Feeling like the Grinch that stole Halloween.....
(38 posts) (24 voices)-
The Great Pumpkin is about to visit the kids all around the land, and I am getting accused of being the Grinch! Our old historic neighborhood has a Halloween tradition for Trick or Treaters from all over town, far and wide to come to the Boulevard. Not uncommon for 400+ kids to hit our house (with nice weather, even more) up for Treats.
I want to give out hardboiled eggs, jerky, pemmican or at the worst some little boxes of raisins. Hell, I'd rather print out Mark's explanation of Primal Living and Nutrition and give that to the parents, but......
My wife is down with giving out the junk as per Halloween norms. Smarties, Baby Ruths, Kit Kats, Pixie Stix, Milky Way, you know the drill. This is pretty much the way it is going. As we have no kids (YET, but we do have our first cave-baby in the making right now, due in mid April, holy crud!)
I suppose I'm just projecting about being *that* guy, which I will be, when it comes to our own kid down the road. I read the posts here about raising kids up Primal/Paleo and it seems that school, birthday parties, social events, Halloween etc are going to present potential dietary trauma later as the kids grow. Just thinking aloud here.
But it blows me away how clear it is that giving a cute little 4 year old dressed as a Ladybug a box of Milk Duds is NO DIFFERENT than giving that kid a tablespoon of vodka, or a couple drags on a cigarette..... just can't wrap my head around celebrating added sugar any more.
Posted 5 months ago # -
PrimalJewishAmericanPrincess
MemberEh, you can't police the world. I look at it as a way of thinning the herd. If parents can't, or won't, teach good eating habits, then there isn't much that one house can do out of hundreds.
If you are that against it, I suggest just turning out the lights and not participating at all. Give out pencils, apples, or dimes, and you are asking for 400+ acts of retaliation!Posted 5 months ago # -
Sir Grandma's right about the homemade treats - people will throw them away and label you as a terrorist because everyone knows all homemade treats have needles and razor blades in them. Oh, for the good old days when homemade treats were prized.
I'm with you on the candy though. Giving it out is teaching kids that processed junk food is OK, and normal for them to eat.
Even chocolate covered raisins, like Raisinettes, will be loaded with processed sugar. "Good" ones will be super expensive.
Will kids really be bummed out about getting money? Is a dime really a bad thing? You could tell them, "We don't eat sugar at this house, so I got you money."
Either that, or go spend the night somewhere else, like a hotel.
The bigger problem will come when your own kid is old enough to trick or treat!
Posted 5 months ago # -
Yah, can't just shut out the lights, it is fun to see all the kids! My Husky enjoys greating them all! For all I know, a few of those parents take their kiddos home, sort through the madness of sugary doom, explain to the kids that "we don't eat this" and chalk it up as a Primal teaching moment! I can HOPE that is going on in at least ONE family out there.
It would be tilting at windmills to change anyone with my "healthy" snack ideas. And home made would be tossed, for sure. Looks like raisins are the best of the sugary madness. And I can give jerky to any of my close family and friends' kids (jerky for all would be too costly, I'm the Grinch and Scrooge I guess).
Posted 5 months ago # -
Ugh, I'm dreading Halloween! My son has so many candy-related events coming up this month, and our neighborhood is trick-or-treat central. I usually give out smarties (hey, they're cheap) but maybe Hershey's Special Dark this year? A treat for the parents, because the kids won't touch them.
Trust me, if you give out nuts or raisins, they will be the only things left in the bottom of the kids' bags come November. The parents will eventually just eat them, pack them into lunches, or throw them out.
I'll do what I do every year--throw out handfuls of the crap whenever my son's not looking.
Posted 5 months ago # -
At our house, we'll give out mostly chocolate, although I may mix in some little boxes of trail mix. Last year some people in our neighborhood starting giving out little bags of pretzels, which is a slight improvement, I guess!
We let out kids keep their chocolate booty, which is the only stuff they want to eat anyway. Since I don't eat sugar anymore the kids have really cut back on it all by themselves (!!!). The really gross stuff goes to work with my husband (where disappears from his desk at a truly scary rate)or the trash. Many parents I know do the same.
BTW, one of my girls is going as Little Red Riding Hood & one of our huskies is dressing up as the wolf! That is gonna be fun!
Posted 5 months ago # -
Pankratos
MemberRemember that in the end of the story the grinch joins in on christmas! The candy is a sugary teeth-rotting, belly bursting, insulin-exploding problem but Halloween, like everything else, is good in moderation. You can only hope that these "treats" really are treats, and that the kids don't eat pillow cases full of snickers at every opportunity. :)
Posted 5 months ago # -
emmie
MemberWhile you can't control other kids, here's something I read about that you might be able to adapt for your own children. No children have a more difficult Halloween than type1 diabetics. For them, candy is truly poison, yet how can their parents keep them from all the 'stuff' that's so important in childhood?
A hospital in my area has the parents bring their kids to a Halloween 'exchange' after their trick or treating. The children get to pick toys to take home in exchange for their sugary loot.
This works well because the children don't seem to wonder what the hospital is going to do with all that candy, but if you were to 'buy' your own kids' candy, you might have to think of a use for it that you could explain to the kids.
