I get confused at the meaning of Easter and HOLY WEEK. My days are not filled with somber reflection, but are actually filled with arguing with my 4 year old about whether or not he can have a treat from his egg hunt he got on Thursday at Pre-K, or from his sister’s egg hunt which came 2 days earlier. Or they are spent shaming that he ran and ate all the candy after I told him not to and his wrappers all over the house tell the tale. My child has no sugar consumption control. This should not surprise me, but it does seriously frustrate me. Why has all of Easter (and every holiday in America) become associated with Candy CONSUMPTION?! It frustrates me to NO end. I hate the battles, the arguments, the putting it on top of the fridge, which they just pull a tall stool up and indulge when I’m not in the room.
What happened to REAL eggs? DIPPED IN REAL DYE, laid out on the ground, rotting away in their tombs SMELLING LIKE DEATH!? That might mean a bit more, you know? Intead, we have an Easter SUGAR SURPRISE?! One that is unfulfilling, unsustaining, not real food, and leaves us with a giant pit in our stomach and a chemical imbalance in our brain asking for MORE.
American Easter Traditions SUCK> I’m sorry, I’m just going to say it. And I participate in it. I’m all for JOY and my kids liking me. For the first time I thought, I’ll buy the basket, I’ll buy the PEEPS (Heaven Help Me) and apparently I’ll also pay the Dentist in a few months. It’s been a pandemic, don’t be Bunny Scrooge– (maybe the Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh?). And that’s not to say all of those hard working women and childcare workers who put them on Suck. They don’t. They are loving on our kids and they can’t help my children have tall stools.
I’m just so tired of things that don’t satisfy. I don’t want the cute stories, I don’t want the sugar substituted version. I want to know about the DEATH< the PAIN < the WAITING, the RESURRECTION!> And I want my kids to know a little of it, what they can, the best they can.
I know, I’ve heard of resurrection rolls, and maybe I’ll try it. I mean, I’m lazy, I’m tired. It’s just me here you know, pulling the weight of our families traditions in meaningful ways (OK, yes my hubby is here, but he is not really a party planner). I want parties planned for me. I want community and learning that doesn’t cost me. I want my house cleaned without it taking time from my internet scrolling. Do you know what I MEAN?
My new favorite phrase is “Toughen up Buttercup” (Thanks Jen Hatmaker) I use it at least once a day, usually against one of my children. Although today, I’m telling myself. It goes right along with Glennon’s mantra “I CAN DO HARD THINGS.”
You want your kids to know more about Easter than where their headband bunny ears are in the house? Toughen up buttercup, It’s your job sista, I tell myself. You wanna not hate your Easter existence because LEGOS are all over your dining space?– toughen up buttercup you can make your kiddos clean. You want something other than candy to be their lasting toothache of a memory of Easter. Toughen up buttercup, start the water boiling. Teach them. If not now, when? If not this year, which?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to make them wear a new(ish) outfit and smile for a spring photo. I’m still going to let them eat some sugar because I bought it and you know, OOPS. They will now know what a Cadbury egg tastes like (basically the sweetest, creamiest, nastiest thing on earth.) But I hope they will also know that there was more. There is something that satisfies something that actually brings LIFE and substance. It’s a resurrection power. It’s that death has been defeated and for that we celebrate and eat too much HAM, and hop around like bunnies and wear the fanciest thing in our house. No more sugar substitutes. I want an egg that somehow went through death and survived to be eaten and gives enough energy that it can take you on a day’s journey. Because Death has been DEFEATED and our Jesus is not dead. He was not robbed from the grave, but the tomb is empty because he is ALIVE.