There are reasons that preschools have rules. They may not allow peanut products because of dangerous allergies.

They require matching shirts for field trips and closed-toed shoes for walking days.

And since most provide federally approved nutritious meals and snacks, they tell you not to send food to school with your child unless you get permission from the teacher.

Imagine my embarrassment when I noticed my daughter's classmates crowding around her minutes after I dropped her off one morning.

"An egg!" one announced.

"Sloanie has an egg!"

This was quickly followed by requests from several children for eggs of their own, but alas, we only had the one, which was actually supposed to be an afterschool snack.

It's hard to pry a hard-boiled egg out of the hands of a stubborn 3-year-old, so I took my daughter outside to eat in "private."

That was mistake No. 2.

I should have taken her out of the school completely, instead of seating her where she'd have an audience of her classmates, who peered over the gate at her, chattering nonstop about eggs.

My attempt to pretend that we weren't sitting there breaking a rule was futile. We were clearly quite visible, since children were calling out, "Sloanie's Mom, is Sloanie eating an egg?"

My daughter, oblivious, took teeny-tiny bites, methodically eating the white away from the yolk, which she handed to me for disposal.

By this time, the kids were getting ready for their real breakfast, which to some of the kids' disappointment, did not include eggs.

I've learned my lesson.

My daughter still insists on the occasional pre-breakfast snack, and often it's an egg.

These days, though, we sit outside the school gate to eat so that the kids only have a passing glimpse of her treat before their parents shepherd them into school.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.