Saturday, November 6, 2010

Halloween Candy

I don't know about you guys, but I love Halloween candy. Just the smell of it in my son's trick-or-treat bag makes my mouth water and brings back delightful memories. Dressing up, going out with my parents in the crisp fall air to trick-or-treat, carving pumpkins, and eating caramel apples all remind me of the joy I find in the Halloween holiday.

When I was growing up, my parents let us eat as much of our candy as we wanted (after taking out a handful of their favorites) starting Halloween night. We kept our candy in our plastic pumpkins or pillow cases (it was the 70's) and delighted in the feast.

As a result it would be a guaranteed barf fest in the Hall House each and every year. We had no self-control when it came to candy, well, except for 2 of my siblings. A and T (using abbreviations so that they can maintain some dignity) would SAVE their candy. They would hoard it, eating 1 piece a day and stretch it out for months.

After the initial candy trading, gorging, and barfing was over for me and my other greedy sibs, A and T would offer us some of their candy. The problem was they charged us! I always thought that was an awful, selfish thing to do. I would have shared any of my candy with my siblings, if I'd had any left to share. I vowed never to have a child who would hoard candy. I would teach him otherwise.

Fast-forward 30 years . . .

My son, Joshua, was NOT raised with candy as an incentive to do chores, go potty in the toilet, or any other thing my parents did to get us to finish something we didn't want to do. (I foolishly thought I knew better than my parents.) No, I was going to have a child who would enjoy candy, neither gorge it down and barf, nor sell it to me piece by piece, laughing all the way to the bank.

My plan backfired. My darling, sweet, usually unselfish son Josh was able to attend 2 trunk-or-treats this year. After the first trunk-or-treat, he showed us his stash of candy. I have to admit, it was pretty impressive. When my hubby and I asked for a piece, he refused. We were shocked. I thought maybe he was hoarding it to keep to himself and gorge on later. Nope. (We did get him to share 1 piece with Steve later.)

After the second trunk-or-treat, I had to beg him for a piece of candy. My hubby threatened to sneak in while he was asleep and steal some. Josh hid it. He also announced he had 310 pieces of candy. His stepbrother (who had spent Halloween elsewhere) had nowhere near that much candy. Did Josh share? Nope.

He is slowly eating 1 piece a day and wants to see how long he can make it last. Where did he learn this? Is candy gorging or hoarding genetic? I'm beginning to think it is. Josh sure didn't inherit the gorging from me. Come to think of it, he's never gorged and barfed up his Halloween candy ever. He's always made it last as long as he could. This morning, when I brought up his Halloween candy, he asked me how much money I had. I think I just realized the truth here. When it comes to Halloween candy, he was born to the wrong Hall. 

Photo credit: Corrina Terry copyright 2010

4 comments:

  1. That is pretty good that he has that much self control! My sister was the same day, but I have to say, the Twix she pulled out one August day was pretty disgusting. We made fun of her after that... it totally backfired on her.

    Funny how the parenting trends have swung back around to being more discaplined with thing.s

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  2. This T would save candy, too, though once all the chocolate was gone, there was little point in eating the rest. We try to encourage/force our boys to save their candy. The result is that the floor of my husband's closet is occupied by trick-or-treat bags filled with empty wrappers, all year long.

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  3. :) Josh is so serious about his loot! What a Hall, indeed!

    My kids are OK with freezing most of it, I already did anyhow, and left them all about 15 pieces, which they've been eating a few a day. Good thing Halloween is only once a year, eh? ;)

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  4. I tried freezing some last year. The boys found it, and littered the garage floor with wrappers instead.

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