Halloween question for parents

[JenInVirginia]

Curious how other parents handle consumption of Halloween candy.

In the past, we have let our kids eat several pieces of candy on Halloween night and then they save the rest and we let them have one or two pieces each night for dessert - on nights we have dessert (we generally only eat dessert on weekends or special occasions). This results in them still having candy weeks or months after Halloween is over.

I'm not a total health food nut by any stretch of the imagination, but we normally try to limit the amount of candy and junk food in the house and I've always hated having the candy around so long after Halloween.

I'm considering this year letting them gorge themselves for a full week - as much as they want, and then tossing whatever is left after that. Would love to hear opinions on this and to find out what other parents do.

 

[JenInVirginia]

Oops, sorry - meant to post this on the Community Board.

 

[disneygal2007]

We let them have some holloween night. Then a few a night to munch on. Come Dec 15th I throw out the rest.

 

[Leajess99]

They can have a few pieces but in the end it is given to friends who are allowed to have more candy than my kids. I have 2 that are not allowed to have caffeine except on occasion so keeping the candy here is not a good idea.

 

[zoemurr]

what you do now.. but I have a girlfriend who gives them 3 days to eat all that they can. They usually do a pretty good job of it too. My kids usually are all excited about it for a few days and then forget and DH and I end up eating the rest.

 

[thebeesknees]

We have done the 1-a-night thing in the past, and then I toss it all the first of December. This year, I'm thinking of doing what one of my friends does: about a week after Halloween, she sets the timer for 10 minutes. The kids can eat as much as they want during that 10 minutes. She said that they gorge themselves the first couple of minutes, and then don't want any more at all, so they have no issues tossing the leftovers. I'd like to get it out of my house before the Christmas treats start coming in!

 

[MinnieForMe]

Since we eat very little candy all year long, my kids really look forward to Halloween. I let them eat whatever they want on Halloween night and then 1-2 pieces for a few days. They quickly forget about it and it gets put into a candy jar on my husband's desk at work!

My oldest gets severe migraines from chocolate as do I so that's the reason it's not in our house. He does not eat it on Halloween like his siblings!

 

[ilovejack02]

I let him go hog wild Halloween night, and then a few pieces a day for a week or so and then he usually forgets, I keep it around for about a month and then send off some to hubby's work and dump the rest.

 

[aaronella]

I saw in our local area, some dentists will actually pay CASH to trade in your candy. I dont remember the details but they would weigh it and pay by the pound!

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

Halloween night I don't really set a limit, they eat maybe 5 and are done. If they went too crazy I'd adjust that, but they really don't. The for a week it's 1 piece in their lunch and 1 or 2 after dinner. By then they are usually over it and so I freeze all the chocolate stuff and all the Smarties and such go seperate. The frozen stuff we have for movies nights and when we go to the movies for the year. The Smarties and such we use to decorate their Gingerbread houses at Christmas (they never eat those anyway!)

Surprisingly they don't go overboard. Not complaining!

 

[Hannathy]

Why would you want to encourage gorging???? I do not understand this at all. or wastefulness?

I don't make a big deal about candy. It is there we have it all the time they can eat whatever they want and guess what they barely eat it.

Halloween they can eat whatever and however much they want. It will sit in a bowl on the table and anyone can eat it. I usually still have candy at Christmas.


I have a question why do you waste people's money trick or treating if you are just going to throw it out? why don't you just take your kids to the 15 houses you have determined is all the candy they can eat and stop wasting folks money. I think this is the most outrageous thing I have read on the BUDGET board and a total waste of money and quite wasteful. It makes me very mad to think I scrimp other ways to buy enough candy for trick or treating to here people throw it out within days.

 

[shortbun]

Trick or Treat is thursday around here. My son got Thursday, Friday and Saturday to eat whatever he wanted and Sunday was recovery day. He was also required to eat very healthy meals those days-prior to eating candy, oh and I made sure he had lots of water. Usually, he'd eat a lot thursday-moderate amt on friday and maybe a couple of pieces on Saturday. After that, Mom and Dad got to eat some. lol! Yay!!!

