It will surprise exactly no one when I say that Easter candy can be a problem. But I’m not sure you have to make Easter less candy-oriented. Just use it to teach your kids healthy eating habits.
Yes, it’s true: one 7-ounce hollow chocolate rabbit weighs in at 1050 calories. Smaller bunnies are better-rabbits of the one-ounce variety only rack up 140 calories. Read Newsweek’s list of 8 Worst Easter Candies.
But Easter, like Halloween, just isn’t going away. And Cadbury Creme Eggs (150 calories, 5 grams of fat) aren’t going away either. So the best parenting thing you can do for your kids is teach them how to cope with the candy.
All the stress about Easter (or Halloween, birthdays, ballgames and other food-fests) highlights the mixed messages our culture sends our kids about the role of sweets and treats in their lives.
Show of hands: How many people delighted in the theirs baby’s first birthday cake? I just saw a video declaring, “Smash cakes are all the rage!”
How many parents give their kids the chocolate cake “look”—I know you know what I mean—every time they bring out sweets and treats?
Or say to their kids, when the ice cream they order is bigger than their bodies, “Can’t wait to see you eat that!!!”
And how many of us talk up the Easter candy in advance, only to talk it down the morning after?
It’s a little crazy, our culture glorifies, then vilifies, sweets and treats.
Here’s how to use the excess at Halloween to teach healthy eating habits. The same advice applies on Easter. Spoiler alert: the solution centers on teaching Proportion.
And here are three podcasts on the topic:
- Episode 31: Easter Candy: Dump It or Save it?
- Episode 30: Easter and Candy-Crazy Kids
- Episode 16: Easter Candy Craziness
And just because candy is always a problem, Is it ever fair to dump your kids’ candy?
What if they’ve “earned” it?
I doubt my answer will surprise you: All’s Fair…In Love, War and Feeding Kids!
~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~
