Running with Scissors

Sara Peterson-Davis has worked as a newspaper researcher and reporter, as well as a communications director and consultant. She and her husband, Monty Davis, can be found in Liberty, Mo., keeping their two children from running with scissors. Contact Sara

Trick or Treat

I hope I’ve caught you before you’ve made that all-important Halloween candy purchase.

Now, don’t worry, I don’t plan on giving you a lecture on buying healthy treats for the kids. You have my blessing to knock yourselves out in the candy aisle of your local grocery store.

Actually, I just wanted to make a small request and a few suggestions.

Let’s start with the request.

When you’re standing in that vast expanse of candy corn, gummy worms and fun-sized chocolate everything, think of us moms when you make your final purchases. It’s a well-known fact that we moms are the ones that eat most of the trick-or-treat candy our kids bring home.

We would never admit it publicly but it’s true. In those days following All Hallows Eve, we are haunted by the voices that come from all that candy. While our kids are at school or outside playing, we hear the calls of all that yummy sugar. When we pass that big bowl on top of the refrigerator, we take a couple of pieces to tide us over until supper. What’s a piece or two going to hurt?

Next thing you know we’re putting away the laundry and take a couple more as a tip for folding all those socks. Pretty soon, we’re just standing at the bowl snarfing it down right and left. Not that our kids have noticed that their Halloween candy is disappearing faster than Size 9s at a shoe sale. They’ve already got Christmas sugar plum fairies dancing in their heads.

Now for those suggestions, tips really, for buying the most “mom-friendly” candies.

First, forget the Pixie Sticks. These little tubes of sugar might appear to be the perfect midday pick me up, but unless you’ve had your tongue laminated in plastic, they’re like eating fruit-flavored fiberglass.

And forget the candy corn. Nobody likes candy corn.

That brings us to Dots. While these little gelatin bullets work well as oil pan plugs or faux fruit for holiday fruitcakes, they can pull the fillings right out of thirty-something and forty-something teeth.

A trip to the dentist is always a trick and never a treat. Buying extreme sour anything is never a good idea. Grabbing one of these babies by mistake can cause candy-induced lockjaw in anyone over the age of 14.

And remember, gummy worms, bugs, fingers or toes are just plain disgusting.

But Smarties are always a sure thing. Loved by moms and kids alike, the only problem with these little discs of sugar bliss is that kids always seem to notice some are missing.

It can bring on a bad case of mom guilt, sometimes associated with candy bag pilfering.

On the other hand, anything with dark chocolate, almonds or coconut are an excellent choice. These are a guilt-free treat for moms, since 8 out of 10 kids gag at the mention of any one of these ingredients. These are the ones kids bring to moms saying, “Here’s a yucky one you can have, mom.”

Chips, pretzels or microwave popcorn is always a welcome surprise especially when moms hit that unavoidable sugar high.

Perfect with afternoon cup of coffee or that late-night cup of tea, fun-sized chocolate anything with peanuts, caramel or nougat is like giving us moms a little hug.

Don’t worry about what our kids want when you go out to buy that bushel of Halloween candy. They’re young and resilient.

It’s us moms you have to worry about. We wait for this chance all year long. Why else do you think we put so much work into all those little costumes?

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