Grasshopper New Media Presents...

Contributed by: Rob Hatch
OK, so my wife just told me about a new trend in the Holiday realm. It’s called the Halloween Fairy. Yes, I rolled my eyes at first, too. I mean…ugh, another freakin’ conjured holiday whats-a-ma-jig to sell more cards? Come on.

“Wait”, my wife tells me. “Will you just listen for one second, instead of going off on some tirade?” I breathed deeply, shut up and listened.

She went on to explain the concept of this Halloween Fairy. Here’s the gist:

The “Problem” in a nutshell

1. It’s Halloween and your kids have just collected a pile of candy.
2. You are sick at the thought that this candy will be devoured in one sitting or much less sit in the cupboard for the next three months as you dole out piece by piece each day.
3. You are further horrified by the thought that candy will only be one cupboard door away. This just happens to be the year you actually kept your new years resolution to ‘eat right and exercise’ and this candy is sure to be your undoing.
4. Your dental plan is of the “hope and pray” variety that involves a toothbrush, toothpaste and a visit to the dentist every five years.

The “Solution” - A Fairy

1. Invent a Halloween Fairy who, after your children have selected a “reasonable amount of candy”, arrives on your doorstep late at night and takes away all of the “extra candy” and leaves behind a “gift” in exchange. Wow, problem solved!

So, I stopped rolling my eyes. I went to bed and thought..’huh, not as bad as I thought. This could work for us.’

Then I woke up (insert sound effect of abruptly halting car). Literally, I got up this morning thinking about this ridiculous Halloween Fairy.

Before I continue, let me say, that I enjoy holidays. We celebrate Christmas in our house and visit Santa and enjoy the rituals of our holiday celebrations. I am not some crazy holiday hater. However in this case, the Halloween Fairy is a no go.

Here’s the deal:

We have three children: 6, 5 and 2. We have always encouraged good eating habits. We are fortunate to have children who choose fruit for snacks and whose favorite cereal is Puffed Rice (yuk, by the way). We have, thanks to my tri-athlete wife, had wonderful conversations with our children about eating right and exercise. We talk about how good it feels to make these choices. They get it. They still enjoy candy, but they get it.

Why then, would we consider inventing some convoluted way to get rid of a pile of candy? Why would we consider creating an un-truth or adding some complexity to how they experience Halloween, when we have been having wonderful authentic conversations about good eating choices?

Our “Solution” - Authentic conversation about moderation.

We talked this through, acknowledging that for its purpose, the Fairy idea isn’t all that bad. But why let it take us down some new road, when we are feeling good about the road we are on. Here’s our plan:

1. The usual “dump and check” of all the loot collected on Halloween night.
2. Talk about how much fun we had.
3. Hand out Ziplock bags with each child’s name.
4. Each child fills their bag with their choice of candy (limit = size of the bag). All of the candy will be used for dessert, one piece at a time, each night if they choose.
5. Bring the rest to work and foist it upon unsuspecting co-workers who abandoned their new years resolution on January 9th.

So, if the end goal is to limit candy consumption, I’m sure either one will work. If you like the fairy idea, by all means have fun with it. Initially, I thought it was great. We ended up choosing something different. I like our family.

Please share your thoughts with me here.

Rob Hatch lives in Maine with his wife Megin and their 3 kids. He is the director of the Child Health Center, a human service non-profit serving children and families.

Photo courtesy of Crystal via flickr and is used under a Creative Commons License.

[tags] Halloween, Candy, nutrition, healthy+eating, parenting[/tags]