Sharing Treats

My sweetie and I went to the Stake Valentine's Dance tonight. I told you all about that last year and it was pretty much the same this year except that on the serving table they had thrown piles of chocolate kisses. I was so excited to find some with almonds since they are my very favorite! That prompted an interesting discussion later at dinner. Is it OK for parents to hide treats from their kids and not share?

One day when my sweetie was a kid, he was hanging out in his mom's room and on a whim, he opened the tiny cupboard on the headboard of her bed. Imagine his surprise when he found an entire bag of Danish Wedding Cookies! Surely she wouldn't miss just one...

That was the beginning, and by late afternoon, the entire bag was gone.

It wasn't long before his mom discovered the powdered sugar on her pillowcase and the empty bag in the cupboard. As my sweetie tells it, "She hollered up a storm!" (He doesn't even like those cookies anymore because he was so traumatized by her reaction.) After all, shouldn't parents want to share their good fortune with their kids?

I never knew my mom to keep many treats at the house, but maybe that's just because I was never as curious (or maybe desperate!) as my sweetie. If we wanted chocolate and treats, we just headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house. But I do remember going through the China cupboard one day and finding a box with what looked like little square chocolates in it. I didn't figure Mom would notice if I took just one...

I put that tiny brown square in my mouth and tried working it with my jaws. It was hard as a rock and after about 3 seconds, I spit it into the garbage. It was awful! I tipped the lid over and looked at the name again... "Ayds, appetite suppressant candy.". They were diet pills! No wonder they tasted so bad.

The other time I found Mom's candy stash I remember vividly. I had gone down in the basement to get something for her out of our food storage room. For some strange reason, I happened to look up toward the top of the freezer. I must have been at least ten or twelve, or I never would have been able to see, let alone reach, the giant Hershey's candy bar resting on top in all its delicious glory.

I was so excited! I grabbed it down and noticed that obviously I wasn't the first one to discover its existence. The wrapper had been torn and tiny bits of chocolate fluttered to the floor. I carefully pulled off just one square and popped it into my mouth. It's sweetness still lingered on my tongue and tainted my breath as I headed back up the stairs. So good!

It took me about half an hour to realize that if I didn't go for a second piece, I knew I was going to die right on the spot. I sneaked back downstairs without an errand and reached again for the candy bar. As my trembling fingers broke two pieces from the bar, a realization hit me.

What I had assumed was a sibling stealing chocolate before me had actually been tiny teeth marks. My partner in crime was definitely a mouse!

And I was about to be violently sick...