Can't say what I let my kids do as I don't have them, but we had rules on how much we could eat at a time when I was little. You get a little leeway Halloween night and maybe a night or two after, but back to the regular rules after that.
The thing was, if I remember, we never ate all of ours. There were years our bags lasted til the next year. We did lose interest. But a big part of it was our mom was pretty strict about junk food, and very encouraging towards eating healthy and trying different things. So we never even really had a palate for a lot of the rock candies or sugar candies. I mean, we loved our pop, and chocolate. Chips, cookies and ice cream. What kid doesn't? But those were controlled and used in moderation or for special occasions or as rewards. But we never really wanted to go to 7-11 and stock up on gummi worms, or suckers or anything like that. I mean we did try them, and we had them every once in a while, but it was like we couldn't eat them in large amounts, it turned our stomachs, the way it would a lot of adults now. After a while it wasn't about not being allowed to have them, but that we didn't really want them.
If you can get kids excited about healthy treats, they'll actually turn down the really nasty ones. A bowl of rasperries with fresh cream would get us more excited that a giant swirled lollipop. Course there is a level of work involved in all that. We had our own raspberry plants and strawberry plants. But now that I think of it, after we got to a certain age, we ended up picking them more than our mom. Just one of our responsibilities. Plus we got excited when they came into bloom. Fresh garden strawberries! Yum. Even our dog would gently pull raspberries of the low branches. Haha, what dog likes raspberries? She'd dig up carrots too, she loved those. If she got away from you (she wasn't supposed to be in the garden, obviously) you'd find her looking guilty as sin with a dirty muzzle and a carrot dangling from her mouth.
But yeah, there is work in getting your kids to make their own healthy decisions, and it starts with giving them a lot of healthy options, which do require a certain amount of work and thought. My mom made plum perogies for instance. Once you have that homemade treat all the candy in the world isn't going to be more attractive. It's not to say those were really healthy either. Definitely not a balanced meal, and no real vegetables or anything. Just that it's a way better treat alternative than a bag of sour candys, or even a bowl of ice cream.
I know I'm not telling you anything you don't know, and I'm definitely not trying to sound smart, as I said, I don't have kids, and don't have to deal with the challenges and day to day grind. Just relating my own experience, perhaps there'll be a tidbit that helps you. While I started responding to your post, I will admit, it's become more about me taking a nice trip down memory lane.
MMMmmm, plum perogies! Drool...
Last edited by Daradon; 11-06-2013 at 11:31 AM.
|
