Halloween Candy policy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's works for me is to let my daughter have dessert every other night. she can pick candy or she can pick something else if we have other kinds of sweets in the house (I definitely have a sweet so I don't usually buy cookies or cake or anything unless it's a special occasion).

I also recommend not trick or treating more candy than you think you're going to need.

Disagree with second sentence. For a lot of kids, mine included, the act of trick or treating is way more fun than the candy itself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's works for me is to let my daughter have dessert every other night. she can pick candy or she can pick something else if we have other kinds of sweets in the house (I definitely have a sweet so I don't usually buy cookies or cake or anything unless it's a special occasion).

I also recommend not trick or treating more candy than you think you're going to need.

Disagree with second sentence. For a lot of kids, mine included, the act of trick or treating is way more fun than the candy itself.

So just knock on the door and say hi to the neighbors, don't take the candy. It is really OK to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's works for me is to let my daughter have dessert every other night. she can pick candy or she can pick something else if we have other kinds of sweets in the house (I definitely have a sweet so I don't usually buy cookies or cake or anything unless it's a special occasion).

I also recommend not trick or treating more candy than you think you're going to need.

Disagree with second sentence. For a lot of kids, mine included, the act of trick or treating is way more fun than the candy itself.

So just knock on the door and say hi to the neighbors, don't take the candy. It is really OK to do that.

Ew, no. That's just weird. "Trick or treat!" "Trick or Treat!" "Trick or Treat!" "Hi! Oh, no thanks. Just saying hi!"

[Anonymous]

All you can eat night of, 2 per night for dessert afterwards. Mom & Dad pull out the good stuff while nobody’s looking.

[Anonymous]

I have never limited my kids. They love getting it and they each ate maybe 1-2 pieces last night but then their buckets sat ignored in the floor while they watched Hocus Pocus. I have never ever limited or restricted any food in our house so my kids aren’t convinced this is a free for all where they might never get candy again. It’s just candy. I guarantee I will throw away 97% of this or take it to work because they just don’t care to eat it all and forget about it.

[Anonymous]

I let my 11 yr old eat as much as he wanted on Halloween. It amounted to about 15 fun size pieces! Maybe 20! I really hoped he would eat the entire thing and be sick and be done with it but that didn’t happen. So now I have to be the candy police which I hate. I had him pick out 14 pieces for the next seven days and he can eat it whenever he wants and then next Thursday will do the same thing until it’s gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's works for me is to let my daughter have dessert every other night. she can pick candy or she can pick something else if we have other kinds of sweets in the house (I definitely have a sweet so I don't usually buy cookies or cake or anything unless it's a special occasion).

I also recommend not trick or treating more candy than you think you're going to need.

Disagree with second sentence. For a lot of kids, mine included, the act of trick or treating is way more fun than the candy itself.

So just knock on the door and say hi to the neighbors, don't take the candy. It is really OK to do that.

No it’s not ok. It’s weird. Why bother? It’s the fun of actually getting something, not just saying hi.

Quit being the candy nazi. Your kids will live, I promise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have never limited my kids. They love getting it and they each ate maybe 1-2 pieces last night but then their buckets sat ignored in the floor while they watched Hocus Pocus. I have never ever limited or restricted any food in our house so my kids aren’t convinced this is a free for all where they might never get candy again. It’s just candy. I guarantee I will throw away 97% of this or take it to work because they just don’t care to eat it all and forget about it.

Don't hurt your arm patting yourself on the back. Some kids don't care about the candy, but it's not because you don't restrict it. Some kids will gorge themselves every day and not eat other food if it isn't restricted. Some kids won't care much, whether it's restricted or not. The same is true of adults.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never limited my kids. They love getting it and they each ate maybe 1-2 pieces last night but then their buckets sat ignored in the floor while they watched Hocus Pocus. I have never ever limited or restricted any food in our house so my kids aren’t convinced this is a free for all where they might never get candy again. It’s just candy. I guarantee I will throw away 97% of this or take it to work because they just don’t care to eat it all and forget about it.

