Candy is like crack cocaine at our house. Ok, ok. I admit I don't know much about crack. But I do know that my kids are constantly begging me for treats, and when there is candy or other goodies in our home, my children can't stop thinking about it until it's gone. Half the time, I end up chucking it in the trash when they're asleep because they drive me so crazy about it!
I'm pretty health conscious. I grind our wheat and make a lot of our own breads, rolls, pancakes, muffins, etc. with it. We don't eat much meat and we eat a lot of vegetables and whole foods. I'm always sneaking flax into anything I can and I never buy soda or chips or cookies. Granted, I do love baking so we sometimes have cookies and cupcakes around, and my kids end up getting plenty of treats from elsewhere. But they're still crazy for them. Every week, the kids look so forward to Saturday, because each Saturday morning, they get to eat "Saturday Cereal!" That's the only day of the week they get sugar cereal and they can eat as many bowls as they want.
They all go through phases of stealing sweets whenever they're around the house. In fact, I had some cupcakes the other day and after we were done eating them (for our dog Eddie's bday haha), I threw the last 5 in the trash. Thomas got up in the middle of the night and ate them OUT OF THE TRASH. UGH!!! My dad now lovingly refers to him as "Johnny Cupcake." :)
Anyway, so all this got me thinking...In Holland, drugs are not illegal. And as a result, they have very few drug problems. Drugs there are common-place, and they're not forbidden, and so people don't go so crazy for them. I'm not advocating legalizing drugs, but the fact stands that things aren't quite so inviting and tempting when they're not so forbidden.
So...here is my experiment. I went to the store and bought a lot of candy. I decided to stick with hard candies since they take longer to consume:) I bought a candy jar, and filled it to the brim. I told the kids they could have as much as they want. The only rule is that they can only take one at a time. I'm trying to stay calm as a write, because my children are going nuts for the candy. The jar is already a third of the way gone. Anna keeps looking at me every time she goes back to the jar, expecting to get scolded for getting yet ANOTHER piece of candy. My hope is that after a few days, the candy craze will subside, and they'll just take a piece every once in a while. My hypothesis is that it will greatly reduce the stealing, begging, whining, and overall obsession with sweets. I have no idea if this work. I'm not sure if I'll be able to survive the torture of watching my children binge on candy for the next few days. It's seriously driving me crazy and it's only been a few hours. What are your thoughts? I'd love to know. Is this irresponsible parenting? Or am I doing them a favor? I guess time will tell.
I think it's a great idea. I also think that in two days all you're going to have left in that jar are those mints! Ha ha.
ReplyDeleteHaha, I don't know! Those are Chandler's favorites!
ReplyDeleteMax is the same way. He can sniff out sugar that's hidden in the deepest darkest corner of the house. I'd make sure they brush their teeth like crazy the next couple days. Shannon Wilkey told me that she always has candy out all the time because when they were younger they couldn't have it so she new growing up that she would have it out all the time and that her daughter totally controls how much she eats and doesn't go nuts so maybe it will work. LOL I'd love to hear how it goes. We can't keep any sweets in our house. If it's there it has to be eaten. That's what the kids think. I have to admit at Halloween I let them eat it as fast as they want, and I warn them of tummy aches. Max got sick on year and now he paces himself at Halloween. After the first day anything left we usually toss it. It's all the yucky stuff anyway. LOL
ReplyDeleteI'm interested to see how it goes. Just thinking out loud here. I think education about health is important. If there's a bowl of candy out that's free for the taking for ME, the only thing that stops me (if anything stops me) is knowing it's bad for my health. I've been reading about the different systems of the body lately (circulatory system, nervous system, etc.) in Original Fast Foods, and how different foods we eat affect them all, and that is the first thing ever to make me cut back my overconsumption of salt. Helping me understand the connection between what I eat and how my body works I think is the trick. I'm sure there are cute, simple ways it could be presented to a child.
