If your kids took part in any Halloween festivities, you’re probably like us right now – you’ve got a lot more sugary junk food in the house than you really like to have around.
And if your kids are like ours, maybe they have counted how many they have. They may have even recounted it to make sure no-one else has taken any from their stash.
I call this Halloween Hangover… the headache of what to do with all these lollies.
Our kids had so much fun at Lithgow’s Halloween 15 Festival – they dressed up with dad, walked the streets looking at everything Lithgow Council had put on for this great festival. At 4pm they took part in the trick or treat trail. The stash they came back to the bus with was huge for them but small in comparison to others I saw. I have absolutely no intention of allowing them to eat all 28 lollies they each collected, but I am choosing my battles this week. I know I am not up for the fight of getting rid of all of them. So I’ve given some thought to the problem of way too much sugary junk in this bus/house. I share this with you in the hope it may help you too.
Here’s my 3 steps to Deal with Halloween Hangover:
1) Reduce the stash with their help
This really needs to be done with your children’s involvement. Lollies really are a chemical cocktail. The colours are usually just as bad if not worse than the sugar content. Talk to them about this and say we’re going to take a look at what’s in these lollies.
Look through the lollies together and work out which ones are not negotiable – meaning you simply won’t let them have them. For us, it’s red lollies because the red colour affects both our kids.
Now it’s their turn, ask them which lollies are their favourites. Separate these out so there are 2 groups now.
Then together if there are lollies with their ingredients listed, read the ingredients together and look at what they are – we’ll use the chemical maze app for this. Show them the smiley faces or frowny faces, talk to them about what you read, and ask them, do you really want to be putting that in your body. Be prepared they may say yes, and unless it has an ingredients that’s carcinogenic or you know affects a condition they have (eg. asthma or eczema), then remind yourself it’s a one off. This is important because it shows your child you’re prepared to have a turn.
2) Set boundaries
Work out how often you’ll let them have lollies (once a week, twice a week etc) and how many can they have at a time.
Do not use the stash of lollies as a reward – this will be hard because they could be such good leverage, but it’s best not to give our kids the idea that lollies are special (because we all know they aren’t great for their health), which making them a reward does.
3) Out of sight out of mind
The reality is anything that’s in the fridge, pantry or cupboard will be eaten. Once you have reduced the stash, let them choose one for now, then put them out of sight. Have plenty of other yummy healthy stuff on hand so when they say they are hungry or can I have a lolly, you can say “No, not now, I would prefer you to have this… (insert what it is you have on offer) because it is better for you and will fill you up.” If it’s within the boundary you set, you could respond, yes it’s ok to have one now and get the bag out to let them choose which one.
What this looks like for us
Lollies despite them being from Halloween, birthdays or Christmas are not every day in our bus. They can have 3 lollies a week (one at a time) until the stash goes. That’s our boundary. This equates to about 6 weeks of lollies from the Halloween stash that’s left. The Halloween bags are now in separate overhead cupboards (so we know which bag belongs to who). We do not open these cupboards daily. They lollies are out of sight. And even though our 5 year old has asked us several times already today if he can have a lolly, my response has been “not now mate, you can have this”. If he says I’m starving, then I remind him if he is really starving, he would eat was in on offer. End of story.
Is it hard to be a stand for my children’s health? Truthfully some days like when there is Halloween lollies around, yes, but most of the time no. Once you start being a firm stand for your children’s health, they get use to it, and the nagging almost stops. If they ask, it only takes one No and off they go onto something else.
When their nagging wears me down, I remind myself that if Israel and I don’t take a stand for their health, who else will. The answer is no-one else, because it’s not their responsibility.
If you would like some help taking a stand for your children’s health, contact belinda@therootcause.com.au about One on One Coaching Consultations and we can put together an action plan for you.