CANDY UPDATE

Well, my fears were confirmed at my daughter's second softball practice, when, at the end of the practice, the coach said to someone, "Go get the container of Twizzlers and each girl can take one."  It seems that at the end of each practice and game, every girl gets a piece of candy.  Why do we have to give the kids candy all the time?  For softball alone, that is three times per week.

It seems we are also in full birthday party mode now with at least one of my kids invited to a birthday party every weekend.  The goody bags always seem to contain multiple pieces of candy.  I do understand that, as I think candy has been a typical party favor for years, but add all that candy to the new sports candy, and we have a pantry of candy around here.

I am not sure what rules to put in place around candy consumption in our home.  For starters, each child has a ziploc bag in the pantry that contains all of his or her candy.  They have bulging bags, of course.   Basically, every once in a while I ask them to go through their bags and toss whatever seems old or unappealing at that point (hardly any pieces are ever unappealing, of course!)

The other day, my son asked if he could have a piece of candy.  When I said, "Not today," he said,"Well, Mom, if I have a piece now, that would be less to throw out later."  Good point.  :)

It is just that I don't remember having a constant pile of candy when I was a kid.  I wish the kids could just play baseball or softball without getting a reward every time.  I wish kids could go to a birthday party and receive one piece of candy, instead of ten.  I wish kids would get one piece of candy at each house on Halloween, instead of four or five.

What do you think?  Does the amount of candy given to our children bother you?