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Save Our Children, Let’s Sweeten Special Occasions the Right Way

And The Truly Scary Aspect of Halloween

Andrea
The Parenting Portal
6 min readOct 22, 2024

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A cup of Latte. The contrast of the white and brown colors of the foam form a ghost.
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

We Are Teaching Our Children That Celebration = Candy

My daughter used to eat everything. From pate to meat, to yams, even broccoli, until she had consistent access to refined sugars at parties and other events.

In the U.S., every time I go to a children’s party, it’s like entering Sugarland. You look right and see cupcakes with so much frosting that it’s almost the same size as the cupcake. You look left, and you see a tray of donuts. You look in the cooler, and there are juices (most often, these don’t have manufactured sugars but have a considerable amount of natural sugar regardless).

I prepare myself well and make sure my daughter eats a hearty breakfast, and I am ready to stand between her and the sugary treats to negotiate until she’s ok eating only 1/4 of each. Wheeww.

But then… here comes the pinata. For those who don’t know, it’s a huge box filled — most often — with candy that children are supposed to open by hitting it with a stick or pulling strings (a new, less dangerous trend) to let the candy fall so children can take as much as they can. Thankfully, my daughter is still one of the youngest ones and it’s more difficult…

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The Parenting Portal
The Parenting Portal

Published in The Parenting Portal

The home of parenting articles written by parents and about parents.

Andrea
Andrea

Written by Andrea

A multicultural mom, wife, daughter, immigration attorney, lover of mother nature, trying to make a difference one word at a time.

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