 

[snoopyluvsdis]

We never threw out any candy except for the very few pieces that we got that nobody liked. We are good parents so we kindly helped our kids eat their candy and it never lasted longer than a couple of weeks.

 

[windycitymom]

I have a question why do you waste people's money trick or treating if you are just going to throw it out? why don't you just take your kids to the 15 houses you have determined is all the candy they can eat and stop wasting folks money. I think this is the most outrageous thing I have read on the BUDGET board and a total waste of money and quite wasteful. It makes me very mad to think I scrimp other ways to buy enough candy for trick or treating to here people throw it out within days.

I was thinking the same thing! Why not freeze it and use it for goody bags at birthdays? Or put it in a bowl at work? But why would you throw out perfectly good candy?...let me clarify...I'm all for throwing out rock hard candy and things that don't look good or questionable candy, etc. but throwing out a perfectly good piece of chocolate?

 

[jjenniboo]

My DD7's candy is left in a bowl on the table. She eats whatever shes interested in over a few weeks and my husband usually takes the rest to his coworkers.

 

[windycitymom]

I have a question why do you waste people's money trick or treating if you are just going to throw it out? why don't you just take your kids to the 15 houses you have determined is all the candy they can eat and stop wasting folks money. I think this is the most outrageous thing I have read on the BUDGET board and a total waste of money and quite wasteful. It makes me very mad to think I scrimp other ways to buy enough candy for trick or treating to here people throw it out within days.

I was thinking the same thing! Why not freeze it and use it for goody bags at birthdays? Or put it in a bowl at work? But why would you throw out perfectly good candy?...let me clarify...I'm all for throwing out rock hard candy and things that don't look good or questionable candy, etc. but throwing out a perfectly good piece of chocolate?

 

[JamesMom]

It was tradition when I growing up that Halloween is one of the designated "junk days" (Easter, Christmas & Birthday being the others). On that day I could eat to my hearts content. I do the same for my kids.
The remainder gets parsed out a few pieces at a time as afterschool snacks. After about 2 weeks the balance gets put in the trash. My kids are still young (5 & 7) so we don't collect that much candy. If the pail is full it's time to go home - no pillowcase full of stash for this house...yet.

 

[ilovejack02]

I was thinking the same thing! Why not freeze it and use it for goody bags at birthdays? Or put it in a bowl at work? But why would you throw out perfectly good candy?...let me clarify...I'm all for throwing out rock hard candy and things that don't look good or questionable candy, etc. but throwing out a perfectly good piece of chocolate?

THe good stuff is never ever thrown away in my house lol, I just dump the totally junky stuff and most of mine does go to hubby's work.I don't send the stuff that I just know an adult won't eat, and if my child hasn't consumed it in a month , must mean he doesn't like it , which most likely means another child won't like it either.

This is the reason I don't buy the cheapest candy out there just for the sake of handing out. I buy the good stuff so I know my hard earned money isn't wasted. : )

 

[shellyfive]

our kids school takes donations of excess candy, and then it goes to the local shelter, where they use it for desserts, etc.

 

[JenInVirginia]

Why would you want to encourage gorging???? I do not understand this at all. or wastefulness?

I don't make a big deal about candy. It is there we have it all the time they can eat whatever they want and guess what they barely eat it.

Halloween they can eat whatever and however much they want. It will sit in a bowl on the table and anyone can eat it. I usually still have candy at Christmas.


I have a question why do you waste people's money trick or treating if you are just going to throw it out? why don't you just take your kids to the 15 houses you have determined is all the candy they can eat and stop wasting folks money. I think this is the most outrageous thing I have read on the BUDGET board and a total waste of money and quite wasteful. It makes me very mad to think I scrimp other ways to buy enough candy for trick or treating to here people throw it out within days.

I don't know if you are talking to me, but if you read my second post I said I posted my question on this board by accident so I apologize profusely for posting the most outrageous thing you have ever read on the budget board. I don't currently throw out the candy - I just said I was considering getting rid of it after a week - what I really meant was out of my house.

Other people posted that there are places that take donations, which I hadn't even thought of before. So thank you for that suggestion, and now I will go back to my usual lurk mode before I offend anyone else with something even more outrageous.