Halloween is finally here, which is great if you’re a kid, but can be a let down as a grown-up since you can’t get free candy from strangers anymore. It’s not so bad for parents, who can sneak a few pieces from their kiddos, and new research reveals most of them do.
A new survey from Little Sleepies asks parents across the country to spill their Halloween candy secrets. Their poll of 1,050 U.S. moms and dads reveals:
- Nine in 10 go through their child’s Halloween treat haul before letting them eat any.
- While 61% do this to make sure it’s all safe, half admit they also help themselves to a few pieces.
- Some do it to control portion sizes (18%), remove anything their kid is allergic to (15%), to redistribute it fairly among siblings (6%) or even to swap out candy for healthier snacks (4%).
- A quarter of parents confess they hide their kids’ candy so they can eat it themselves.
- Three in 10 parents even charge a “candy tax” in exchange for taking their kids trick-or-treating, while 40% consider their kids’ candy haul “fair game” starting Halloween night.
- A third buy candy to give out to trick-or-treaters, but end up eating it all before Halloween.
- And one in three confess to throwing out their kids’ candy because they took too long to eat it.
- Some parents even have a tradition known as the Switch Witch, where kids choose a few favorite candies and trade the rest of their stash for a gift of some kind.
- One thing adults and kids can agree on is their favorite Halloween candy. Both parents and their little ones say Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are their top pick.
- Parents prefer true classics, with Snickers in second place, followed by Kit Kats, Twix and M&M’s.
- For kids, Sour Patch Kids are their second-favorite, then Skittles, M&Ms and Kit Kats.
Photo: leekris / iStock Editorial / Getty Images