Image credit: Jerilee Bennett/The Colorado Springs Gazette/AP Photo

Overzealous parents have been blamed for turning annual Easter egg hunts into events that are downright dangerous  and just not fun.

YouTube is chockful of videos showing parents from Illinois to Pennsylvania instigating stampedes for eggs and candy, children getting trampled and even encouraged to push others and steal.

Macon, Ga., officials held a news conference today stating that although Saturday's event was still on, parents should rein in their behavior.

"We expect parents to behave," Eric Quick, an organizer, said today. "No pushing. No shoving."

Bibb County Commissioner Joe Allen said that in recent years parents had gotten unruly, and children had gotten hurt. A woman also threatened to sue after getting injured during one hunt.

"She was pushed and fell and was hurt pretty bad," Allen told ABC News today.

In Colorado Springs, Colo., organizers canceled the free holiday tradition, usually set for Easter Sunday, because last year's hunt  got out of hand.

"There were disgruntled people because there weren't enough eggs to go around, or some kids didn't get one," Dave Van Ness, executive director for  event organizer Old Colorado City Associates, told Fox affiliate KXRM-TV.

Parents were so determined to get their child an egg that they sent their older children racing. That caused the parents of the younger children to then jump the rope, going from spectators to participants. Last year's hunt ended in seconds.

Jennifer Reed of Old Colorado City encouraged parents to "just chill out a bit.

"Let these kids enjoy it," she told KXRM-TV. "It's really about these kids having a great time."