Halloween hoopla

Halloween — like most holidays — is particularly stressful for mothers.

Planning for the big day starts at the end of summer when mothers have to decide what adorable or scary or famous character their little ones will masquerade as. Then, the overachieving moms get right to work on hand-stitching lavish costumes while moms like me wait until October to get on e-bay and desperately try to find something that will fit and get here by the 31st.

Then we spend the week of Halloween dressing up our kids over and over again for preschool parades, church parties and the actual trick-or-treating. This year for me, this routine has entailed forcing a too-small lamb hat on my 3-month-old baby so she can trail her older sister, who is masquerading as Mary Had a Little Lamb.

And as a reward for the effort to make our kids’ Halloween costume dreams come true, mothers get a bunch of kids who are hopped up on sugar and feel invincible because they are wearing a cape (or a tiara, as the case may be).

Well, we do get to poach a few Kit-Kats before the night is over, so it’s not a total loss.

So the question most parents have to ask themselves is just how loose of a leash they allow on Halloween. Should the kids stuff themselves silly with candy all night, or should there be a limit? Is the candy theirs just because they “earned” it?

As your thinking about the candy limits this weekend, take a look at this list of best and worst candies for your health from MyHealthNewsDaily. Jolly Ranchers top the list of best candies based on sugar and fat content, while Mr. Goodbar leads the worst offenders.

What are your rules for Halloween? Is it OK to let kids be kids and basically run wild on Halloween or do you enforce rules to avoid sugar overload?