Where Did All the Candy Go?

So here in the U.S., we've made it through Thanksgiving, the one day a year that it's socially acceptable, even expected, that we'll release our inner gluttons. Christmas is just around the corner, and everywhere you go there will be pretty tins of cookies, and chocolates and even old-fashioned hard candies. But speaking of candies, what's happened to your kids' Halloween candy?

Are they still munching a piece here and there every day? Packing some in their lunch box? Begging you for just one more lollipop before bedtime? If your kids trick-or-treat, how do you handle the bucket of sugar they bring home?

This year, Wonder Girl was allowed to keep exactly 1 pound of the candy of her choosing. Tough trade-offs were made, but she managed. Out of that pound, she's shared with friends and family, so that she doesn't eat it all. She's also been limited to 1 piece each day. The additional 3.5 pounds, I bought from her at $3/pound.

Yes, I threw it out. Yes, some would consider it wasteful, but I'd rather it be wasted in the garbage than on her teeth, and in her belly. I suppose I could've just forbidden her from making the rounds with her friends, but it seems a bit extreme to take from her something that only happens once a year and which will be a shared childhood experience with most every other kid in the nation. She's homeschooled, which means she won't have 1st day of kindergarten pictures, or field trips on the big yellow bus to remember. I'm glad I let her have trick-or-treat with the other neighborhood kids. Still, I'm even happier that the highly refined and processed, lab created, "treats" are just about gone.