Proud Moments

When I was little, I remember Halloween as one of my favorite days of the year. I got to wear a costume and get FREEEEEE candy! The costume was fun , but let me tell you - it was ALLLL about the candy. My brother and I used to dump all our candy out on the living room floor and seperate out all the stuff we didn't like...which wasn't much - but I specifically remember getting rid of those little wrapped peices of bubble gum that were hard as cement...and those butterscotch discs in the orange cellophane wrapper. My dad would usually sneakily steal my smarties and my pixie stix and then came the TRADING. AJ and I would start negotiating and making deals like crazy. In the end - we would usually end up with quite a haul and after eating a TON that night - we'd stockpile it away in our rooms. I was usually very big on "organizing" my candy...seperate it by chocolates, gummi's, etc - little jars and baskets with all the different kinds stashed on a shelf. This candy was SERIOUS business to me when I was little....come to think of it, who am I kidding - it's STILL serious business to me! I love my candy - I'm just more particular these days. Before, I would eat any gummi bear - but nowadays I've become a gummi bear snob...only haribo gummi bears will do! I used to eat any kind of liquorice...but nowadays - forget twizzlers, it's all about the red vines. I digress...
My point here is that when I was little - Halloween was ALLLLLLLLL about the candy, that final prize.
So on Wednesday, AJ and CC stopped by with my sweet neices in tow. They were marching around our house in their costumes with lollipop's in hand and candy shoved into their gaping mouths as fast as they could swallow...and I had to laugh at what a fun day they must have had.
My sister in law then proceeded to tell me something about their evening that made my eyes tear up with pride over my neices. Apparantly they had stopped at a friend's house to visit with them and their children. The older girls (6 and 7 years old) decided to help pass out candy to all the kids coming by the house. The neighborhood got so bombarded with kids that they eventually ran out of candy. My neices both grabbed their bags of candy and dumped them out into the bowl and started passing their OWN candy out to the other kids. I can't even explain to you how it felt to hear they had done that...to be so generous and unselfish and such a young age...I was SOOO PROUD! Hubs and I made sure to tell them how proud we were and what a good thing they had done and gave them big hugs. They stopped by their church afterwards, so the girls had an opportunity to get more candy for themselves...but the mere fact that they were willing to give up their candy and pass it out to the other kids gave me a big lump in my throat.
Thinking back, I honestly don't know if I would have done that as a child. My entire focus was on candy, candy, candy....and given the opportunity - I just don't know if I would have done what they did. In fact, I'm not sure how many kids these days would have done that...seems like few and far between in this generation of entitlement.
I can't help but think that my brother and sister in law may certainly have their hands full with their brood - and while they are outnumbered...and things can definately get out of hand behavior wise...they must be doing SOMETHING right, for their kids to have behaved like that without any prompting from their parents.
I must say, as the responsibility of being a MOM (oy - scary!) looms closer...I've been paying alot more attention and gleaming as much information as I can from those around me, who've walked the parenting road and succeeded. I hope someday my kids will be willing to give up their candy for other kids...
Because they can always hit up my stash that I have stockpiled in the bedroom :)