John Curley


Trick or Treat Halloween
When it came time for trick-or-treating, John Curley and his wife went to extreme measures to keep his kids sugar-free. (AP file)

John Curley's sugar-free trick-or-treating

BY Josh Kerns  on October 31, 2012 @ 9:52 am (Updated: 10:47 am - 10/31/12 )

As with many other things in John Curley's life, trick-or-treating was far from normal for his two children. After all, the regular Halloween candy wouldn't do after John and his wife vowed his kids wouldn't eat any sugar until they were 4-years-old.

It was tough enough on normal days with John's wife often making their own sugar-free food and snacks like kale pops in place of sugary Popsicles. Halloween brought a special challenge.

"Once you adopt that, you can't on Halloween just suddenly let your guard down."

He couldn't deprive his kids of the joy of trick-or-treating, so he came up with a uniquely Curley idea: He bought eight bags of baby carrots and enlisted the help of his dumbfounded neighbors.

"I would run ahead to the houses and I would say 'Hi we're going to be coming up. We're the Curley's. We live down the street in the blue house. When our kids show up can you please give them baby carrots?'"

Curley says most of his neighbors were good sports and played along, even though he could see their discomfort as his kids arrived to trick-or-treat.

"The poor person at the door would be like 'Um, oh, and here's something for you,' and drop the baby carrots in the bag."

It was hard work keeping up the ruse. At some point the carrots would run out. John says he would reach into the bag pretending to inventory the haul and surreptitiously take a few out, then run ahead to the next houses. Finally, his daughter had enough.

"Charlie's like 'Dad, I think Halloween's over.' I said why? And she said 'well, you seem really tired and I think we have enough carrots,'" he laughs.

Yet somehow, no matter how many houses they went to, the kids never caught on. John says they never figured out they had more than eight bags of carrots.

Still, he says at the end of the night his wife had some serious second thoughts. "Oh, I deeply regret this," John says she sighed. So this year things are different. Sugar is okay. "Big houses, big bars," John says.

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Josh Kerns, MyNorthwest.com Reporter
Josh Kerns is co-host of KIRO Radio's Seattle Sounds (Saturday nights 7-8) and a digital content producer for MyNorthwest.com.
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  • Stevebo wrote...
    I applaud the effort John
    October 31, 2012 1:06 pm
    ... but I'm glad you're opening the door to sugar for your kids.

    I'm a firm believer that most things in moderation aren't a bad thing - and that includes Halloween.

    I think it's perfectly find to let kids go "hog wild" with sweets one time per year... provided it's in good moderation the rest of the year. I think that's a good lesson to teach kids.

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  • KingBoo wrote...
    Agree With Stevo
    November 1, 2012 2:43 pm
    Moderation is the key to life. Why deprive your kids of something everyone else is doing because you have some crazy idea about sugar? We as parents are all guilty of pushing crazy parenting ideas on our kids. I know I'm constantly having to measure what some book tells me compared to generations of parents behind us. Sometimes the old ways are still good. Let the kids go hog wild on Halloween and then dole out the candy throughout the rest of the year like the rest of us.
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