Children react differently to giant bunny (04/10/06)

It’s almost Easter. That means that a new generation of small children is being terrorized by giant rabbits wanting to hold them. Perhaps if the bunny costumes were a little smaller they wouldn’t be quite so frightening. Then again, maybe not. Some children are afraid of any strange situation. We are so adamant that our children not talk to strangers that we are sending mixed messages when we suddenly want them to climb into the lap of an unusual being.

My new granddaughter got her picture taken with the Easter Bunny last week. I have a photograph of a huge animal holding a very tiny and extremely serious little girl. It may well be the last picture we have of her and the rabbit.

Her three-year-old cousin had a major panic attack at the thought of getting anywhere near the bunny. Her other cousin, a one-year-old boy, was brave enough to walk up to the creature but didn’t want anything to do with having his picture taken. You should know that these two children are the biggest hams around and will stop anything they are doing and grin like Cheshire cats whenever a camera appears. Or at least they do until faced with someone in an unfamiliar costume. They react the same way to Santa Claus. I don’t know how they are with clowns.

I only have two pictures of my own daughter with the Easter bunny. One is when she was a baby and didn’t know enough to be scared, although she did wet on him. Oops. The other is when she was six or seven and had a gap-toothed smile. The years in between were spent in abject fear whenever faced with a costumed hare.

We went to Breakfast with the Easter Bunny one year. All went well until the character began making his rounds. She hid under the table and kept repeating, “Hurt you? Hurt you?” No amount of reassurance would convince her to come out. We couldn’t leave because we were with the next door neighbor and her little boy wanted to talk to the bunny. The closer the rabbit got to our table, the more frightened she became. It was a disaster.

A few years later we circled a medium-sized pink rabbit for over an hour. She was curious and seemed to enjoy watching the other children get their pictures taken but eventually decided it wasn’t for her.

The Easter bunny has been around in some form for centuries. The rabbit is a common symbol for fertility and the resulting new life that abounds in spring. I’m not sure exactly when we began dressing up grown adults as stylized bunnies and then coaxing our reluctant children to get their pictures taken with him or her.

Most of the other Easter traditions are less frightening although I did see a kit featuring Peeps® that were used to make s’mores. I guess that would be extremely upsetting for the marshmallow creations. When you think about it, biting the ears off a chocolate bunny isn’t the nicest thing to do, even if they are delicious.

There is something about warm spring breezes and an abundance of new life all around that demands a celebration. Coloring and hiding eggs, Easter candy in all its various forms, stuffed lambs, chicks and bunnies and new clothes complete with stiff and slippery new shoes are all part of the way we celebrate Easter and the end of winter. We are not only celebrating the resurrection of Christ but the resurrection of life itself.

Spring is the perfect time to let our children loose in the yard to hunt for colorful eggs and anything else they might find. The daffodils and violets seem to lure us outside to watch them before the late spring storms drive us back into the house.

One of these days, I’d like to play the Easter bunny, but only if I can somehow figure out how to make it less scary for the little ones.[[In-content Ad]]