Posted 5 months ago # -
Move somewhere where you don't get trick-or-treaters, lol. I used to live in the boonies in HI, now I live in the boonies of northern CA. Since I got too old to trick-or-treat anymore, I stay home. I've seen two trick or treaters in 12 years of Halloweens at my houses.
You could always hand out energy bars? What about those lara bars? Pricy though, but not high in sugar.
Posted 5 months ago # -
karlin
MemberAs you know, I think the raisins are a good alternative, but I think pencils/stickers/little trinkets (spider rings, etc) are a GREAT idea! My son likes to go trick or treating, but he knows he's not allowed to eat most of the stuff he gets....but he would be overjoyed to get something other than candy. We'll even come by your house and he can make a big deal about how great it all is. haha.
Posted 5 months ago # -
caroline
MemberI give out bite-size Endangered Species chocolates. Better than pure sugar candy, and the company donates 10% of their profits toward saving endangered species. They sell bags of the individually-wrapped bite-size bars for Halloween.
http://www.chocolatebar.com/shop/p-96-giraffe-halloween-tote-bag.aspx
Posted 5 months ago # -
kuno1chi
MemberWhen I was a kid, my parents would give us free rein with all of our loot (we didn't get candy pretty much the rest of the year). They would always preface this with a statement to the effect, "You know you're gonna feel like crap if you eat all of that.". But they let us eat it, and indeed, we DID feel like crap.
Eventualy, my brothers and I caught on ;-)
Posted 5 months ago # -
I think the trinkets are a great idea- as long as they're something good- like temporary tattoos.
On the candy scale, gum can be a relatively harmless treat.
Posted 5 months ago # -
poundcake
MemberAh, Halloween, the madness. I let my kids have free reign on Halloween night, and they usually do feel like crap afterwards. Then I let them have three or four pieces the next day and then we toss it, in the trash, no questions asked. I remember hoarding mine until Christmas, portioning it out just so so that I would never be without my chocolate. I was obsessed.
Posted 5 months ago # -
Sometimes my mom will make up bags of school goodies like halloween themed erasers, pencils, etc...
Our kids wanted to participate in the school chocolate bar drive this year - I think the product this year is very large caramilk bars. We felt pretty horrible saying no to that. They're getting to know the primal ways pretty quick though.
Posted 5 months ago # -
lil_earthmomma
MemberI'm a primal parent and this year I'm hosting a halloween party. I'll be making treats, such as nutclusters with honey, dark chocolate primal brownies, berries covered in dark chocolate, nut butter truffles covered in dark chocolate, and coconut cream berry ice cream. (I'm having my bday on halloween too, so I needed some primal treats instead of SAD bday cake.)
I will allow my son to trick or treat. He will get a few "treats" on halloween, 1 treat the next day, and the rest goes in the trash.
I believe that creating a forbidden fruit type of relationship with sugar can be very dangerous. My type 1 diabetic hubby can attest to this. :( In our house we have foods that help our bodies, and "once in a while" foods that aren't good for us, but in very small moderation (in my opinion) will not harm us. They do not have a place in our pantry or fridge, but celebrations, gifts, etc. I believe are ok to partake in.
Posted 5 months ago # -
i think the non-food treats is an awesome idea. I am going to push this idea to my wife. Of course, we will probably be out with our two little girls, so it may not matter at all.
Of course now we have the issue of having to explain why our 2 year old's candy bonanza secretly disappears.
Posted 5 months ago # -
PrimalJewishAmericanPrincess
MemberI've been thinking about this a lot. Mostly because I want to be able to use what's left! What about pumpkin seeds? Now I just have to find a place to get them wholesale!
Edit: Found this site, has some good ideas
http://www.greenhalloween.org/content.php?page=treatsPosted 5 months ago # -
maba
MemberI thought I'll revive this thread since Halloween is only a few days away. I have lots of kids living in my community and would love to have them come T or T to my house but there's no way I'm going to give them candy. I'm thinking of giving them pencils or other such stuff. What are you all doing?
Posted 4 months ago # -
A squirt with a water gun!
Posted 4 months ago # -
There will be sugar at my house. It has been decided. 300+ kids will get sugar sugar sugar to their racing hearts' content. Much insulin will be spent, but not by me! Won't touch the stuff. I pray that one parent that stops by my house will throw the candy out! Just one!
Jerky will be on hand for the odd Primal pal that should stumble by....
Posted 4 months ago # -
For all the parents out there that are in the predicament of taking their kids out for trick or treating but don't want the junk in their house...
The idea that my wife came up with tonight was, we do a small round of trick or treating (maybe one street). After that, they get to pick ONE and only one treat out of their bags. Now, we are going to have a goodie bag on hand for each of them. It will contain some treats that we approve of, a small stuffed animal (or something), and some other great goodies that they would love to have. So, at the end of the night after they eat their one piece of candy, then they will trade their collection of trick or treating candy for our 'Super Fantastic Awesome Loot Bags'. I think it's a decent compromise.
Then, I can offload the junk to the people at work that like to drink pop in the morning and wash it down with a super-massive caramel-chocolate bar...sometimes two.
Posted 4 months ago #
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