Don't hurt your arm patting yourself on the back. Some kids don't care about the candy, but it's not because you don't restrict it. Some kids will gorge themselves every day and not eat other food if it isn't restricted. Some kids won't care much, whether it's restricted or not. The same is true of adults.

Agree..glad that works well for the kids you have but you could go for one more who is a sugar fiend dispite your parenting practices. I have two kids that are very different that way. My DD best friend does not eat sweets at all. She brings it home, hands it to her brothers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's works for me is to let my daughter have dessert every other night. she can pick candy or she can pick something else if we have other kinds of sweets in the house (I definitely have a sweet so I don't usually buy cookies or cake or anything unless it's a special occasion).

I also recommend not trick or treating more candy than you think you're going to need.

I need my kid to get enough candy so they wont notice the chocolate that I steal. And I like chocolate, so that equates to quite a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We put it in a bowl on the counter and the kids had a free for all the first night. They'd have some more the second day and then it tapered off. I never had to make a strict policy. We taught our kids to self-regulate food in general pretty well.

How did you do that? I think people say this but they don’t really know what it is like to have a sugar addiction/food addiction.

It was just our lifestyle and modeled behaviors as they were growing up, I guess. Teaching moderation from an early age. Involving them from a young age in meal planning and cooking. I don't know what the magic answer is really. We've always had healthier diets, but we also aren't strict. It's true though, none of us has ever struggled with weight, but we aren't naturally skinny either. And we do love food and eating too. Most people aren't born with a food addiction. While genetics do come into play, it's majorly a learned behavior.

We did all of that and my kids still don't have what I consider a healthy relationship with food. I have one kid that for the longest time seemed to not know when he was full and would keep eating until he made himself sick if I let him. I have another who giving one or two treats a night is still not enough for him, so he will take them when we aren't looking, which causes us to remove all treats. Its worse if they are at a friend's house.

My child never ate past being full, but not sure I had that much to do with it. Even as an infant, when he was done, he was DONE. Not another bite. But I don't think it was anything in particular I did.

It is another one of those things that is just inbred mostly. My #1 (very tall boy) would literally put down a spoon after 1 lick of ice cream and say he was full. My 2 (tiny girl) would have downed a quart if not interrupted. If I only had kid #1 I would have just thought I did a great job as a parent.

Same here. I have one that is great at self regulation and one that isn’t. We eat very healthy, no one is overweight, I don’t forbid things either. They get some kind of dessert most nights, usually homemade pudding or a small ice cream scoop. My child that isn’t good at regulation would eat until sick if allowed.

[Anonymous]

Well, I guess I'm an outlier because I don't impose any limits. I'm happy enough to have it eaten and done soon rather than later.

My children call me a strict parent. This just isn't something I'm willing to micromanage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's works for me is to let my daughter have dessert every other night. she can pick candy or she can pick something else if we have other kinds of sweets in the house (I definitely have a sweet so I don't usually buy cookies or cake or anything unless it's a special occasion).

I also recommend not trick or treating more candy than you think you're going to need.

I need my kid to get enough candy so they wont notice the chocolate that I steal. And I like chocolate, so that equates to quite a bit.

+1, absolutely

[Anonymous]

We never imposed any limits. Kids usually ate it all within a month--a few pieces a day.
They're in middle school now and are athletes and have practice 5 days a week year round.
We don't worry about the extra calories and the rest of their diet is really healthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We put it in a bowl on the counter and the kids had a free for all the first night. They'd have some more the second day and then it tapered off. I never had to make a strict policy. We taught our kids to self-regulate food in general pretty well.

+1 that’s exactly what we have always done with our kids. Their friends who have houses with strict candy, sweets, desser, etc rules generally seem to have no restraint or self-regulation with food & have gone on to have food issues as they have gotten older