Halloween 2016 is in the bag

A firefighter and a zebra. Respectable, if I do say so myself. 

Halloween has come and gone, and predictably, many posts on my Facebook page are from parents, resigning themselves with an eyeroll to the days of sugar highs and lows that now await them.

Not so in our house.

We adopted a practice from some friends a few years back that has worked out well for us.

For the last few years, the ‘Halloween fairy’ has been coming to the house, to exchange candy for some sort of toy or art supply. This year, the kids are old enough to have us just tell them that we’d be exchanging their candy for some sort of pens-and-colouring-book set. And they’re cool with it.

The concept, for anyone who wants to try it next year, is simple. 

• The kids get to go trick-or-treating to their heart’s content. 
• Come back with as much as you can carry. Dump it all on the table, with no separation of ‘whose is whose’. 
• Sort out the razor blades, syringes and fentanyl pills, and then let the kids gorge. In our experience, it only takes 15 minutes of straight candy eating before the kids are tired of it. 
• As they eat, they get to choose a handful of treats to stash away—we say 10 pieces. 
• And then, the rest goes into the candy bowl to be handed back out to other trick-or-treaters who come to our door.
• In exchange, the kids get (Insert material object here).

The sugar high from all that gorging is basically offset by the exhaustion of a late night running around the neighbourhood (bedtime was no problem!), and from there, the kids can choose a treat for their dessert each night until the candy is gone.

The usual Trick-or-treating mayhem

Now, I get it. It was fun to have all that candy as a kid. But the stash in a house with siblings was a difficult asset to protect, for one thing (JAMIE, I am looking at YOU… thieving older brother), and really, eating mini chocolate bars by the time Christmas rolled around was pointless, since the fresh Christmas goodies were on their way into rotation.

What do you think? Are we terrible parents for using this system on our kids? Or are we the BEST MOST AMAZING PARENTS EVER?!*

We've figured out how to cut down on the candy.
Now if we could just get our son to stop doing the 'Dab' dance move. 

Give it a try next year, and see how it works out for you!

And, for a lil’ video of the Halloween experience at our house, have a looky-loo. All the fun, with 95 per cent less candy! https://youtu.be/5CO7SlvmzC0 

Ooh, also, I had a haunted house for work, a couple days before halloween. If you're still feeling spooky, that video is here: https://youtu.be/mfd2SrMARBc 

ps - lots of video on my youtube channel since my last post. head over to my channel for various and sundry items! 

*does not denote personal bias. That’s all in your head.