Last year's children's Easter Egg Hunt at Bancroft Park in Colorado Springs was over in a matter of seconds. No real hiding places were readily available at the location, so thousands of plastic eggs (filled with coupons for local businesses! Yay Easter!) were basically just dispersed on a lawn for kids to pick up.
It doesn't sound extremely sporting, sure, but believe it or not, it was over so quickly not because it was too easy for the kids, but because it was too difficult--or at least numerous parents seemed to think so, and therefore insisted on jumping into the arena (would that be considered an arena, or would you have to give the kids battle axes or something?) and grabbing eggs themselves lest their young ones feel overwhelmed by the challenge.
Reporting on the incident, from what I've seen, leaned heavily on the "helicopter parents" argument, claiming that this is just one example of an entire generation of parents who can't help but hover over their children at all times and ensure that they enjoy every advantage possible. I take moaning over "parents these days" almost as un-seriously as that over "kids these days", but it's hard to argue against them having ruined this particular event.
The end result of the debacle, of course, is that organizers have ruled the event to be too big for its britches, and it was cancelled this year. One wonders if the lesson the parents will take from that is that it's better to not have your small child participate in anything, rather than risk unsatisfactory results. Leaving the house is, after all, the first step toward failure.
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