How We Deal with Halloween

It’s Halloween and you know what that means – candy. Lots and lots of candy. Candy bars, lollipops, that nasty chewing gum that loses its flavor in 10 seconds flat. What other time would you eat a Tootsie Roll? Working in this industry, doing the job that I do, I am constantly aware of all the bad dietary choices that are spread out in front of me – and my kids for that matter.

I consider myself quite vigilant in making sure we eat a healthy, balanced diet – without candy as a food group. But this time of year is the one time of year that I will let my kids go crazy for a night. Halloween is fun and let’s face it – carrot sticks and celery aren’t fun. Getting a pencil or pennies in your pillowcase or your little jack-o-lantern bucket isn’t fun. Admit it. You avoided that house like the plague when you were younger. This is the one time of year that we get to be a little silly. We get to pretend to be something or someone we’re not.

We get to watch the excitement on our kids’ faces when she puts on that Cinderella ball gown and feels like a princess for a night. It’s fun. And I can calm down for this one night. I can allow my kids to be kids and to stuff their faces with candy. No one says I have to let my kids eat all the candy they bring home. They won’t. It will be gone come November 1st. That’s the rule.

I can also hand out candy to all the little Cinderellas, Spidermen, witches and goblins that come to my house and still feel good about it. Organic lollipops exist – free of artificial flavors and colorings. Organic, fair-trade chocolate exists. Yeah, it’s still candy but at least I can feel good about giving it out…Or I can be that house that hands out pennies. If candy is what is going to get us out once year to mingle in the neighborhood, to smile for an entire evening, to say hello to people we rarely speak to, then so be it. There are far worse things in this world than a Tootsie Roll.