Was this mum’s note from the Easter Bunny cruel or completely necessary?

When kids are misbehaving, parents often threaten to let the Easter Bunny or Santa know, but this mum went through with the threat. And the internet is angry! 

“I have been watching carefully”

We all know the feeling. It’s the thick of the school holidays, the Easter Bunny hasn’t arrived yet, and the kids are driving you CRAZY with the seemingly constant fighting and arguments. You make a threat that the Easter Bunny won’t come if they don’t pull up their socks … but how many go through with it?

After warning her children for the entire school holidays that it would come to this if they kept up their bad behaviour, this Sunshine Coast mum of three, Tracy Elizabeth, made good on her threat to cancel the Easter Bunny’s treats.

Rather than the usual nest of chocolate eggs, bunnies and other Easter treats, her children, Holly (eight), Jake (six) and Zack (two) were greeted on Easter morning by floury bunny ‘footprints’ leading to the couch and a note, addressed to them ‘from the Easter Bunny’. 

The note, written by Tracy, expressed the Easter Bunny’s disappointment in their recent poor behaviour at home, declaring that they had all been placed on the ‘naughty list’ and none of the three children would be receiving any Easter treats this year. 

The children’s reactions ranged from devastation to shock, according to their mum. Holly, aged eight, was “clearly devastated”, says Tracy. Jake (six) was “in shock” and Zack (two) “could [sic] care less”.

“But on the flip side,” Tracy shared. “Least no chocolate hyponess in this house today.”

The Sunshine Coast mother of three posted the video proof on a local community Facebook page, where it has gained hundreds of comments both supporting and condemning her action. 

Internet backlash

Some fellow parents have praised the mum for following through on her threats and taking a hand in her children’s discipline, while many others called the exercise ‘cruel’ and accused the mother of attention seeking and ‘dragging out’ punishment rather than dealing with it then and there.

“It won’t scar them,” says one. “They actually might grow up to be decent people in society unlike half of the spoilt brats out there who have no respect for anybody but themselves”.

But the kind comments were overwhelmingly outnumbered by the judgemental ones. Some even got a little sweary, but we won’t repost their comments here. Suffice to say, this mum copped a lot of negative attention for her attempt at discipline.

Mum’s response to the internet haters

Tracy seems to be taking the negativity in her stride.

“I’m loving all your comments and has definately [sic] made me realise I made the right decision. One a side note. My children are actually well behaved a large majority of the time but I want to raise respectful human beings and if they don’t respect me in our home then they won’t respect society when they are outside of it. So taking away a fictitious ritual for one year in hopes it makes them even slightly a bit better then it’s worth being a “bad parent”.

No judgement here

This mum will get no judgement from me. I think every parent knows all too well that the constant bickering, fighting and dobbing that occurs during school holidays can be a tad overwhelming. There’s just no escape! And when we reach the end of our tether, sometimes we make threats about punishment in order to try and achieve some changes in their behaviour before drastic measures like landing on the Easter Bunny’s naughty list.

How about you? Is this the kind of threat you would make – and if you did, would you follow through on it?

 

This post was originally published on 19 April 2017.