Some strategies I’ve used in the past when my lot have come home with pillow cases (yes, pillow cases!) stuffed full of candy were ;

• confiscate half of them

• sort them out and only give them the ‘better’ sweets like the chocolate bars (ie. not the moams or other chewies)

• hidden them after doling out a few

• bought them back off them

I don’t do any of this anymore. Following a lot of reading and research, I now allow my kids to manage their own stash.

Are you horrified 😱? I was at first! But here’s why ..

🍭 restricting their intake of sweets in this way puts sweets on a pedestal and ultimately makes them more desirable. We don’t do this with fruits and veggies do we?

🍭 when we manage our kids haul, we’re saying that we don’t trust them to do it themselves. I know this now 🙈. We need to trust them to self regulate themselves

🍭 if you’re worried they’ll eat too much - well don’t! If they do, they will most likely suffer the consequences - by feeling 💩 or even 🤮. A great lesson for them to learn!

🍭 if we’re allowing our kids out to trick or treat, then we are essentially providing them with those treats. They decide if and how much they’ll eat - as per the division of responsibility in feeding.

Like everything in parenting - I’m constantly second guessing myself about this issue. Maybe, in years to come, there will be new research and I’ll be raging … 🤯. But for now - this is what I’m doing.

Follow and share with your mates who might be interested !

BTW - mine are all teens now so taking sweets off them would not be pretty/possible and they’re pretty over it anyway!