Manner Monday®: The Switch Witch

by Carey Sue Vega in Family, Manner Monday, Stuff

Today’s post has nothing to do with Manners; it’s more of a ‘public service announcement’ that will hopefully have parents rejoicing in unison for the passing along of the information.

Have you heard about the Switch Witch?  I’m seriously scratching my head wondering how this has not caught on like the Christmas ‘Elf’.

With Halloween fast approaching, many of us are dreading the ridiculous amounts of candy our little Goblins will be coming home with after their big night on the town ‘trick or treating’!   And many of you (me included) won’t be able to keep our little (ok, big) fingers out of the stash.  Start the convo with your kiddos now about the Switch Witch.  She will be happy to help and take that extra candy off your hands.

So, who is she?  Think ‘Tooth Fairy’ – your kiddo leaves a tooth under their pillow at night then the Tooth Fairy slips in while they’re sleeping to replace the tooth with cold-hard-cash (or a fun little toy); same principle for the Switch Witch.  And before you’re thinking ‘all of the candy’?  Nope, we let him pick out 10 pieces he wants to keep, then the rest goes.

Our friends told us about this idea one Halloween evening – I immediately thought ‘genius’… whoever came up with this idea should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize (well, not really – but maybe).

We told our son about the Switch Witch and he was all in – he ended up with some cold hard cash out of the deal and we had a big bag of candy we were able to donate to the local shelter.

You can easily adapt the Switch Witch to fit your family and come up with your own tradition. Our friend replaces the candy with a small toy her son has been eyeing.  Since we inaugurated the idea on-the-fly Halloween night, we went with the cash option.  And we’ve been doing it now for 3 years and he’s still onboard.

And if you’re not feeling the vibes of the Switch Witch – I read numerous stories about local dentists buying back candy, $1 per pound.  Then they donate the candy to the troops overseas!  Another great idea!

Either way, I’d love to hear your stories;

• Did you already know about the Switch Witch?
• If it’s a new idea, were you able to ‘sell’ it to your kids?
• If you have older kids, where they up for it?
• Does your dentist participate in the candy buy back program?

Do you have a ‘manner’ or question you would like to see covered next week in Manner Monday?  Feel free to send me your thoughts, I would love to hear from you.

My goal is to help my students (both youth and adults) to feel more comfortable and confident in the social and professional skills; do you know someone who would enjoy this post?  If so, please share it and encourage them to sign up to receive Manner Monday?  I would appreciate it!  And if you’re new to Manner Monday, I’d love for you to take a minute to learn more about why I started it. You can click here to read my very first post that tells all about it.

Thanks for reading!
Carey Sue