Easter bunny

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I just remember when my parent wanted to kill the Easter bunny for leaving a mess of fake plastic grass for the pet to chew on, really scary stuff. This was when I was real young and pre any kind of Dx as I recall so I suppose I might of taken it a little too literally and failed to pick up any sarcasm. Still imprinted in my mind though. Thought I would share for humors sake. Happy Easter!

I do Easter baskets for my kids so that they have gifts - a chocolate bunny and some small toy or in the case of this year, an iTunes card. But I've never attributed them to the Easter bunny, and I try to avoid Easter egg hunts (even though our church has a big one each year). We are Christians, so we try to put more focus on the cross and resurrection.

On the other hand, we do Santa. That's probably hypocritical, but oh well. It's what we do. Not much - I have a few Santa motif decorations, and they get one present from Santa each year. And we watch The Polar Express each year. But we try to put focus on the birth of Jesus.

Funny story: My almost 13 yo kid with ASD says he still believes in Santa. I asked him once if he still believed even though none of his friends - nor his 10 yo brother - do, and he said yes. This past Christmas, however, he opened his gift from Santa, and immediately said, "Thanks, mom!"

We definitely do Easter Bunny. It's so fun to scatter candy all over the house and plastic eggs all over the yard and watch them hunt!

DS8 confided that he overheard his grandma say something to her boyfriend about hiding the eggs last year. He also asked directly if parents sometimes hide eggs -- unfortunately it was in front of his younger sisters, so I tried to shush him rather than answering. He told his dad, "I'm not sure I believe in Easter Bunny and Santa anymore," so DH allowed him to come along when he bought some "extra" chocolate bunnies on Saturday night.

So we thought he was pretty much done with the pretense. Then on Sunday, when the "extra" chocolate bunnies were out by the baskets, he came up with the following theory, "The Easter Bunny stole the chocolates that Dad bought, took him back to his workshop, and then put them out with our candy." Someone *really* wants to believe in the bunny!

We do Easter and Christmas for our 4yr but don't attribute it to Santa or the Easter Bunny. He gets the basket, the egg hunt and even a picture with the Easter Bunny, but we never say it is real, or that it isn't(mainly so he doesn't ruin it for other kids). If and when he decides to ask where all the gifts come from, I will tell him the truth and explain not to say anything to the other kids. Since he just starting speaking 6 mo ago, not an issue right now.

I love celebrating and having traditions. I just don't want to lie to him. I decided this long before I knew about ASD. He loves the egg hunt. One of his special interests are surprise eggs, so this holiday was made for him. It just sucks you can't import Kinder eggs into the country, he watches YouTube videos of them all the time.

No need to feel too bad. My son is older than my daughter, so of course he has known the "truth" for awhile now. My daughter first realized that the tooth fairy was implausible, followed by the Easter Bunny, and this year asked something along the lines of "If I no longer believe in Santa Claus, will I still get his presents?" LOL! So, in other words, neither kid believes in any of it, but we still do Santa and the Easter Bunny just because it is fun. This year and last year, my son was involved in hiding plastic eggs filled with small candies for all of his cousins. None of them thought the Easter Bunny did it (my siblings are more fundamental in their religious beliefs and have never taught their children that the Easter Bunny or Santa were real), but all of them had fun anyway.

Truth be told...I love playing Santa every year, even though my kids know it is me. We still leave out milk, cookies and carrots and now that they are older, they "track" Santa on the internet until they go to bed.

I find that there is a certain appeal to the willing suspension of disbelief. Too often as adults things become all too serious and we lose that ability to embrace fantasy for the simple sake of having fun.

My oldest daughter busted me when I was putting out eggs about 4 years ago, but now enjoys making sure her younger sister still believes.

What I found hilarious was that my oldest didn't make the connection that if Mom was the Easter Bunny she is Santa too and when I made a comment to that effect she was horrified. But again, she loves to make sure her sister still believes.