ReplyDeleteMy kids have a candy bowl. While it isn't a free-for-all, they are allowed a piece after each meal that they finish. They finished their Halloween candy by the time Christmas came around to replenish it. Christmas candy was gone by Valentine's day and I assume V-day candy will be gone by Easter. Is there a mid summer candy holiday?? Who knows, I might have to buy some!
ReplyDeleteMy RS pres has a daughter with Diabetes, and when she was first diagnosed, their therapist said to always have treats available. To always let her choose when and how much she ate. She's now a teenager and eats very responsibly and her mom attributes it to following the therapists' advice. She has what they call "The Magic Pantry" which has treats galore and says that her kids friends are the ones that come and binge at her house, but her kids are totally in control. Because of my own food issues, I've never restricted Clark on sweets and I am not kidding you, the child will eat half of a cookie and be done. He says that, "Mommy, I'm done." And I say, "Okay, you can get down from the table," just as I would for any meal, and he gets down and runs off to play, leaving the rest of it for me. :) It was really interested though, at Christmas, for example, that he asked me for treats all day the whole time we were in Germany. I'm not sure if it was because he knew they were readily available, or if it was because everyone else was eating lots of treats. But he's back to his routine now, so who knows.
ReplyDeleteHere's the other side to the coin, though. It might be worth finding out whether they are allergic to sugar. Just a thought. According to my friend who does a ton of research on allergies for her family, we tend to crave the things that we are allergic to. And sugar allergies are possible. Also, sugar feeds candida, which is terrible and destroys good bacteria in the gut. It's also been proven that gluten + dairy causes an addictive reaction in some people to food that contain gluten and dairy (which most treats do) so when you restrict gluten and dairy, the addiction goes away. If you are interested in any of that research, let me know and I can send you some helpful links.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I keep posting, but my mind is reeling here. I personally think that you are doing the right thing. Controlling food is dangerous. But I really like Brynn's comment (Hi Brynn!) and I think education is really important. My suggestion? Just give it a few days and then sit 'em all down and ask them how they feel. How are their tummies? Do they have headaches? Are they tired? Tell them that sometimes sugar can affect these things. Tell them to go ahead and eat the treats but to pay attention to how they feel and then affirm that you will continue to let them choose whether they want to have candy, or a healthy snack that will probably help them to feel good. Of course, this can backfire, especially if you try to manipulate them into doing what you want them to do (we all do this as parents, multiple times a day sometimes). I rarely feel lousy when I eat sugar, unless I've not had any for a long period of time. I become desensitized to the ill effects and can't even tell that it makes me sick. Again, there is some evidence that this is genetic and that the only way to end the cycle is abstinence. But, don't listen to me. I don't know anything! Well. I'll be on pins and needles waiting to hear how this turns out! May the force be with you!
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone for your comments! I LOVE the comments about educating your kids about sugar and other foods. We actually talk a lot about nutrition (what little I know of it), especially lately, since I feel lousy every time I eat junk. My kids know that sugar and other junky foods are bad for you, but I think I'll do some deeper, more specific research on sugar in particular and have a little lesson about it...but I don't think I'll mention the candy jar much...only the fact that candy is almost completely made out of sugar. I think education about food is key. I did not know ANYTHING about how food directly affects the way your body functions when I was growing up. Honestly, I didn't know much about it until I was diagnosed with MS. But there is much to learn, I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteI love it. We talk a lot about nutritian at our house and Brenten likes to tell us what he learns at school. We don't have a ton of junk food at our house but there is usually something they could find and honestly most of the time they will pick yogurt, bananas etc to the candy. This being we used to call landon our little diabetic because they way he could sense there was candy in the house was ridiculous and I thought for sure one day he would be diabetic. But he loves a blueberry yogurt too.
ReplyDeleteOh you should talk to Jenn Garrett. They as a household went with very little sugar. I want to say for about a year. She still is a healthy eater but you should ask her what her experience was with it.
HA! I love it! Good luck and can't wait to hear about the results!
ReplyDeleteWell I am not a parent so I can't give you any advice! But loved the blog post it was super funny :)! Love ya Toby!!!
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