Halloween scares me — for real!
I love the smell of chocolate. I love walking down the candy aisle at the store and smelling all the candy and looking at all the pretty colors.
Halloween is so evil. The candy is everywhere you go!
I went to the grocery store today because I had to pick up some beer for my husband (he’s still resisting this lifestyle change – although he’s getting a bit better) and because I had to make a deposit at the bank that’s inside the store. After finishing my business at the bank, I noticed that I was completely surrounded by CANDY!
While my son was ooooohing and aaaaahing over all the different selections, I was gripping the handle of the cart fiercely and wishing I had blinders on. And then he asked me the dreaded question, “Aren’t you going to get some Halloween candy for the trick-or-treaters, Mom?”
I have been avoiding this. I don’t want candy in my house, because if it’s there — I EAT IT! It doesn’t matter if it’s before Halloween or after Halloween, if it’s in the house, it calls to me. It BEGS me to eat it. I’m weak. I can’t resist.
So I agreed and picked up a couple of bags of candy.
But as I walked through the aisles, the smell of the miniature chocolate Snickers bars and Milky Ways just got to me. I couldn’t handle it.
“I CAN’T DO IT!”
My son thought I had completely lost it at this point. I grabbed the bag of candy and threw it back on the shelf.
“We’re getting THIS instead!” I grabbed some of the nastiest candy that I could find — all the different types that I hated. Butterfingers (eww) and lollipops (not my thing since I wore pigtails) and toffee and all the ones that I picked out of my plastic pumpkin when I was a little girl because it was just GROSS. Then I proceeded to run (not walk) as quickly as I could to the check-out lane.
And I made it. I’m safe.
Now the only problem that I have is when my son goes trick-or-treating and then decides that he wants to leave all his candy for the Black Tooth Fairy. She’s also known as the Cavity Witch.
She comes to visit on Halloween and if you leave your candy out for her, she’ll take it away and replace it with a really cool toy or gift. The more candy you leave her, the better the present. My son always leaves her the candy.
So I informed my husband tonight that whatever candy is leftover from Halloween MUST be taken out of the house the next day and given to all his buddies or dumped in the trash. The temptation is just too much for me.
I’m weak — but at least I know it.
It’s going to be a struggle but I am taking a different tack – I’m just steeling myself against eating any more Halloween candy. It’s going to be a challenge and when I consider it over (say two weeks after) I’m going to feel good about myself. If I can make it, of course.
Just a different approach. But for me I know I can just as easily eat the crappy candy as the good candy, so this is best approach for me.
I can’t have the stuff in the house either! I only buy candy that doesn’t appeal to me. Reeses peanut butter cups and Hershey milk chocolate. Oh! And those yucky Butterfinger bars. The kids love the stuff, but it makes me barf!
It’s great to see someone else uses the tradition of Black Tooth, the Cavity Witch. After gorging themselves on candy on Halloween night, and then brushing their teeth before going to bed, I gave them the option of either keeping the remainder of their candy or leaving it in a brown paper bag on the dining room table for Black Tooth, the Cavity Witch. They always chose to leave it for Black Tooth. She, in turn, left a toy in place of the candy. I was happy, the kids were happy, and our dentist was happy!
Way to go! Good decision; some temptations are just too hard to resist, and not having it in the house is a great step.
It’s easier for me though because I live on a rural road and we don’t get trick-or-treaters, so I don’t have to buy the stuff, I just have to contend with what my daughters get. They got so mad at me last year, because I gave them two days and then threw out all the leftover candy. Could NOT take it! But this year I am TOTALLY using the Black Tooth Fairy, that is such an awesome idea!
A lot of the people in the neighborhood where we trick-or-treat hand out stuff like fruit roll-ups and goldfish. Still not super healthy food but WAY easier for Mom to resist than Snickers and M & Ms.