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My oldest (my four-year old daughter) was thrilled to trick or treat this year. She had a blast visiting each house and announcing herself as Minnie Mouse. We only did a few streets so we didn’t bring home too much loot, but boy did two pieces of candy send her into a crazy tirade.
It was an awesome reminder as to why we avoid refined sugar as much as possible. I love that some local dentists and pediatricians were “buying” candy off kids to send overseas to the troops and keep the kids from eating an entire pillowcase-full.
How do you control your kids’ candy stash if you choose to go trick or treating?
About Nicole
I let my kids do as much Trick or Treating as they want but they only get to have candy on Nov 1st then it all goes to work with Dad to put in the staff room. One year my daughter (7) decided to sneak some more then allowed so I threw it all out in front of her. She learned really quick! I don’t like the amount of crap that Halloween exposes my kids to. After a couple treats my son (3) is ready to grump and fight with his older sisters, the dogs, and me.
Refined Sugar is considered a drug at our house. It messes with the balance in all of us.
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I’ve always had such a struggle with Halloween. I don’t know other moms IRL who agree with me at all about artificial colors, corn syrup, chemicals, etc. in candy and in our little town the attitude is always “the more the better.” The parents tend to drive along in the car and try to help them get as much as possible.
My kids are 13, 11, 8, 4 and newborn. It’s much easier to gently control when kids are younger, but as they age they become more and more aware of the differences and I don’t want to be the mean mom but I also know that massive quantities of junk are awful for their minds, bodies and teeth.
We’ve done everything over the years with mixed results. What worked pretty well this year was to Trick or Treat at a nice housing development where they give mostly better quality candy (like mini chocolate bars) as opposed to cheap made-in-China junk and handfuls of “cherry” tootsie rolls. There’s much less objectionable stuff in the chocolate and people tend to give less when it’s more expensive. For the younger kids, I sort through it and trade them something for really objectionable candy and then they get their stash to do as they wish for the rest of the week. I just ask them to follow common sense like don’t have candy for breakfast and to please eat it within the week (my oldest liked to save hers for months and it seemed to be a never-ending supply). It worked pretty well this year.
It becomes such a balancing act as kids age. Halloween is fun, candy is fun, and I don’t want them looking back on their childhoods with resentment for all they missed out on. The good news is that by giving them the knowledge about these issues and gentle boundaries that grow with them, they’re becoming very smart about food choices on their own.
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My kids love to Trick or Treat, but with my son’s allergies, he literally can not eat any of it. Since my kids don’t usually eat candy, they forget about it in a day anyway. They would much rather have a home baked goodie. This year I traded them candy for App store purchases (they have a virtual frog game that they love), and we save some of the candy for science experiments. We made molecule models last year, and this year we will try some from candyscience.com.
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My daughter gets to choose about 10 pieces of candy and happily leaves the rest out for the Pumpkin Fairy who gives her a gift in exchange for the candy. This year she got a ukelele. At 4 years old it works perfectly. I’m hoping that as she gets older she’ll enjoy the tradition enough that she’ll keep wanting to do it.