Yesterday my wife took my kids out for Halloween trick-or-treating. They came back with a good haul of candy. When she got back, I noticed that my kids had already started chowing down on their candy. I asked Mrs. Dragwyr if she was planning on checking out the candy to make sure it was safe. She looked at me like I was crazy and said no. Well, I persuaded her otherwise and we checked the candy out.
I don’t see what the big deal is. As a responsible parent, I think that I did the right thing by checking it, but my wife thinks I’m nuts (This coming from the woman who drops off a friend and then waits in the driveway until that friend is inside the house. This from the woman who is almost paranoid about losing her kids to a kidnapper when out shopping with them).
Do you do it? Do you think I’m crazy for wanting to do it, even though we live in a small town and the risk is rather low of getting something contaminated?
Pepper Mill emptied out MilliCal’s bag on the floor under a good light after the two of them got back from making the neighborhood rounds, and went through all the candy. Everything was commercial candy in sealed packages (and wayyyy too many of them were Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – which we gave out, too!), and they all came from people we know.
But you can’t be too careful when your own offspring is concerned.
Yes I did. Even though we only went to houses where we REALLY knew the people, I never take chances with my kids. One lady gave my kids baggies of candy, when we got to the street I slipped the baggies in my pocket til we got home and I could open them and make sure they were ok. I always check my kids candy, it makes for a good excuse to taste test as well. Until I had checked all the candy out for damage or tampering my kids had to make due with the candy I had bought and already inspected. I don’t even give out candy before I inspect it. Don’t feel bad though, I have even been known to take my kids candy to be x-rayed for metal. Some youth centers offer this Halloween night. I couldn’t find one this year but I inspected the candy really close. Never feel crazy about wanting to protect your kids, after all if you don’t who will?
My parents always checked out my candy and this was 20 years ago. After one scare, all non-commercially sealed candy was just thrown away. I think it’s the right thing to do.
I checked the candy but it was almost more for show than for safety. As stated in other threads, we live in a small very nice neighborhood since three months ago. A surprising number of adults on our street know my kids by name. 80-90% of the candy was chocolate bars, of those more than half were the large size. Skittles were a big component of the non-chocolate set. Reeses, M&Ms and Hersheys were also very popular. Out of a huge haul there were only 2 or 3 lollipops, no Maryjanes and I think we were the only ones giving out Smarties. One woman who I work with gave out large bags of animal crackers. Another new neighbor down the street gave out microwave packets of unpopped popcorn. As we did our rounds a large number of the people who didn’t know me introduced themselves or welcomed me to the neighborhood. And at different points in the night we had members of our small town’s police department on our street giving out candy and glowsticks and saying hello.
Maybe I live in a bit of a timewarp area but I am not very concerned about there being any danger in our midst. The main reason I checked the candy was just to see if anything looked really amiss, to get a decent survey of how much candy the kids had brought in (alot!) and as an excuse to dole a little bit out and put the rest away.
We always dump out the bags and give a once over to see if there is anything obvious and to ditch the stuff that some people saved from last halloween. Also, as little as the kids are, they have not yet acquired the delicate palate required to thoroughly enjoy certain candy so those items must be pulled from the haul and placed in the mom and pop kitty to protect their innocence:)
I remember when I was a kid, the holy grail of trick or treating was the popcorn ball. All the corner meetings with other kids to find out who in the neighborhood was giving those out instead of candy and the mad rushes to get there before they ran out. Then one kid found a needle in one, and mom never let us keep any of them after that. I don’t think I’ve seen them given out in years now. It was like banning stockings on Xmas.
Oh to be so ignorant of life. Actually yes, I took my kids candy to be x-rayed once and there was some metal in several of the Milky Way bars. We contacted the company and they said one of their machines had broken and some of the metal had gotten into the candy. ALSO, a boy I went to school with liked to open candy and masturbate on it then hand it out. There are sick people out there. You really have to protect your kids from freaks. So sit in your ivory tower secure in your safety but I shall continue to protect my kids.
So I assume you now x-ray every candy bar that gets near your kids? After all, those metal shavings could just as easily have been in a bar you purchased yourself at Safeway.
I don’t have a problem with parents checking the candy, but what I wonder is why, if you consider the risk sufficient to warrant checking, you even let them trick-or-treat in the first place? If a person is demented enough to tamper with candy, isn’t their a reasonable chance that they would do a good enough job to avoid visual inspection or other means that wouldn’t show on an x-ray (poison)?
jarbabyj, My father use to do that too. He would always find a handful of candy in my bag that “didn’t look safe”. And then he would eat it “just to test it”.
When I was really young I thought he was so brave for eating the potentially dangerous candy.
I checked it at flodjunior’s request. He’s in a phase where he doesn’t want to risk eating anything with nuts in it. (No he is not allergic - just being a kid.) Otherwise, no. And I’m even letting him eat the unwrapped stuff. Nobody’s heard those scary razor blade in the apple stories here
If by checking his candy you mean “making sure their aren’t too many snickers or milky way bars” Then yes I checked randomjr’s candy.
just doing my part to save my son from candy burnout[sup]tm[/sup] by putting myself directly in harms way. You’ve all heard of candy burn out[sup]tm[/sup] right?
My parents ALWAYS checked my candy as a kid. It could even just be accidental-hey, I once thought it would be funny to pass out tampons instead of candy on Halloween (no, I didn’t do it, I just got the idea).
One tip, though-don’t give out Little Hug drinks. I got one one year and a lollypop stick pierced it, soaking my entire bag. The candy was okay, but it was a pain in the ass to carry around a dripping bag.
Snopes has some excellent information on this subject – I just reviewed it this morning.
The bottom line is that poison in Halloween candy is just an urban legend and doesn’t happen. However tampering with candy in the form of pins, needles, and even razor blades is a part of Halloween, either as a typical prank or as an accident. The decline of popcorn balls and other homemade treats can be traced to the discovery that foreign objects sometimes can be accidentally included.
I don’t have any kids, but if I did, I would check their candy, just to make sure it all looked safe and was appropriate for their health, age, and teeth.
