There have been many debates among parents about the effects of practicing the ancient pagan holiday known as Halloween. Some of the complaints are against the costumes of characters that they believe will have a bad effect on children, such as, devils, ghosts, witches, and even divas. Many schools have band various costumes including anything with “toy” weapons.
Another huge and very valid complaint from parents is the excessive amounts of candy children eat because of celebrating Halloween. In an effort to reduce the amount of candy their children are eating parents are taking some creative measures. By adding their own twist to the way Halloween is celebrated (changing the rules) are they giving a treat or making a trick?
The road to failure is paved with good intensions.
In a blog a mom bragged that she introduced her son to the “Halloween Fairy.” She told him to pick some candy from his bag leave it for the Halloween Fairy and she will leave him a present. For extra incentive she told him that the more/better candy he gave her the better chance he had at getting a cool present from her.
Who ever heard of the Halloween fairy? What happens when he talks about it with his friends and they don’t know what he is talking about? The Halloween fairy gave him a toy but no one else got one? Yes, children get too much candy but isn’t that true about toys too?
Where was he supposed to leave the candy, in the house? Was the fairy coming into his room? Children have enough concerns about what in the closet or under the bed they don’t need adults telling them that a fairy, a make believe character, is going into their room when they are asleep. If fairies are real and can get in his house then what about those monsters?
First the mom says he can put some of his candy out and get a present from the Halloween fairy. But how much is some? To insure he gives away as much as she wants him to she adds to the deal. A bigger sacrifice gets a bigger reward. Children gain some sense of accomplishment by going from scary house to scary house to add to their pile. Tempting him with other rewards can cause disappointment. Other wise known as buyers regret.
Another mom said in her blog that on Halloween night she let her son eat a reasonable amount of (How much would that be? Would he agree with that?) candy. Then the magic pumpkin (When did pumpkins get magic?) would trade it for a toy. The mom advises that it is also known as the Switch Witch. There is even a Switch Witch Poem but I won’t repeat it.
The amount of candy children get from “trick or treat” is only a small part of their over indulgence is sugar. There is the school party with sweet treats, the church party, and the neighborhood party.
So what do parents do with all of the candy they have tricked their children into not eating? You can’t say you are shipping it to hungry children who don’t have Halloween. There is a new movement to sell it back. Dentists are willing to buy your child’s excess candy. And there are web sites that tell how to send it to soldiers overseas. (Yeah, they need more junk in their lives.)
Halloween is just pretend. There is no Halloween Fairy, or Magic Pumpkin and certainly no Switch Witch. Parents need to do the hard job of limiting what comes into their children’s live. Like it or not children do not have the final say so and they need to learn to adjust to limitations. Teaching them to understand and accept that enough is enough.
You can make a difference in other children’s lives.
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What to do with unwanted candy, return it.
The big chocolate companies buy from the Ivory Coast who use CHILD
SLAVES to harvest their chocolate. Send the candy back the manufacturer with a
letter that states your feelings on child slavery. Here’s a good article by John
Robbins http://www.foodrevolution.org/slavery_chocolate.htm
Here are their addresses:
Hershey Foods Corp. can be reached at 100 Crystal A Drive, Hershey, PA 17033;
(717) 534-6799. Mars, Inc. can be reached at 6885 Elm Street, McLean, VA 22101;
(703) 821-4900. Tell them that you expect something to be done immediately to
ensure that cocoa imported into the U.S. is not harvested by enslaved children.
Jennifer Jennifer@rhythmix.org
