Our kids are attending a candy-fueled event at their school tomorrow where they will collect more chocolate than I can control. There's also a city-wide trick-or-treat night on Halloween which we will be skipping. I'm a bit of a Halloween curmudgeon already. I don't like how much plastic goes into all the costumery and I really don't like how sexualized ALL costumes are for women and little girls alike.
My husband and I used to enjoy the holiday more when our kids were little little and we could get away with homemade costumes and stopping at 3 or 4 houses in our neighborhood before bedtime. But now... blech. Too much sugar. Too much chocolate. Too much waste.
We're going to do something fun on Halloween as a family though. Maybe go out to dinner and a movie. Start a new, less chocolatey, tradition. 🤎
We just returned from one such candy-fueled event at our school. It was ALL cookie-cutter Big Chocolate: Reese's, Snickers, Twix, etc. In fact I saw that 240-piece variety pack I write about in my post for OK Doomer, in the flesh. It was worse though. 260 pieces for $24.99. I talked to the mom who had bought it, and she said "You get twice the candy for the same price."
She meant, of course, the pieces are half as small as the regular mini bars, so it's the same candy weight but cut in half, giving you twice as many treats to give out. And, granted, half as much toxic stuff for the kids to ingest.
Good for you you're doing something fun as a family. Peel away from the excess...
Grim. I haven't bought a single piece of chocolate since we collaborated on the Big Chocolate piece. Every errant M&M in our homemade trail mix makes me cringe.
I hear you brother. But not all chocolate is made with slave tears. Wait till I publish the twin sister post of this one. There is so much chocolate to be had that's ethically sourced, with pure ingredients, and so, so much better tasting than the commercial stuff. You just need to forgo the fancy Italian business suit you wanted for Christmas :)
Equally tough to write... not fun. Did you watch the documentary I link to in the full post (on OK Doomer)? My article is just the tippy top of that iceberg, that the doc delves into. My hats off to the filmmakers.
To be clear... my intention with this essay is not to make anyone feel guilty. It's a first and important step to changing the way things are done, and that's always awareness. When I started I had no idea this was going on. So it's not a reflection on us consumers. It is a reflection on all the marketing and conditioning we've lived with all of our lives: the convenience of pre-packaged, pre-sliced, pre-portioned food. Food that lasts forever bc it has so many preservatives. Food that's cheap and comes in a gazillion flavors and options. Food that's out of season or comes shipped from the other side of the planet. "You can have it all, right now, in whatever flavor you like!" the marketing campaigns have been telling us for decades. No wonder we consume things the way we do here. But there's a lot changing now. A lot of perspectives and perceptions.
I come from a different country and grew up with a very different perception of stores and shopping. Curious how immune that has made me to all the commercials here in America. So it gives me hope to see so much interest in local, organic, and quality food.
Our kids are attending a candy-fueled event at their school tomorrow where they will collect more chocolate than I can control. There's also a city-wide trick-or-treat night on Halloween which we will be skipping. I'm a bit of a Halloween curmudgeon already. I don't like how much plastic goes into all the costumery and I really don't like how sexualized ALL costumes are for women and little girls alike.
My husband and I used to enjoy the holiday more when our kids were little little and we could get away with homemade costumes and stopping at 3 or 4 houses in our neighborhood before bedtime. But now... blech. Too much sugar. Too much chocolate. Too much waste.
We're going to do something fun on Halloween as a family though. Maybe go out to dinner and a movie. Start a new, less chocolatey, tradition. 🤎
We just returned from one such candy-fueled event at our school. It was ALL cookie-cutter Big Chocolate: Reese's, Snickers, Twix, etc. In fact I saw that 240-piece variety pack I write about in my post for OK Doomer, in the flesh. It was worse though. 260 pieces for $24.99. I talked to the mom who had bought it, and she said "You get twice the candy for the same price."
She meant, of course, the pieces are half as small as the regular mini bars, so it's the same candy weight but cut in half, giving you twice as many treats to give out. And, granted, half as much toxic stuff for the kids to ingest.
Good for you you're doing something fun as a family. Peel away from the excess...
Grim. I haven't bought a single piece of chocolate since we collaborated on the Big Chocolate piece. Every errant M&M in our homemade trail mix makes me cringe.
I hear you brother. But not all chocolate is made with slave tears. Wait till I publish the twin sister post of this one. There is so much chocolate to be had that's ethically sourced, with pure ingredients, and so, so much better tasting than the commercial stuff. You just need to forgo the fancy Italian business suit you wanted for Christmas :)
As a chocolate fan, this is tough to read but important. Maybe we can't all be perfect, but we can strive to do better.
Equally tough to write... not fun. Did you watch the documentary I link to in the full post (on OK Doomer)? My article is just the tippy top of that iceberg, that the doc delves into. My hats off to the filmmakers.
To be clear... my intention with this essay is not to make anyone feel guilty. It's a first and important step to changing the way things are done, and that's always awareness. When I started I had no idea this was going on. So it's not a reflection on us consumers. It is a reflection on all the marketing and conditioning we've lived with all of our lives: the convenience of pre-packaged, pre-sliced, pre-portioned food. Food that lasts forever bc it has so many preservatives. Food that's cheap and comes in a gazillion flavors and options. Food that's out of season or comes shipped from the other side of the planet. "You can have it all, right now, in whatever flavor you like!" the marketing campaigns have been telling us for decades. No wonder we consume things the way we do here. But there's a lot changing now. A lot of perspectives and perceptions.
I come from a different country and grew up with a very different perception of stores and shopping. Curious how immune that has made me to all the commercials here in America. So it gives me hope to see so much interest in local, organic, and quality food.