Tell Me We Are Smarter Than This

Cross-posted and archived from DC Metro Moms. Original post from October 31, 2007.  Article referenced no longer available.  It was regarding parents who let their children eat all their Hallloween loot in one sitting. 

I read articles like this one from Reuters and I think who is the audience for this type of piece? Morons? I mean really! Moderate sugar intake on Halloween? Wowie Kazowie I would have never thought o f that! Gee, thanks doctor of the moment! Thank you for that enlightening piece of information. Before your insightful words Mr. MD I was just going to give my two year old all the candy in one sitting. She could just plop herself down on the floor in front of whatever horror movie is playing, maybe I’ll let her watch Suspiria. That has ballet in it and it’s German so there’s some culture in it right? She’ll be ok I’m sure. She could then go about the night aimlessly wandering the dark house eating Kit-Kat bars, Mike & Ike’s until she pukes. I will just clean it up later.


Seriously folks who are these types of articles aimed at? The zombie parents from Night of the Living Dead? Who doesn’t know that too much sugar and fat is bad for you? Why is America all or nothing? Why can’t we just be a little bit moderate? Is that what is truly scary about Halloween? The act of using moderation? Tell me please because I think back to my childhood and while my Mom didn’t take the candy from me I wasn’t allowed to eat it all in one night. Nor was I allowed to gorge after school the next day. I picked out what was good and what I wanted and threw the rest away. Then I could eat a bit here and there in the coming week. I had to ask permission too. While I was allowed a bit more candy than normal on that first night moderation was used in the days following Halloween.

Reading articles like this one makes me feel that we are further dumbing ourselves down in this country. Our need for thought processes is being replaced. We adults are continually looking to higher ups for advice that should already be common sense garnered from elementary school educations and our own parents. It makes me angry when I read about how parents need to be told that feeding our kids fast food multiple times a week is bad. That soda or excessive juice in a baby’s bottle will rot their teeth. Really? Why is that surprising to someone? I’m tired of seeing articles such as this one aimed at parents who no longer want to take the time to think things through.

That is the real root of my anger. The lack of thinking and parental control that some of us are just too tired to enforce has us being reminded by doctors not to let our kids eat a pound or three of candy in one sitting. We need to think ahead to the other upcoming holidays where sugary treats will abound and remember to not just rein ourselves in but our children as well. While I would love to give out play-doh or yo-yo’s to the kids on my block I don’t think the fifteen year olds trick or treating would receive them very well. I’ve thought about this in advance. One piece of candy per kid will keep egg off my house versus handing out silly putty and spending November 1st scraping egg shells from my front door.


Comments-

Linda said...



A well-written post and so true. Thank you!!!


Reply October 31, 2007 at 03:02 PM Living By Learning said...


Moderation is a bad word in a Super-Size Idiocracy. Thanks for a great post!


Reply November 01, 2007 at 07:00 AM kate sanford said...


I don't really think that anybody is stupid enough to feed their kid all of the candy in one sitting.






On the other hand, there are a lot of underemployed experts, pundits, and columnists sitting around and they have to get paid some way!






Nice post! Welcome to the cranky pants category!


Reply November 01, 2007 at 10:24 PM kate sanford said...


I don't really think that anybody is stupid enough to feed their kid all of the candy in one sitting.

On the other hand, there are a lot of underemployed experts, pundits, and columnists sitting around and they have to get paid some way!


Nice post! Welcome to the cranky pants category!