Hope I’m not too late in offering this suggestion.  If the message is tardy this year, let it be something you keep in mind 11 months from now when you start wondering what to do with ALL THIS CANDY that will show up in your house on Hallowe’en night.

Prior to the big night of trick or treating, I noticed several people asking their friends on Facebook how they deal with the candy invasion.  I offered what has worked in my home for the last 3 years that we’ve done this night with kids: our children get to keep the same number of candies as their age and the rest gets donated/given away.

This year, as it turned out, ages 6 and 3 are a lot more candy-conscious than 5 and 2.  So that rule has now gone out the window as there was a general whining about the unfairness of this situation. The loudest whiner was my husband.

See, my children – especially my daughter – have inherited their sweet tooth from their dad and while I enjoy a little dessert now and then or a square of chocolate I just don’t see the big deal in parting with it.  But I realized, as the three children…I mean, my two children and husband…sat on the floor in front of their piles of loot appealing to me with big eyes, that this was going to be a job for Super Mom. Which I am, if you hadn’t heard.

I explained to them the plans for the extra candy before we negotiated what exactly was considered ‘extra’ candy.

Our pediatric dentist, Dr. Wendy of Just 4 Kids Pediatric Dentistry, BUYS back the candy for $1 a pound and then DONATES another $2 a pound to the local YMCA.  I broke it down to them in terms they could understand.

“This means, you get some extra money that you can put in your piggy bank (thankfully, this is still something that interests them) AND the YMCA you go to (which thankfully also interests them) gets money to make their pool and gym even better for you!”

Ears twitched toward me.  They were listening.

“Where does the candy go?” sniffed my HELPFUL husband.

“Dr. Wendy donates the candy to the food bank and to drug rehabilitation centres that use the candy for their programs.”

“Ok, well, I’ve worked out the numbers…” helpful husband jumped in. “If we keep 1 and give away 3, we should still have a decent amount left for us.”

“You mean, we should still be able to DONATE a decent amount?” I offered.  After all, those little ears were still twitching.

And so, this year, that’s how we did it.  Bottom line: I’m very grateful that Just 4 Kids Pediatric Dentistry offers this buy back program. It’s not like the kids don’t get sweets on other occasions – birthday parties, Valentine’s Day, and random treats throughout the year.  I just never want them to think of sugary stuff as something to have daily.

I am looking forward to dropping this off to Dr. Wendy on Thursday:

Bye bye!

Bye bye!

This is the (decent) amount we are keeping:

Each kid is keeping this much.

Each kid is keeping this much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My husband gets this much:

He will thank me for this.

He will thank me for this.