Candy strategy

[marsupial]

How do you manage your kids' loot? Do you let them just go hog wild? Keep it in their room and let them eat all they want whenever they want?

Typically we let them eat all they want on the night of the event and then confiscate the candy and allow them to pick a piece to eat at each meal for the next few days until they forget about it and there is nothing really good left. Then we toss it out. I'm curious how other parents handle it.

[happyone]

When we were in that mode, we basicly followed your strategy. The left over candy was quitely disposed of after about a week.

[Jarid in Cedar]

Halloween candy can last almost 9 months.

[Clark Addison]

We pretty much have no restrictions for the first couple of days. On about Nov 2, we gather all the remaining candy into a central bowl and are a little more restrictive of it, thought not that much.

[Hallelujah]

How do you manage your kids' loot? Do you let them just go hog wild? Keep it in their room and let them eat all they want whenever they want?

Typically we let them eat all they want on the night of the event and then confiscate the candy and allow them to pick a piece to eat at each meal for the next few days until they forget about it and there is nothing really good left. Then we toss it out. I'm curious how other parents handle it.

We exchange the candy for a toy at WalMart. Cost of one trip to the dentist or their sugar induced coma is well worth it.

[RobinFinderson]

We exchange the candy for a toy at WalMart. Cost of one trip to the dentist or their sugar induced coma is well worth it.

Halle, you are too old to be trick-or-treating.

[Soccermom]

We let them eat what they want on Halloween and then we put up their bags and they get a piece a day for a while until they forget about it. I also raid all the bags for candy that would be great on Gingerbread houses and set that aside for our Thanksgiving Day tradition of doing Gingerbread houses. It is amazing how long the candy can last when we make them put it up.

[creekster]

Eat what they want on Halloween. Next day the trade with each other (at least when we had mnore than one that trick or treated) and they can pick a few out for lunches or meals the coming week. Everyhting else goes into a common bowl that we keep around for sweets for a week or two and then it disappears.

[JohnnyLingo]

Man, you guys are all hard-ass parents.

When I was a kid, I was allowed to keep all of my candy. End of story.

Never had a cavity until I was 21.

[WashingtonCoug]

I like how my father in-law does it. He charges them a tithe of 10% every day until the candy is gone. Teaches a good lesson and gets rid of the candy a little faster. Not to mention he gets some of the loot.

[Pheidippides]

Does everybody remember those hard candies with the jelly center? Small, came in all sorts of fruit flavors? The next day was spent bartering candy when I was a kid, and those were the focal point. Not to eat so much as to have. Strawberry was common, pineapple was not, and over the course of a couple of days it would not be uncommon for a pineapple to eventually go for a full-size Snickers or something. It was a very weird economy. The trading went on for at least a month.

My first lessons in supply, demand, and economics in general were learned on Nov. 1 of each year.

[marsupial]

I like how my father in-law does it. He charges them a tithe of 10% every day until the candy is gone. Teaches a good lesson and gets rid of the candy a little faster. Not to mention he gets some of the loot.

Oh, I have instituted the "mom tax" on all goodies they have that I want a bite or piece of. They are taxed year-round, not just during Halloween.

[TripletDaddy]

we do the candy fairy thing. they get to trade in most of their candy for a cool little toy...star wars figure, doll, weight loss tablets, etc...

They can keep some pieces here and there, but candy is usually all gone within about 4 or 5 days.

SeattleUte recently made a very good point (he has a habit of doing this).....it isn't necessarily about what the kids are eating now....it is about training them in eating habits that will affect them as adults.

Teach kids to moderate candy, not to binge on it. That is our approach.

[falafel]

Like Lingo's parents, my parents respected my candy haul. That was especially true once I got a little older (sadly, I went trick or treating all the way through high school). I kept every single piece.

[cougjunkie]

A lady in my ward dumps all of the candy in the middle of the room and gives her kids one hour to eat as much as they can. She said they always go overboard and end up sick puking their guts out. Then she throws the rest away and the kids want no part of any more candy.