Experiment: Candy Freedom

On Halloween night we limited the kids to 2 pieces of candy. They left their halloween bags in the van but rediscovered them on Monday. I decided to try an idea that one of my friends did...let them eat as much candy as they would like from their bag. Her children only ate a few and stopped. I wanted to see what my kids would do with this rare freedom. Would they be responsible? Would they only eat a few or would they eat until they had belly aches? How would they react to all of this sugar? Note that my kids rarely eat candy or sweets.

Results...they looked at me like I was crazy...they kept asking if they could have one more...I would tell them that they could have as much as they wanted...and so they ate and ate and ate and ate...they didn't eat it all but they ate a whole lot of candy. Ari was the first to get a tummy ache. Which I told her was from the candy. She still got another piece:) They chased each other around and around the house. By the time Chris got home they were moving to the crash. Both were whiny and said they had belly aches. But they survived the sugar overdose and lived to tell about it.

I hope my children will learn to make their own choices and to know there are consequences when they make bad choices. I will not always be around to control their decisions. I will teach them as best as possible but ultimately they have to think for themselves and be responsible for their own decisions. I wish many adults would learn that lesson and not blame everyone else for their own bad choices but take personal responsibility.

Anyway I hope that life lessons were learned from this candy experiment. Realistically it will just be another small lesson in the many they face.

I just asked Ari today about what she thought about getting all of that candy she smiled really big and said "I liked it". I asked her how she felt afterwards and she said she had a belly ache. I then asked if she would eat that much again and she shook her head in a fervant YES! I guess the life lessons take a while to set in:)