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Cinderella prefers diamonds over candy

So, as a Fit Mama, Halloween brings some difficult issues for me.

How can I let my children dress up and run around the neighborhood like I did as a kid and enjoy getting as much candy as they possibly can in light of my own weight issues and the obesity epidemic in this country? I want them to be kids and have fun...yet I worry about their weight and all the healthy food that will inevitably be displaced by candy.

Last year, I decided to try the "sell back your candy" approach. I let both kids go to pretty much as many houses in the neighborhood as they wanted to, gathering candy. That evening, a school night, they were allowed to eat two pieces each.

The next day, I asked them to sort their candy into piles. Each "snack size" candy bar would be worth .25; each smaller candy (like a Dum Dum or mini Tootsie Roll) would be two for .25. Each child should make piles worth $1.

I set no limit on the number of piles they could create. The Boy  helped The Girl sort her candy after he did his own. I then asked each child to remove as many piles of candy as each wanted to keep, and leave the remaining piles on the kitchen floor.

The Boy removed two piles: exactly eight small candy bars. The Girl, watching what her big brother did, followed suit.

Left on the floor was $27.50 worth of candy from The Boy, and $24.75 from The Girl. (That's approximately 110 pieces of candy in The Boy's piles and 99 in The Girl's.)

I was dumbfounded.

Before I decided to try this, I figured the kids would do one of these things:

-- Give me $1 or $2 worth of candy and keep the rest. I'd have to ration it for the next couple of months.

-- Give me a set amount, like half of their candy, and keep the rest - again, resulting in lots of candy in the house for me to ration.

Instead, they made the smartest decision possible. They recognized that candy is just food, and they periodically get (some) candy anyway. But money equals new toys! The Boy had asked me about how much things he likes - like new Lego sets or Bionicles - cost while he was counting out his candy. I thought, though, that he would go for the immediate satisfaction of having all that candy NOW, versus the smarter financial decision of having a cool toy that would last longer. Or, maybe he'd go for giving me the least amount of candy possible to get a small toy.

But no - they readily gave it all up for the promise of a shopping trip.

And each child kept so little candy for himself and herself that I actually allowed them both to bring their candy into their bedrooms and eat it unsupervised, when they chose to eat it. I guessed correctly that with so little candy left, they'd ration it over a few days to a week.

I swept up all the candy on the floor and put it into a bag - tied tightly so I couldn't get my paws in it. One of the downfalls of this plan is that all that candy is available to ME, at least for a short time. I brought it to work and gave it to my administrative assistant for her candy basket, and then I refused to visit her until I knew my candy was gone - about three days, given the eating habits of my software development team.

So, in addition to costumes, candy for Trick-or-Treaters and the money I spent on the little party we had at the house before trick-or-treating, Halloween cost me $52.25 in toy shopping.

But THAT part was worth every penny - the kids learned a lesson about delayed gratification, and we all avoided a lot of unnecessary calories and fat.

Guess I'll just have to budget better this year!

Check out Disney Family.com's group Halloween blog, The Ghoul's Guide, for more stories and tips.