Day 747 - Poll Results & New Poll

Last week I asked whether or not it was a good idea to use bribery with the kids. Fifty-five percent thought that bribery is fine as long as you are selective with its use (i.e. only use it when you're so drunk you start to second guess your parenting skills.). Thirty-three percent pleaded that we should use bribery while we can. This makes me believe that either bribery loses its appeal as the kids get older or bribery will eat your savings account bone dry.

I don't think Lisa and I use bribery with the kids too much. We use it to make sure the kids eat their vegetables, brush their teeth well, and to stop standing on my testicles. The one thing that you have to be prepared for with bribery is to follow-through. If you tell the kids they won't get to watch Blue's Clues unless they help clean up the room, you better be prepared for a lot of crying if they don't clean. But sometimes it all works out because the kids may tell you that they will stop crying if they get to watch Blue's Clues.

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The kids have only experienced three types of sweet things in their two years of life: 1) Gerber toddler cookies, 2) their yearly birthday cupcakes, and 3) my beaming personality. With Halloween around the corner, they may soon experience a lot more sweet things.

I do not remember going trick or treating until I was probably four or five years old. And every year my parents dressed me up in the same costume: Pat Morita. There was quite a bit of excitement when I returned home and unloaded my bounty of candy on the coffee table. I was always allowed to eat a few, but then I would have to save the rest for later. Looking back, I do believe my parents must've taken away a lot of my candy away because I don't remember it ever lasting too long. Then again, my mom always ballooned to a disgusting weight of 345 pounds right after Halloween so maybe the candy did go somewhere else.

We have never given Emma or Andrew any candy. But I started to wonder whether or not it might be cute to see their expression if we allowed them to eat a small piece of candy like a jelly bean, candy corn, or a 2 pound box of See's Candy. What do you think? Is a small piece okay? Is it too soon? Should we have a dialysis machine near by?