in Germany and has been for at least 90 years. Look up the gorgeous book Die Haeschenschule.
    Anyway, we do it because it is the done thing here. Lately though kids have been getting stuff like Lego or bikes (ffs!) from the Easter Bunny and ours have just got chocolate eggs. So we are heading for troublesome questions again.
    Thankfully the boys were really bold today so we can blame the lack of presents on that this year 😉
    Fionnuala recently posted…We’ve Moved!My Profile

    1. Lego and bikes! But that’s Christmas all over!
      Last year, my two girls came into me one morning before Easter and said “We think the parents buy the eggs at Easter, and if the Easter bunny isn’t real, we think Santa isn’t either” – which is exactly what I was worried about. Damn bunny. Happy Easter though!

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