Sunday, November 2, 2008

A Curious Social Experiment - Trick or Treat Style

On Halloween, we always trick or treat in our little downtown since we live in the country and don't have a neighborhood. We often meet friends or bring some along. Below is a picture of my girl as Cleopatra with two of her friends.

For years my kids have sorted all their candy on the living room floor by type. Then the bartering begins, "Well if you give me two candy corns I will give you a snickers." On and on it goes with both kids negotiating all kinds of trades. It entertains them for a while.
Now for the social experiment. My kids are four and a half years apart, with my son being the oldest. During this candy sort, we have always noticed that my daughter gets more candy. This happens every year. So this year I had them count each pile. My son's candy totaled 129 pieces, with my daughter at 159. A difference of 30 pieces!

I guess people just feel like giving more to the youngest, or the girl, or both? Please comment if you have noticed similar discrepancies among your children. Is it the big age difference or the difference of the sexes? Is it youth or beauty? What do you think?

5 comments:

Lisa Snell said...

Hi Linda,

The exact same thing happens every year with Jacob and Katie. Katie always has way more candy!
Very strange.
Love,
Lisa

CC said...

Ha! I think my son (older) gets more b/c my daughter is too shy to really push her basket in people's faces ;) I love the bartering though!!!!

Storytellin' Mama said...

That sorting looks like fun... great experiment!!

I haven't really paid attention to who gets what as we dump it all together, but as the kids get older I'll have to pay attention to girls vs. boys!!

Cute story!

Honey Mommy said...

That is so interesting! I only have boys, but the youngest is too little to get any treats. I'll have to see if the younger one gets more candy when they get a little older!

Momisodes said...

Wow, I would have never thought to do this. I have nothing to compare to other than what I handed out. I pretty much allowed the kids to take whichever candies they wanted from a candy bowl I held out. Most of the little children only took 1. While most of the older kids took a few.