Halloween candy follow-up

We decided to let the kids go ahead and just eat their own candy. By Saturday night, we remembered the real reason for putting the candy in the community bowl--OrphanAnnie's(7) candy was almost gone. She had originally had at least 100 pieces of candy. I hate to even think about how much sugar she had that day. Bookworm's(9) candy was almost gone by Sunday night. Thank goodness, Littleman(5) has a little self control--he still has quite a bit left. I don't know how to teach self control but I think my girls need some lessons.

Socialist or Capitalist?

Ever since our first child started trick-or-treating we have let the kids pick out some of their favorite candies and collect the rest of the candy and put it in a large bowl on top of the fridge. We like to encourage the kids to share with each other and it's also a way that Mom and Dad can have some candy, too. :) As we were talking about this tradition this morning, Mr. Dad made the comment that it's kind of a socialist thing to do. Then I said that if we allowed the kids to eat their candy at their own rate then they would be able to have control and if they work hard at controlling themselves then their candy could last a lot longer. Thus, they would be rewarded when they still had candy and the other siblings don't because they couldn't control themselves well, i.e. capitalism. It was a big light bulb moment for me. Are we teaching our kids to be socialists by trying to make everything "even"?

I may be stretching this metaphor too far and over thinking things, but what do you think? How do you handle Halloween candy? Are you a socialist or capitalist?

Costume gone awry

Littleman(5) decided on being a ghost for Halloween this year. He actually tried to change his mind and be a ninja at one point, but I carefully steered him back to a ghost because it would cost less. So I bought a couple of yards of cheap white fabric, folded it in half, cut a hole for the neck and sewed a hood on it. He tried it on this morning and pulled the hood down over his face a little bit. He looked like a member of the Klu Klux Klan. I think we'll cut the hood off.