It Never Crossed My Mind

I'm certifiably insane, for those of you who haven't picked up on that yet. I also have a problem with the word "no."

My babysitting co-op has an Easter Egg hunt every year, which in the past has involved hunting for one dozen eggs per child and having the Easter Bunny come to give each child a basket of cr#p. Last year, it was supposed to be at the social chair's house, but since it was snowing that day, we moved it to the park district.

This year, I'm a social co-chair, and I knew that Easter was even earlier this year than last, so I didn't even pretend it might be held outside, and renting the park district's facilities was going to be too expensive. I volunteered the inside of my house, which is fine. Every year, we have big birthday parties for the kids, so it isn't a big deal to do this, right?

However, at a meeting, some of the parents objected to the cost, especially those who had multiple children, as it was going to cost around $15 per child because of the cost of bringing in the bunny and basket. We decided to go a different route and instead decorate cookies after the Easter egg hunt, as well as ordering some pizza to keep the kids under control. That ended up coming down to $3 per child, which was far more reasonable to the parents.

So, with the event being fun and reasonable in cost, what do you think happens? Of course, just about every mom signs up. I now have 35 kids coming to my house (two more added this morning). Oops.

Next, one of the moms finds an Easter Bunny costume at Party City for $75, which was less than what it was going to cost us to rent it for one day. Needless to say, I was at Party City on Sunday to buy the costume for years of future use.

The next trick was to find someone to wear it. When we had talked about renting a costume, one of the women had thought her next door neighbor would be willing to be the Easter Bunny for us, as we need moms to supervise and dads wouldn't be home from work yet. Unfortunately, he isn't able to. I leaned on my dad, as my parents were going to come help with the Easter egg hunt anyway. He wasn't enthusiastic, but I talked him into it.

Then I saw a post last night (www.mom2my6pack.blogspot.com) where pretty much every mom finds the Easter Bunny to be creepy. My kids love the Easter Bunny, and most of the kids in the co-op do, too, so it didn't concern me until I saw the reactions from some of the moms there.

This morning, I called my parents to confirm that my dad was still game (think about it...). Nope, he's now out. Knowing that my dad isn't the most social person, I was guessing that he didn't want to be center of attention. My logic was the he didn't have to say anything since the Easter Bunny doesn't speak and that he'd be covered up in the costume.

I was completely wrong as to why he didn't want to do it. He's afraid of what the moms and others will think. As in, "what kind of creepy old man dresses up as the Easter Bunny and has little girls on his lap?" The thought never dawned on me. Never even crossed my mind. It's really sad to me that the world is coming to this now, and it shows me how sheltered my life really is. Needless to say, I respect his decision, and the search is on to find another bunny.

Lucky for me, my husband is a school teacher. He can be home by 4:45 on Wednesday, so phew! However, given that the kids will all be in the house decorating cookies and looking for eggs, he somehow has to enter the house as the Bunny. We made jokes about how Santa comes down the chimmney and the Easter Bunny comes up the toilet (and out of the bathroom), but I finally decided -- after the tears of laughter stopped streaming down my face -- that the other parents wouldn't appreciate that urban legend being introduced to their kids.

The new solution is that my husband will change into the costume at school. That means that he has to walk out of the school with the head off, since driving with the head on is probably illegal, not to mention dangerous. I can't wait to hear about the reaction of people who see him in the costume. Fortunately, he's a good sport, so he'll do it for me. And the Easter Bunny will ring the doorbell, to the delight of all the children. All the children. All 35 of them.

And right now? I'm making chicken noodle soup because I'm afraid I'm coming down with the flu. The sugar cookie dough I made last night is not being baked tonight, of course. Here's hoping I feel better tomorrow after loading my body with as many get well ingredients as I can!