How I Handle Candy-Filled Holidays
Alright friends, one thing that I never realized when I was a kid…
…there are so many holidays that are fixated on food and candy. Does it feel like all the holidays are centered around candy?!
As someone who is mindful of their kids’ candy and chocolate intake, I’m realizing how often we’re navigating these celebrations and the constant questions of how to approach them.
So, I figured if I’m thinking about it, I bet you are too!
We are not perfect by any means, and we certainly don’t strive to be. You’ve heard me talk about how important it is to find your own healthy balance, and this is equally as important for your kids.
We serve cookies, donuts, candy or lollipops routinely in our house. They are not an every night thing, but they certainly have their place.
The biggest issue I take is with these candy-filled holidays being over the top, hyper-focused on treats. There is no reason for life-sized chocolate bunnies. For real.
Today I’m sharing the approaches we’ve taken, and continue to take, around these holidays:
Anticipatory conversations with family & grandparents
These are frequent questions I get in my DMs or that I’m having with friends and colleagues. Often parents have their own goals and approaches with sweets and their kids, but often problems or concerns arise when extended family members are part of the equation.
Maybe Grandma wants to buy endless amounts of chocolate, or questions why you’re limiting candy intake, or makes comments to your kids about how “mom won’t let you eat that”.
While it can be well-intentioned, these questions and comments might go against the goals you have as a family, or undermine your approach in front of your kids.
My recommendation will always be to have these conversations with your family, ahead of any anticipated situation. No good can come from addressing these circumstances in a heated environment. No one wins when that happens.
Before our kids were able to even eat sweets or desserts, we talked to our parents about what our goals are for the kids, the products we’d like them to offer if they do offer a cookie or a dessert, and we talked about the frequency.
We were sure to highlight WHY this was important to us as a family. That is isn’t about control, or trying to take away the opportunity for them to be grandparents, but rather asking them to focus on other areas to “spoil the kids” that don’t revolve around chocolate and desserts.
No matter how you look at it — kids don’t need the alarming amount of desserts that they are offered. And when most holidays are focused on some kind of dessert or sweet option, it is okay to have boundaries around this.
Don’t get me wrong, they still give the kids cookies and desserts, but it is limited and they understand why it’s important to us.
2. Focus on other aspects of the day
Our kids don’t know, what they don’t know. Which means, we get to point their attention where we want to. With a chocolate, candy-filled holiday like Easter on the docket, we are choosing to focus on the Easter egg hunt, new spring toys and the fun of being together with family.
There will be moderate amounts of candy and chocolate available, but our focus will be on time with family and being together. Yes, Cutcheon will be over the moon with the chocolate that he receives, but we got him one small pack of Easter M&Ms and one small Kit Kat chocolate bunny. This is all he will be getting from us and the Easter Bunny.
We will hype up the Easter egg hunt, some toys that they’ll receive and most importantly that we will be getting together with family to play games, laugh and spend time together.
If you don’t want your kids to eat candy and chocolate non-stop all day…then don’t offer as much of it!
3. Find your balance
I am definitely not a “NO DESSERT ALLOWED” person, but I am on the side of “less is more”. If we bought and offered Cutcheon 5 packs of M&Ms and a giant chocolate Easter bunny…then that’s what he’s going to want to eat. And then we’re stuck in a power struggle of giving it as a gift, but not letting them enjoy it and monitoring how much they have. Cue the meltdown.
Doesn’t sound like fun, does it?
I would rather decide what the balance is going to be. How much chocolate are we okay with him eating in the day, and that’s what we buy.
Yes, there are external factors like Grandparents and family celebrations, but you have to find the balance that works for you.
4. Let go of perfection
Because there are external factors, it’s okay to let go of perfection and lean into the balance. I know that my parents have a chocolate bunny waiting for the kids and while it wouldn’t be my first choice for them, sometimes you have to just let it go.
Our parents are incredibly respectful of the boundaries we have for the kids and their desserts, so when occasions like this come up, I’m not going to fight it.
I’ll make sure that both kids have a protein-filled breakfast, with a balanced snack before we head to the family celebrations so I know that their blood sugar levels and their moods will stay as stable as they can on an exciting holiday such as Easter.
We can only do, what we can do!
Questions?
I love chatting about this topic with you, so please leave a comment below, email me or hit me up in my DMs!
