SavvyBlog

Topic —  From the Publisher's Desk

Can the Candy Plan

October 28, 2008
Sarah Morgenstern

Pocket

We’ve been running a poll on our homepage for the last week to check in with our readers on their Halloween candy approach, and for the most part our readers are reporting that they follow the tried and true approach of letting the kids pick out one or two treats each day, once they bring the big stash home. 3% of moms say they hide it all and eat it themselves and 7% say they let the kids eat as much as they want whenever they want (and we say good on you either way). About 7% say the Halloween fairy takes the candy away to trade it for a new toy – and you can even combine a charitable lesson here if you convince the kids she takes it to kids who weren’t able to get out trick or treating themselves.  .

But we’d like to put a plug in for our preferred approach (which 13% of readers use as well) – let the kids eat as much as they want for a week and then get rid of the rest. Now this approach comes with two important caveats – the only time they are allowed to eat the candy is after they have eaten dinner which theoretically means their stomachs are full of a few other things beside chocolate, and they have to brush their teeth twice during this time period. In our house, we call this after-dinner candy eating ‘Candy Fest’ and the kids are allowed to eat as much as they want every night for seven nights after Halloween. What is amazing about this approach is how LITTLE candy they actually eat … never more than a few pieces each night. What is great about this approach is that it miraculously eliminates all the ongoing begging and pleading …’please just one more”, and that’s a trade I am definitely willing to make for the risk of having my kids eat one more piece of candy than they might actually need. On the last night, we make a big celebration out of Candy Fest, and then bag up everything that is leftover to be taken to Mommy or Daddy’s office the next day. And then …Halloween is (thankfully) over for another year, and we have a nice six week break before the next chocolate holiday begins.

What’s your favourite approach to candy management?