Halloween is still a month away, but already the stores are full of merchandise and kids are excitedly planning costumes. In this age of worried parents and focus on health, how does everyone handle trick or treating in their houses? If the kids do traditional trick or treating, how is the candy handled?
One of my friends is the “fun†mom. Her kids basically are allowed free rein of the candy bags, which disappear into the bedrooms and are gone in a matter of days.
I’m the un-fun, mean mom. My kids do activities all around Halloween. While we don’t do door-to-door trick-or-treating, we do participate in the downtown business trick-or-treat, we go to the community parties, and will visit friends houses. Where the mean part comes in is with candy regulation. On Halloween itself they are allowed about two pieces each of booty after finishing that round trick-or-treating. This adds up to 2-4 pieces a day depending on how the community events are scheduled. Next comes the slightly sneaky part. The kids put the candy bags in the freezer to keep the candy fresh. Once they are asleep I go in and get rid of the candy that I know they dislike. Hard candies, ones that they won’t miss at all, and so forth. After that they are allowed to have one or two pieces a day as a treat as long as the rest of the day has been spent eating normally. This means they go through and decide what they really want to eat.
By the time Christmas rolls around the Halloween candy is stale and mostly forgotten about since the Christmas treats are coming, so any left over candy can be discretely tossed out. The same is done with Christmas candy until it’s tossed out at Valentines. It’s silly but candy giving holidays are so close together that we literally have candy left by the time the next one rolls around.
The result is the kids don’t feel they are being completely deprived and go nuts when candy is present. At the same time they aren’t getting stomach aches or more long term issues with health. For those that feel sorry for my poor kids, I’m sure they will be more then happy to tell you how cruel I am. However, I’m the one that will be there when they excitedly hang a name badge on the no cavity board at the dentists office, and I’m the one who is there when they pass on the last few bites of dessert or cookie because they are full and don’t feel the need to push themselves to finish it.
All I’m saying is this is what works in my house and with my kids. Everyone’s family is different. So if anyone reads this, please share what Halloween routines and policies are in your house.
