Mothers rule tricks and treats

It’s dangerous to get between a woman and her chocolate. Just ask my son.

It isn’t fair that children are always being given candy. Christmas means chocolate kisses and red and green M&Ms. For Easter they get chocolate bunnies and eggs.

And on Halloween, any child who is willing to wear a costume and ring a doorbell is treated to candy bars and other goodies. They bring it all home by the bagful.

Because there has been a certain amount of candy pilfering around here in the past, several years ago, when he was still young enough to trick-or-treat, my son drew a line in the sand. If any of his candy was taken without his permission, there would be trouble.

That Halloween night, as soon as he got home, he ran down to his room and immediately put every piece of his loot into a sturdy green plastic tackle box. He slipped a new combination lock into the hasp and crowed, “Ha! You won’t get any of my candy this time.”

I just shrugged.

“You’re going to have to ask me for every piece,” he said.

The next morning, after waving the locked box of candy in my face, he got on the school bus and called out the window, “You can’t get my candy.” I just smiled.

I spent the day working around the house and I was there waiting for him when the school bus brought him home.

He ran inside, throwing off his backpack and jacket, and disappeared into his room. I was still smiling.

In a moment I heard what I had been listening for.

“Noooo!”

You see, when he opened the box, instead of candy he found it to be full of unshelled peanuts and a note that read, “If you think you can outsmart me, you’re nuts! Love, Mom.”

He ran into the kitchen, holding the green plastic tackle-box full of peanuts in one hand, the combination lock in the other. “How did you do it?” he asked.

“Do what?’

“How did you get it open?’

I didn’t answer. I just popped a Hershey’s miniature into my mouth and smiled.

That’s when it dawned on him that things had changed. Now I had the candy and he was going to have to ask for every bite.

“Mom, please! Let me have my candy.”

I made him work for it, but eventually led him to the candy I had taken from the box and hidden.

When he asked, I told him the truth. I didn’t know the combination to open the lock. And I could honestly say that I hadn’t taken the box apart in any way.

To this day he has no idea how I got all the candy out and the peanuts into the box. And I’m not telling. Every woman has her secrets.

My son is too old to go out trick-or-treating now, but I like to think he got more than candy that year. He got a valuable lesson

He learned that it never pays to put a woman between a rock and a hard-candy place.