One of the hardest parts of Halloween for parents is knowing how to set boundaries and rules around candy. Do you limit pieces? Do you take it away in exchange for another toy or treat? Or do you let them eat as much candy as they want until it’s gone?
One mom, Sammy, on TikTok (@supportingchaos), thinks that Halloween is a great opportunity to teach your kids to have a healthier relationship with sweets. She puts a large, full candy bowl in her foyer starting on October 1, and lets her kids graze on it all month long.
The candy bowl only comes with two expectations: they have to throw the wrappers away (and not leave them everywhere), and they have to “listen to their bellies” when deciding how much candy to eat.
Why does she put out the candy bowl?
“I am a millennial mom who is scarred by diet culture,” she explains in her video.
“I remember as a kid I was obsessed with Halloween candy. It was the one day of the year where I could get as much candy, eat as much candy as I could. I had a one-track mind. I didn’t find joy with Halloween because of the costumes or hanging out with friends. I’d just get a pillowcase and fill it up with as much candy as I wanted.”
Not only did the candy obsession take away from the joy of the holiday, but it also caused stress with her mom and bled into her overall relationship to food.
“I remember fighting with my mom about the Halloween candy, worried that she was going to take it, which made me eat more candy,” she explained. “I ended up struggling with binge eating, restricting, diets, and disordered eating.”
How has the candy bowl experiment been going at her house over the past few years? Really well!
“They get really excited when I first put it out, of course they do,” she said of her kids. “But they tend to eat only maybe one to three [pieces] throughout the day. The longer it sits here, the more they forget about it. The fact that it’s out there and it’s not going anywhere takes away that feeling that I’ve got to eat it all now.”
By the time the big day arrives, candy is not their singular obsession.
“On Halloween, it’s almost like they’re over the candy,” she continues. “The novelty of it, that this is the only time I get Halloween candy, isn’t true cause they’ve had it all month. It’s been really healing for me. It’s fun to see them enjoy the holiday without being so obsessed with the candy. It’s just worked really well for us.”
She even wants to expand her experiment.
“I’m tempted to try a candy bowl all year,” she concludes.
Heck, we want to try it, too! Here’s to breaking cycles like encouraging restricted or disordered eating in our kids.
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