Food: Illicit Halloween Candy

Food Shopping
Articles
Seafood Articles

Cheeses
Chocolates, & Candy
Coffee & Tea
Desserts
Fruit
Gift Baskets
International Foods
Meats
Nuts
Seafood
Specialty Foods
Complete List
Home

Article List
Directory
Resources

Articles/Resources:
Beans
Breakfast
Budget
Cheese
Chinese
Comfort Foods
Dessert
Diet
Eating Habits
Everything Food
Fast Food
Food Gifts
Food History
Food Shopping
Food Traditions
Foods and Events
Foods and Holidays
Foods and Places
French
Fruits
Gift Baskets
Healthy Foods
Italian
Lunch
Mexican
Recipes
Restaurants
Treats
Vegetables

Archives:
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006

Have New Articles E-Mailed To You!

Illicit Halloween Candy
Thursday, November 03, 2005

OK, time to 'fess up! How many of us parents have snuck some of the candy out of those darling little trick or treat bags when the innocents were sleeping? It's particularly tempting when the kids are too young to notice. I remember heading to the treat bag after the girls were asleep and purloining about half of the goodies. "It's for their own good," I told myself. "There's WAY too much candy here for any self-respecting mother to allow her toddler to eat." Ah, those were the days.

It wasn't too many years after that when the girls would sit in the middle of the living room floor after returning home from Trick or Treat night. They dumped their loot in a pile behind themselves for safekeeping, and commenced to trading and bartering for "the good stuff." The oldest child was instigating the process, offering trade after trade to her rather unsuspecting younger sisters. Their father and I ended up refereeing so that the younger girls did not have their rights trampled and all of their good candy ending up in their older sister's bag.

The worst part of this burgeoning interest in the Halloween candy, though, was by far the girls' heightened awareness of the contents of their goodie bags. Instead of blithely handing the goodies over to their parents after choosing the allotted one or two items before bed time, the girls were now cataloging each and every piece of sugar-laden confection that they had received during their Trick or Treat outing. They were not only COUNTING the candy, they were actually taking inventory. Each girl knew, down to the last Smartie, how many pieces of what type of candy she had.

This was the death knell for candy-snitching by the parents of the household. Now the only way to share in the bounty was to ask permission, and the only candies they were willing to share were the yucky ones that no one wanted. Even if the child did not particularly like one brand of chocolate or the other, the unwanted candy made great bartering tools. With two other sisters, chances were good that one of them would want the kind that was being rejected. In other words, they split up the good stuff amongst themselves and all that was left for the poor parents was the dregs. *Sniff!*

Those days are gone by now. My young goblins no longer prowl the neighborhood in search of goodies on Halloween night, and the Trading Circle has disappeared from our living room floor, at least until the grandchildren resurrect it. I've had to resort to buying my own Halloween candy. This is not a good thing, because now I'm forced to admit exactly how much of the stuff I'm really eating.

My youngest daughter returned home from a weekend Halloween party with a goodie bag prepared by her hostess. There were wrapped chocolates, peanutbutter cups, and several other goodies inside. She must've seen a longing look in my eyes, because she said, "Mom, would you like to share some of my candy?" My heart jumped, but I didn't want to seem too eager. "Uh, sure, if you don't mind," I answered. Then she dropped her bombshell. "Well, tough!" she said. "That's for all of the years that you and Dad snitched candy out of my bag when you thought I didn't know." She stalked off, her candy intact in her bag.

Who says they're too young to care??

4:41 PM Comments:
Post a Comment

<< Home