The Halloween Stash

Happy Halloween!!!

I'm sure a lot of you are wondering:  What do I do about Halloween?

Well, back in the days when I still Trick-or-Treated my mom had established a simple system.

She would buy the kind of candy that was low-protein.  Basically hard candy.  That would be the candy she would hand out.  (Although based on the number of kids in our area, I'm sure she had a bag of it stashed away as well.)

My sister and I would go trick-or-treating.  We'd always pick the candy we could have, and liked.  But if that particular house didn't have that candy, I'd choose something I knew my mom or dad liked.  (Later that extended to my little brother or friends as well.)

Then, very ceremoniously, my sister and I would dump our goodies on the floor and go through it with our parents.  That was for 2 reasons: to make sure the candy was safe (as in not poisoned), and to sort out the candy we couldn't have.

Note:  I have classic PKU, and so does my sister.  However, we were allowed chocolate growing up.  In fact, I didn't even consider the fact that some PKU'ers considered chocolate as a "no-food" until just recently.  It is high, in phe.  We'd just control ourselves on the amount.

So, the candy was sorted.  Then my mom would trade us candy.  For each piece of candy we couldn't have, she'd trade us one of the lower phe candies she had bought.  That way, we'd have just as much candy as before... without it being stuff we couldn't have.

But, we didn't leave it at that.  Because, nobody wants their kids vibrating from sugar overdose for the next two weeks.  And because we were allowed chocolate.  My mom kept the Halloween bags.  She had a 3 pieces a day rule.  And only one of them could be chocolate.  :)

If was fine.  In fact, it was great!  I had no qualms about any of it.  Eventually it became a game with my sister and me to see if we could make our Halloween candy last until Easter.  haha.

That's just what we did.

Now, I've been seeing a lot of people freaking out about being "gluten-free", "nut-free", "dairy-free"... all sorts of stuff.  To the point that they are giving out carrots or key rings.  And, their kids, aren't even the ones that need to be any of those things.

I appreciate the consideration.  I do.  The gesture is kind.

But, I don't want anyone stressing over a problem that isn't theirs.  (It's not even that bad of a problem.)  We can figure it out.  And we will.  We're intelligent beings.

I know there are other allergies out there, a lot worse than PKU.

But, I still stand by what I said.  If it's not your problem why worry?  If you're worrying so hard that you end up giving key chains away, then you're worrying too hard.

We can handle it.  Stop worrying.  Enjoy Halloween.  It's a Holiday after all.  :)