Candy Crushed
It's nice when your kids get older and more self-sufficient. They can wipe their own butts. Take their own baths. Tie their own shoes. Each of these is a milestone.
But something else happens when your kids get older. They get sneakier.
Which is why I didn't get to pilfer much of their Halloween candy this year. Oh, the tragedy!
Usually I confiscate it after Halloween night, putting it somewhere they can't reach. Then I dole it out here and there when theypester me too much ask nicely. All the while, I'm taking a little off the top - an Almond Joy here, a KitKat there, a Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkin or two ( ... or six). I'm in control of the candy, is my point. I can get my chocolate fix, the kids don't eat all the candy in one sitting and get cavities and stuff. It's a total win-win.*
*For me.
But this year something changed. Because I keep finding wrappers around that I know I didn't dish out - the "premium" stuff that normally I would have eaten myself. Then the other day, when I dipped my hand into the candy bucket for some chocolate, I was shocked to find only mini-bags of pretzels and a few random Smarties and some individually-wrapped LifeSavers ... you know, the last-resort stuff that no one wants to eat. This indicates to me that at some point in the recent past, my kids probably devised a plot to distract me while someone nimble climbed up to the top of the refrigerator and quickly skimmed all the really good goodies.
It was further confirmed when I was cleaning off my nine-year-old's desk and found this:
A sucker. Hidden inside the front panel of his printer. Not that a sucker is "the good stuff," exactly, but I have a feeling it's just the last of a sizable hoard that was once stashed there.
Next year I'm raiding the bucket early and amassing my own stash and hiding it separately. Or maybe I'll just go on a diet and not eat any Halloween candy.
Heh! Who am I kidding? Time to start scouting for good hiding places. I have a whole year.
But something else happens when your kids get older. They get sneakier.
Which is why I didn't get to pilfer much of their Halloween candy this year. Oh, the tragedy!
Usually I confiscate it after Halloween night, putting it somewhere they can't reach. Then I dole it out here and there when they
*For me.
But this year something changed. Because I keep finding wrappers around that I know I didn't dish out - the "premium" stuff that normally I would have eaten myself. Then the other day, when I dipped my hand into the candy bucket for some chocolate, I was shocked to find only mini-bags of pretzels and a few random Smarties and some individually-wrapped LifeSavers ... you know, the last-resort stuff that no one wants to eat. This indicates to me that at some point in the recent past, my kids probably devised a plot to distract me while someone nimble climbed up to the top of the refrigerator and quickly skimmed all the really good goodies.
It was further confirmed when I was cleaning off my nine-year-old's desk and found this:
A sucker. Hidden inside the front panel of his printer. Not that a sucker is "the good stuff," exactly, but I have a feeling it's just the last of a sizable hoard that was once stashed there.
Next year I'm raiding the bucket early and amassing my own stash and hiding it separately. Or maybe I'll just go on a diet and not eat any Halloween candy.
Heh! Who am I kidding? Time to start scouting for good hiding places. I have a whole year.
Wow, that's an awesome hiding spot!! How clever he is!
ReplyDeleteNice hiding spot. I'm surprised my kids don't hide more stuff from me. I took most of their mini candy bars.
ReplyDeleteIt only takes a moment for them to scale the cabinets and refrigerator, so hiding it high won't help. The printer is absolutely ingenious! :)
ReplyDeleteTwo of my favorite hiding places (used for Christmas presents): my second-oldest was the world's worst snoop, and got home from school before I got home from work. So, I hid the presents...under her bed. She had a captain's bed, and when I pulled the drawers out, there was plenty of room behind them. She never had a clue.
ReplyDeleteAnother year, I hid them in plain sight. There is a big (locking) display case at the library , which I used to have to put eye-catching displays in every month. That year I wrapped all their gifts, tagged them, and put them in the case. They could see them. Everyone in town could see them. The visible agony was awesome.