Another year and yet another assortment of crap busting out of our children’s pumpkin-colored goody bag. A handful of sugar tantrums and cavities along the way and we’ll be sending our little angels (and devils) out again, same time next year. And so it goes.

Peer pressure is a funny thing. We are educated people. We know lollipops are bad for our children, yet we suck up to the social mores that allow us to dish them out with abandon as though we are above reproach for such things. Now I know that most of you will call me a bore and an old fuddy-duddy (or worse), but isn’t it time we took a look at these practices and adapted them for the 21st century? I love the fun in dressing our kids in fancy costumes. I love the magic of it too and the way it stimulates their imaginations and senses of adventure. But instead of sugar-coated, sugar-filled, sugar drops, why not fruit? Or homemade cookies where we know exactly what went into them?

The trouble is we don’t want eggs on our doors any more than we want eggs on our faces. And when we drop the kids at school in the morning, we don’t want to be the ones who find accusatory fingers pointing at us from the bereft hands of disappointed children with a bowl full of plums on their bedside table.

So I’d like to make a proposal. Next year, let’s work as a community to introduce real treats into the Halloween bags: treats that are good for our children as well as our conscience. It will take some effort. We’ll need suggestions and recipes. And we’ll need courage and conviction if we are to pull it off. But we have to. I don’t know about you but, frankly, I’m having trouble with the dentist bills.