Balance

Aghhh! Halloween! Many parents' moral dilemma....and kids' favorite holiday. Halloween is, as my colleague Lana Rae once noted, all about kids having power! Yea power!

But the candy, the scary, the excess, the peer pressure. Yikes! What to do?? It's simple. Review the last ten days and build a program of balance into the celebration.

Have they been to three different birthday parties in the last ten days? Dial down the candy. Was the last party two months ago? Splurge a little bit.

Do clowns scare them? Stick to family and friends for trick or treating. Are they fearless? Hit the mall.

Holidays, like any other experience, are best celebrated in the flow of life. Decisions are easier made when you see where you and your children have been activity wise and what's coming up in the next few days.

Rules made out of the context of life become meaningless and arbitrary and usually have to do with our personal baggage and not everyday reality.

Have fun tomorrow as a family. It means harvest is over and it's time to hunker down for a cozy, reflective winter of indoor sports and gatherings and celebrations and weather that makes us appreciate the rotation of days.
Love,
Deborah