Halloween and laying our own feeding ghosts to rest...

Halloween can test even the most confident feeder. Every year I pull out Child of Mine by Ellyn Satter and re-read her Halloween section. It's my little pre-Halloween ritual :)It's pretty funny as she tells the story of a local TV reporter asking her about Halloween candy. Her answer basically is, let them eat as much as they want for that night and the next day, then incorporate a few pieces as desserts or with snacks every few days. The TV reporter was taken aback and thought it was dangerous. I love that the TV station felt compelled to put a disclaimer on the screen as Ellyn was being interviewed! A reminder that this feeding philosophy is often seen as radical...But, it works. When you have an approach to sweets that includes them, makes them a given experience, and not the forbidden fruit, it can go pretty well. What I love to hear most from readers is how their children are thriving with the Division of Responsibility with feeding. (Parent: What, when, where. Kid: how much and if from what you provide.)The kids are doing well, and the parents are amazed, in awe and inspired. Parents are healing the wounds of their own feeding histories and making it better for their children. And-our kids can be a major inspiration to rethink, revisit and revise our own eating experiences. Being aware of our own feeding history and being open to learning, changing and making reality better for our kids is a major accomplishment. This mom who wrote in should feel proud.."As for Hallowe’en, I had one of my proudest feeding moments last night. We brought home the loot and I checked through it while my daughter sorted it out. I told her she could have as much as she wants and she chose two chocolate bars, then she said “that’s all I want tonight. It will still be here tomorrow so I don’t need to eat any more right now”. This kind of blew me away. To see such a blatant expression of her self-regulation brought tears to my eyes. I would never have done that as a child. She has always been a good eater but now that we’ve backed off completely and let her take control of her whether and how much, she is so mature about it. Her attitudes about eating are so much better than my own. I’m honestly still reeling from it a little bit. It’s so different from me when I was a child. Every year I would vow to make my Hallowe’en candy last until my birthday (Dec 1), it never did"another mom: "We enjoyed Halloween. After trick-or-treating I let my kids eat as much candy as they want. It is so gratifying to me that all together they probably eat 3 or 4 pieces. It can look like more, because they can try it and throw it away if they don’t like it, but all told it really isn’t that much. It is rewarding to see the continuing evidence that we are doing “works.”Thanks for sharing! How are you making things different for your children and how are they motivating you?