It happens every year without fail: after the kids come in from Trick or Treating, parents teach a lesson in taxation by taking a chocolate or two. New survey data from the National Confectioners Association (NCA), expands on this anecdote and suggests it’s the women who are more likely to take.
The survey confirms what children have long known: parents are notorious for eating Halloween candy. A whopping 81 percent of parents admitted to taking their child’s trick-or-treat bounty. Among those families where candy sharing is the norm, women prove to be the primary offenders. 84 percent of women admitted to taking their child’s Halloween candy, where only 74 percent of men admitted the same.
The NCA data revealed a number of other interesting tidbits. Just over half of households mandate equal sharing of Halloween candies. Also, for those parents who do pilfer chocolate, 26 percent say they wait for the child to go to bed before grabbing the goodies. Perhaps most surprising, 19 percent of parents denied ever having taken Halloween candy from their child. That’s just around one in five; a suspiciously high number.
For the little trick-or-treaters, the data offers a few tips. 60 percent of households say the child’s costume has no bearing on how much candy is passed out. However, 48 percent of men said they hand out more goodies to trick-or-treaters in creative costumes. Households are almost equally split between handing out candies and letting the trick-or-treaters take the candies themselves.
Let this be a lesson for Trick-or-Treaters: dress creatively to earn more candy, and when you get home with a bucket overflowing with candy and chocolate, keep your eye on mom.
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