To take away the huge quantity of sweets given to my children?

[Purim2010]

Today is the Jewish festival of purim - is a custom to give food gifts to other people.

Today DS(3) and DD(6) got given huge quantities of sweets chocolates lollipops etc. I have let them eat unlimited quantities of what they were given today. I can't even count how many lollipops they ate today.

Am I being unreasonable to "get rid of - ie bin" the lollipops, and chewy and boiled sweets. I plan to put everything else eg snacks, chocolate, crisps, jelly sweets, fruit sticks, raisins, biscuits in a bag and let them take one thing per day.

Both children have also tried to hide significant quantities of what they were given in their bedrooms. I plan to raid this "secret stash" too.

My DH says I am being totally unreasonable and that the food was given to them therefore its theirs. I think I being generous as I will let them eat the stuff I think is less offensive. I am also rather concerned that other parents think its reasonable to make up food parcels containing hard sweets and lollipops. My gifts to other people included a juice, a humzinger, raisins, and fruit.

YANBU. Sure, if you feel you can hide the rest of the sweets for treats, keep them and hand them out with discrimination, but if keeping them is going to result in your DC finding them and consequent problems, there's no reason why you shouldn't bin those which you have greater objections to (unless you can give them to other people for their DC).

My children are teenagers and I have this problem still when people kindly give them sweets. Many of them turn my 13 yo hyper! I'm sure that the intentions of those that give is good but they don't have to live with my children afterwards!

Oh, and PS, Shalom and happy Purim!

After halloween I let my children choose ten things to keep and threw the rest away. They were fine with that. And once you ration what's left they forget about it within a few days anyway ime. We still have smarties left over from Christmas.

My DCs are about the same ages, I let them gorge a bit on the day things are given, then put the rest away into our kitchen snack box and give them out gradually, or chuck them if they really are crap (haribo etc). I don't feel it's being ungrateful particularly, I appreciate the thought behind the gift but am not going to stuff my kids full of junk just because someone else think they would like it. The donor will never find out anyway. I may have to re-think as the DCs get older and wiser though!

I'm afraid I would confiscate then eat them.

Don't feel bad you did exactly the right thing. The sound of a child crying whilst they have an injection, tooth filled or taken out would soon stiffen your resolve. Or maybe your husband can hold their hand at the dentists?

I would do same as you. One day to go hog wild, then ration to something reasonable.
Depending on how sweets affect their health and behavior. My oldest son could eat a lot of chocolate and candy without getting sick or hyper. (as could my brother and I when we were kids)
My quiet well behaved youngest child would only be halfway through a lollipop and become a wild child! They only had a lot of sweets at Easter, Christmas and Halloween though.

I don't think you are being unreasonable. My dd went to a trick and treat thing at her school. It was a complete farce, all she had to do was walk around the car park and ask for some sweets. I was talking to some other mums and she came back with a carrier bag. I am not exagerating, a carrier bag full. I told her to take 7 things out (she was 7 at the time) and then to take them to our car. I took the rest back and regifted them. She still has a couple of tubes of smarties left from last christmas, that I took to ration and forgot. She forgot too.

I would go with rationing. I have a friend who we refer to as the Sugar Dealer, she appears incapable of having any interaction with DS that doesn't involve sweets in some way and he often comes home from visits to her with bags of lollies etc.

We just put them in the cupboard and give him one if he asks for it now and again. Mostly he forgets they are there and they get chucked after a certain period.

I love my friend, but she is crazy with the sugar. She took a bunch of them to the movies and when they came out they went to the sweet shop and all got completely full boxes of sweets. It must have cost her upwards of a 100quid. Madness.