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Maybe I am just uptight
But I'm surprised how many of people said they just randomly throw away Halloween candy. Why be so unabashedly wasteful? Why not take it to work or donate it to something like Treats 4 Our Troops? I don't know, somehow it just seems...wrong... to throw away perfectly good candy even if you personally don't want it.
Jenni ~~Alex & Avery ~~ 6/13/06~~Adam ~~3/26/08
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Re: Maybe I am just uptight
I agree - and actually most of what I passed out tonight (we easily had 75 kids or so after we TOT'd ourselves) came from our church party that was Friday. Part of me feels like a cheapskate, but we had a ton....a party last week and that one Friday. I spent all of $6 of my own on what we handed out, and some kids got 4-5 pcs.
Also, I've heard some dentist's offices will buy the candy for like $2/lb. That's not bad, then take the kids to buy a toy or something.
There is very little that pisses me off more than being wasteful. I don't have a lot of respect for people who are so cavalier with resources.
If you don't want the candy, skip the TOTing.
DS - December 2006
DD - December 2008
Kelly Monaghan's 5K - 5/15/11 - 3rd Place in AG
Walk the Talk 5K - 5/18/11 - 31:12 PR
Ridley Run 3.1 - 4/14/12 - 1st race of the year, 32:45
Dis.
Me with my littlest.
We won't be throwing it out, but the kids will not get much of it. My DH decided to let my 2 year old eat quite a bit of candy tonight. I think the boy had more in 2 hours than in his entire 2 years of life. He was acting like Bevis and DD could have been Butthead.
I'm curious though, do any of you throw out gift bag toys or candy from parties?
I guess I'm lucky. It's not really common in my circle of family and friends to give out gift bags, usually it is more of a useful and/or edible favor. So no, I don't throw those things out because my kids don't ever get them. Thank god! I hated those things when DS#1 was younger.
Kelly Monaghan's 5K - 5/15/11 - 3rd Place in AG
Walk the Talk 5K - 5/18/11 - 31:12 PR
Ridley Run 3.1 - 4/14/12 - 1st race of the year, 32:45
Hell, I think most of you are super uptight. Mini candy bars are hardly 'National Resources.' C'mon.
Kids like to TOT for the experience of it. People like giving kids candy. Kids like getitng candy. People aren't spending a ton of 'hard earned money' on some bags of skittles or crappy whatever.
TOT. Eat some. Throw some out. Lighten up,.
Christmas 2011
Personally we just don't go to a lot of houses.
And I like the pinata idea, or you can save for gingerbread houses. DD has a small gingerbread party every year and the candy for it gets expensive.
But one problem people have is that they think they need to eat everything up so they don't "waste it." So they eat it up so it doesn't go to waste. They get overweight and have to buy more things or invest more just to lose the weight. Sometimes it's just better t get rid of stuff.
I do like some of the ways people are getting rid of stuff.
I agree as usual the nest is overthinking everything again. I don't think it is going to ruin the world if I throw out 20 pieces of candy. For DD the process of TOT is a lot more fun than actually eating the candy. Sending it to DH's work is not an option, the school and church don't want it, and honestly i am not going to spend anymore time trying to find somewhere to donate it. My kids will not touch another piece after last night, they are just not candy people so yes in a couple of weeks in the trash it goes.
But why would you go to that many houses? I don't understand getting bags and bags of candy when you know you won't consume that much.
This. Totally. Then again, I also throw away 90% of party favors too. Apparently I'm just wasteful!
Me too, but then I also throw away happy meal toys, and junk from school and church too.
So don't get so much. Problem solved. You're the parent. You can say when they're done TOTing.
I am not calling candy resources. But you throw away 25 pieces, and so does your neighbor, and the guy on the next street, and we're talking a lot of waste. The resources are involved in the manufacturing, the transportation, the overhead for the store, etc.
I am not a stickler for a lot, but waste drives me around the bend. The amount of stuff that people (in general, not you in particular) just throw in the trash is appalling.
DS - December 2006
DD - December 2008
For us my kids enjoy the process a lot more than the actual candy. It is fun to TOT for them and the candy they can care less. I honestly don't think throwing away candy is going to ruin the world.
FWIW I do agree with you on other stuff people throw away, bulk trash day around here is crazy with stuff that can be donated.
We only walked around the block. Maybe 15 houses had their lights on. Most of the neighbors were throwing handfuls in the kids' buckets. I told one lady, "Oh thank you, but one or two pieces are fine." She said, "We don't get that many kids so I'll load yours up!"
So, if you don't get that many kids, don't buy so much candy.
Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter
"><a href="http://www.myfitnesspal.com/weight-loss-ticker"><img border="0" src="http://tickers.myfitnesspal.com/ticker/show/825/1820/8251820.png" /></a><p style="text-align:center;width:420px;"><small>Created by MyFitnessPal - Free <a href="http://www.myfitnesspal.com">Calorie Counter</a></small></p>But this is my beef w/ tossing the candy. We've spent up to $50 on candy because we get hundreds of kids. So, yea, it irritates me. If I knew people were just ToT for the experience and dumping the candy the next day, I'd blow $50 on a pair of shoes instead. I'm w/ everyone else in stop.ToT. when you think you're kid's had enough. If that means you've gone to 5 houses, ok then.
And blaming the obesity epidemic on "having to" eat all of your candy? LOL. That is a reach. I'm all about nutrition, but I'm not force feeding my DD candy so she won't waste it, and being more concerned about the trash than her health. I eat it instead. mmuuuaaahaha.
I have thrown out candy. *gasp* She got candy that was manufactured in Mexico from a pinata, and I threw it out. It was after a major recall of Mexican candy in the US that had too much lead.
Christmas 2011
Your argument does not hold a whole lot of water with me because we spent over $80 on candy to give away. We all spent money on candy so essentially I am throwing away my own money why should that bother you? I am at a loss of why people are so bothered that my kids don't want the candy, DH and I don't need the candy so I chunck it. DD loves TOTing so from now on I should just not let her go because she does not eat the candy?
Agree.
It's just the epitome of a 1st world problem isn't it? oh no! I have too much Halloween candy! whatever shall we do?
I don't know why it annoys me so much. It just seems so... entitled or something.
Ditto. DS only went around the block and he came back with an overflowing bucket. People were giving him extra "for his little brother" which is laughable (like I would give a 7mo candy). Plus we had a ton of leftover candy. DH threw out half of DS's candy.
We went to my brother's girlfriend's son's birthday party yesterday and I threw out the party bags she gave my boys as soon as DS1 rummaged through it and promptly forgot about it in the car. It was nothing but more candy and small toy parts that DS2 could easily swallow. I didn't feel bad about it.
Liam is 5!
We went through 12 jumbo bags of 7.00 candy from target:) We figure we had over 300 TOT.
Andrews - what Z said. I'm no granola freak who lives in a Yurt and churns my own butter. I have waste, no doubt. But I do not purposefully go out, get something, simply to throw it in my trash "for the experience." I think my argument does hold. It does bother me to spend $ and have it thrown away. my experience, my opinion. Serious, if I thought that's the majority attitude of the ToT (which I don't think is, seeing as some of the parents actively ToT as well...), I would not hand out candy. I have better things to waste my $$ on that benefit me directly.
E - we get about 200 ToTers. We live on a long street, so people park and ToT up and down two streets, about 1.5 miles of candy.
Christmas 2011
Really I now have entitlement issues because I throw away candy? DD spent 30 mintues TOT and had a whole pumpkin bucket full as did DS. I really doubt my treatment of halloween candy says a lot about the life I live.
Seriously! Time to start bargain shopping!
I'm just stunned that there's this much uproar over the "waste" of something so nutritionally void, tooth-decaying and downright unhealthy. Replace candy with cigarettes and make the same argument. How absurd does it sound now?
Mind you, I recycle EVERYTHING, and I donate about 99.9% of the girls' toys, clothes and our household goods to charitable organizations because I dislike the idea of VALUABLE things being wasted. Candy doesn't count as valuable in my book. And as for actual volume, I'm throwing away maybe a gallon-sized bag of candy. Hardly a strain on resources.
Wow that's a lot of people and a crap load of candy! We live in a cul de sac and never get more than 10 TOTers. After reading the post the other day I decided to leave a bowl next to our jack o lanterns. Yeah, the first group of bigger kids that came by dumped the whole bowl in their bags.
I hate throwing away ANYTHING. Like, every time I put something in the trash can, I picture it going into a landfill. Have you ever seen those videos of how much trash is hauled into just one landfill in one hour of one day? It's so revolting that it literally made me feel sick to see it. I'll never forget it.
Now, I'm not making my holey socks into stuffed animals to avoid ever throwing anything out--I hate trash and useless clutter equally!--but if I think I'm just going to end up throwing something away, I don't buy/accept it in the first place. A lot of times, I give back Happy Meal toys to the McDonald's cashier or whatever, because I know it's just going to get trashed later, anyway--why bother? So yeah, the thought of people just throwing tons of candy away rubs me the wrong way.
I think it's interesting that there's a mindset in this country that if you want to limit waste (i.e. people who politely ask their families not to buy their kids 198 gazillion toys every Christmas) you're labeled as some kind of selfish douchebag freakazoid. How backward is that? Someone on here once said it was "disgusting" that I will re-use a plate that had toast on it for something later in the day, rather than immediately tossing it in the dishwasher. Really? Bread crumbs are now unsanitary? I'm okay with being the freakazoid on that one.
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