I hope You Read This

 First and foremost, I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend. We are celebrating Passover as well as Easter since we are a bi-religious family and it's just as crazy busy as it is fun.
 Part of our plan for the weekend started off with an Easter egg hunt this morning. As it is every year, the weather was windy and cold and not really answering our prayers of sunshine, warmth and zero winds. But since snow was predicted, it was better than the forecast at least :) It was nice to enjoy the hunt as a participant rather than the person who put it on as well. For the past two years I have been the one to put the city Easter egg hunt on. And every year it has been quite the stress and quite the anxiety for me. I couldn't do it another year it was just not something I was looking forward to. You see, Easter egg hunts from a parent's point of view isn't about how awesome it is for their kids to be able to participate in seeking out eggs with free candy in them, or being able to share the excitement with their kids as they run around giggling and seeking eggs with their friends and it is certainly not about thinking about the efforts of those who put it on. No, instead as I have learned over the past three years now, it is about standing around with other parents and complaining about any aspect possible from the weather which no one has any control over (and in my opinion is sort of fair game because I also hate coldness and wind), it's also about complaining about how many eggs are NOT there to hunt for even though they don't seem to get how the people putting on the egg hunt paid for the eggs themselves, and it isn't about thinking about what the people go through putting this one. So I'd like to enlighten people a little bit. I haven't spoken my opinion in three years. I have sat back quietly, taken the criticism from everyone and kept my mouth shut. I'm tired of doing that.
 So let's begin. The past two years I have spent more than $600 dollars of my own money on plastic eggs, candy to go inside of them, and the prizes to be given to the children who found special eggs. I had a friend at the time who helped me last year and put in quite a bit of money herself. She also spent a month writing letters and e-mails begging companies and people for donations. Last year's count of plastic eggs totaled 1200. And we had about 75 children show up for last year's hunt. I still received complaints about how there were not enough eggs. Really?!? We put quarters in some eggs. To a child, that is still quite a bit of money. I heard people gripe about how we should have put in more than just one quarter. Really!?!? I put in ads and flyers about the egg hunt starting at a certain time. I had people show up after that specified time and complain that their children didn't get to participate and how horrible of a person I was. If something starts at 10:00am, show up ten minutes early. Don't complain because you can't show up to en event on time. I am not holding 75+ children just because a few can't get their parents out the door faster. I enjoyed hearing feedback, it gave me ideas. The first egg hunt I put on, I had a few parents hold back until everyone left and gave me ideas and things to work with. That helped. What didn't help was parents telling me how dumb I was for doing something or hearing how useless I was because I didn't do the egg hunt the way they wanted it. If there is a FREE event put on in your city evaluate the fact that if you think you may have an idea or could help out in ANY way, why not speak up and volunteer to help out instead of sitting in your house and complaining about what could have been one way or done differently or how you could have done it better. When I started the egg hunt, I had ZERO help. ZERO. No one volunteered to help me until the day AFTER. The city wouldn't even help me. And the last time it had been done was about ten years previous I heard.
 This year was a different story. I took the hunt to my local chapter of the Eagle's Auxiliary and asked them to help me with it. I couldn't take the stress, the financial aspect was too much and in all honesty I was tired of people going behind my back and complaining about what I did or didn't do or how badly ran it was. So I humbled myself and took down my pride a notch and asked for help. And I got it. A friend of mine and her friend (who is now a new friend of mine :) ) took over this year. They got our local movie theater to donate a free movie for everyone, they got hot dogs, chips, cookies and punch and gave the kids a free lunch as well as got awesome raffle prizes and the obvious Easter egg hunt. The Easter bunny was also present and that was a pretty good hit to. But, instead of parents saying thank you or telling these ladies how awesome of a job they did, all I heard was complaints and it made me sick to my stomach. Parents were upset that there was no food for them. Umm hello!?!? Really1? THIS IS FOR THE CHILDREN!!!! You want free food, go to a homeless shelter or your own parents. THIS WAS FOR THE CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There weren't enough eggs. I can see that but how many eggs for a child is really "enough"? There was no way to predict the amount of children showing up. And in big cities children are only allowed to walk away with 6 or 7 eggs each. So when your child walks out shouting yay I have 15 eggs, you really need to hush. Every family puts on their own egg hunt on Easter anyways, it isn't like your child won't get anything at all so don't get greedy. Let's see, what was the other complaint I heard...Oh yeah, parents showed up after the specified time. I read awesome and I know I read that the egg hunt began at ten but to please show up earlier. That's pretty self explanatory. If something starts at ten, be there at nine forty-five or nine fifty. Don't show up at five minutes past ten and wonder why the egg hunt is done with. A mass of children will consume twelve hundred eggs in literally four and a half minutes. I timed it last year.
 It makes me upset that all I heard was negative comments about the egg hunt, once again. What is so hard about a smile and a thank you? I know my father raised me right, did everyone else's parents not care enough to teach the most simplest rules of respect and politeness? And yet these people are the same ones who will be sitting in a church tomorrow praising God for saving them and pretending to be awesome religious people. Just because you go to church does not make you a Christian. Your behavior outside of church is what people notice better than how you sit in a church.
 I thanked these ladies. My kids got free candy, I got a free three hours of entertainment for them as well as myself, my kids got a free lunch, they got to watch a free movie in the actual theatre, and my son even won a free kite. I don't see any negatives about this. We as a family spent three awesome hours together. How was that a bad thing?
 I'm just in a mood now because of that. I was so disgusted by grown adults that it actually baffles me. Every year I see grown ups who act more greedy, more selfish and just plain out more immature than the five and six years old who are actually in the hunt. Grow up "adults"!
 Ugh.
 There's the end of my rant. Hopefully people read it and got something out of it. Hopefully next year when I put on the next egg hunt, I am met with people who want to help and not bitch and whine. Hopefully I am met with more help than road blocks. Hopefully people are grateful and not ridiculous. Because honestly, people do these things for complete strangers. People are doing this for children who aren't theirs. People do this sort of thing to help the community, to teach children kindness and good deeds. I do this sort of thing to teach my children that if there is a change to be made in the world, to be the ones to do it instead of talking about doing it.
 So happy Easter to all of you out there. I honestly hope everyone has a wonderful time with their families and friends, and that even though it's not Thanksgiving, we all remember to be thankful. I hate that people only act right during times such as 9/11 or Christmas or Thanksgiving. People should act decent and good ALL year, EVERY year. Instead of trying so hard to be skinny, people need to try to be nice. TO EVERYONE.