"This is one school ban I just can't get behind."

How would you react if your child’s school cancelled this tradition?

My daughter’s school has banned Easter eggs this year. It was a widely consulted decision between the school and the P&C. There were not many who were against the ban, in fact most have been asking for a ban for years.

No Easter eggs to be consumed at school. No Easter eggs to be given as gifts. No Easter eggs to be snuck into pockets and silently sucked during maths. No Easter eggs at all.

Sad isn’t it?

Are you surprised that I feel that? I am a teeny tiny minority vote who believes that yet again the fun police are out. Once again the fun police are interfering in decisions that parents should able to make for their children. Once again the fun police are destroying an innocent part of childhood. And that is sad.

I can see their arguments. Children these days do consume more sugar than they should and I can see that as a parent you can feel out of control when your child is in the playground being given treats over which you have no control.

I can see how parents see junk food thrust at our children at every available occasion, jelly snakes after soccer, jelly beans at the doctor, lolly bags after parties, an ice block for a sore knee at pre school.

And that as they approach Easter - a time associated, at least for the less religious of us, completely and totally with chocolate parents lose their heads, and make the ridiculous decision to ban Easter eggs at school.

The fact is that the Easter eggs our children are consuming are less than 5 grams in size. They are such teeny tiny innocent little packages of happiness and sweetness it seems almost nasty to ban them.

It's a sweet tradition among the kids that they give their friends an Easter egg in the lead up to the long weekend. Yes, maybe it has started a little early this year and yes, maybe if your child has 25 kids in their class that means they get 25 Easter eggs but you know what ... here is a hot tip  which if you wish you can feel free to pass on to your kids......

They don't actually have to eat them all. Really.

For some reason in our modern generation of parenting we seem to prefer a blanket ban on something rather than to allow individual choice.

There are obvious things that should be banned at schools - dangerous foods like peanuts, but harmless chocolate eggs is just over the top.

One thing parents seem to forget is that they can just tell their kids no.

No 'sorry Zoe I would prefer you did not eat Easter eggs before school. Could you please bring them home/ give them back to the giver/ give them to your teacher/ throw them in the bin.'

Sure the younger kids might not understand at first and could actually sneak  one or two of the delicious creamy nuggets into their mouths but after constant nagging and reinforcement they are going to learn the lesson. Aren't they?

And isn't that what parenting is about? Constant reinforcement and boundary setting, constant reminders and corrections,  teaching our children what we find acceptable and what we don't, and allowing them to learn along the way.

I know that I for one would never have learnt to stop at eating just one Cadbury creme egg if there hadn't been that time when I was eight and I decided to consume half a dozen of them. A sick sugar headache, and stomach ache for hours taught me to maybe, next time stop at one. Obviously I am not advocating your child binges till they vomit, but it is time parents parented, rather than over-reacted.

It makes me wonder just what this generation of children will grow up into. They need to learn for themselves, self regulate and most of all enjoy their childhood. I for one am not sure why we are insistent on taking that away.

What do you think of an Easter egg ban at schools? 

Want more? Try these:

8 Easter desserts that use creme eggs. Yes, creme eggs. 

What to do with all that left over Easter chocolate.