Comments on: Healthy Halloween?

By: tearese

tearese — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 03:13:44 +0000

I always give out candy that I would want to get. For me, that is usually Raisinettes and Starbursts. Mmm.
I trickor treated way too old. But no one knew my age, right?

By: Melissa

Melissa — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:18:18 +0000

Okay.. it isn’t my favorite holiday but I love CANDY! However, I’m one of those people who likes to give out halloween pencils. I think that it is fun to have a pencil that is not the boring kind. (Of course, I give out Candy too!)

By: trs

trs — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:11:00 +0000

No that’d be good. It’s goes back to the origination of Trick or Treating. It used to be the kids offered to perform a trick in turn for a treat — or else if you didn’t give them a treat they’d do the trick … like TP your house and lawn.

But set up an obstacle course and tell them they have to perform the trick before they earn the treat!
Works for me! Kids that age are supposed to have tons of energy!

By: Jill

Jill — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:38:09 +0000

trs: I guess if you were giving out Smarties because you like them that’s acceptable. I know lots of people give them out because they’re cheap.

I guess if we’re really going to be all out on the childhood obesity thing, we could make obstacle courses to get to the candy. Then every kid would get a little extra exercise.
Just to be safe…I’m kidding too!

By: trs

trs — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:40:55 +0000

You remind me… one year I was telling my best friend about the candy I purchased for trickortreaters…
she asked what kind.
Something and Smarties… I said excitedly (Obviously I can’t remember the first one all these years later)
She replied, “Oh. You’re the house with the sucky candy.”

I LOVE Smarties!!! I thought I was giving the kids a wild treat! I didn’t know it was sucky candy! I swear.
As a kid, I used to open packets at a time and organize the Smarties by color. I’m a freak.

However – if we’re worried about childhood obesity — let’s have a bowl of candy and a bowl of coins – and when fat kids come to the door… they get the coins!
I’m kidding people!

By: Jill

Jill — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:02:28 +0000

Bethany: Your mom sounds like a wise woman. That is a great philosophy with the candy. I think if you make the candy off limits it will just drive the kids more batty trying to get it.

I didn’t know that Josie & the Pussycats reference, but it totally seems like something I should know! I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I actually have the soundtrack for Josie & the Pussycats! I’m right there with you on thinking it’s underrated! I love when you share these factoids with me!

Cardine: I don’t dress up anymore. I keep thinking I should, but I want my hubby to dress up with me and he won’t have any part of that idea! I haven’t put on a costume since my 2nd year of college. I wore a men’s suite and an ugly fish tie to a college dance, so it wasn’t much of a costume.

You’re right, it is probably the most exercise they get. I’m a little appalled when I watch the kids in my neighborhood ride around on motorized scooters all afternoon. When I was a kid I had a scooter and I had to actually push with my foot to move. And if I got tired, I had to try pushing using the opposite leg and that was hard because I was very much “right-footed”.

By: bethany actually

bethany actually — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:35:12 +0000

Oh, and I love your new color and quote! Do you know the extra inside jokiness of that quote in that movie? The guy who produced Legally Blonde also produced Josie and the Pussycats (a seriously underrated movie, in my opinion). In one of the scenes at the nail salon, one of the women is reading a magazine with Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, and Rosario Dawson (actresses who starred in JatP) on the cover. AND…in Josie and the Pussycats, a brainwashed teenage consumer utters the line, “You guys! Orange…is the new pink!”

Oh my WORD, I am such a total movie geek.

By: cardine

cardine — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:32:03 +0000

My #1 rule is to give out candy that I like. I think everyone should do that. And I don’t actually like candy in large quantities, so I know I won’t be tempted to overdo it.

And, also, trick-or-treating could be the most exercise some of these kids get all year. Let us support their walking door-to-door.

Do you dress up? I have a really hard time having the desire to dress up.

By: bethany actually

bethany actually — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:29:23 +0000

Jill, thanks for the shout-out! And I agree with you about Halloween. I do hand out non-candy things at Halloween, like stickers and mini containers of play-dough and pencils, but I hand it out WITH the good candy. So much of the innocence of childhood is gone…let’s not take the pleasure of a sugar rush once or twice a year away too!

Also, just thought I’d share my two cents—or rather, my mom’s two cents—about how much candy to let your kids have. My mom always made us bring all the candy home and sorted through it with us. My brother and I compared our hauls and traded the stuff we didn’t like. My mom would take about half the candy and put it away, with us knowing begging wouldn’t get us that candy. Then she basically let us eat whatever we wanted! If we ate it all in one night, it was gone and she didn’t have to listen to us whining about wanting more candy for days to come! Our teeth weren’t being assaulted with sugar for a solid week! And, after we did that once or twice and were totally sick, we stopped gorging ourselves and started rationing out the candy to ourselves in a reasonable way. She did the same thing at Easter.