The only bummer was that the hayride and "cow train" aren't available mid-week, but the flip side is neither are the concessions so with our current "getting used to one income and holidays are coming up" budget crunch, it was nice to not have the temptation to spend money on buttery roasted corn or hot apple cider. Maybe we will do a Fun Family Fall Festival day at home and make those treats ourselves for a lot less moola!
Speaking of treats and moola, a friend posted a link on Facebook to this post by simplemom.net last week. It's about the really unsettling fact that most of the chocolate I love to consume is available to me because of child labor. No child should have to sacrifice their childhood and even risk bodily harm just so I can buy a chocolate candy bar for only 79¢.
So, of course, I immediately re-shared the link and then later had a discussion with my husband about our future chocolate buying habits. We haven't picked out candy to hand out for the upcoming trick-or-treat festivities yet. And yes, buying organic or fair trade options will cost more and put a bigger Halloween dent in our budget. But the bottom line is that our family has the luxury of relying primarily on my husband's income, with a little supplementing from myself, another adult. We don't have to face the decision of sending our children out to do hard labor for less than pennies a day. And we have the luxury of buying "treats" just because they taste good or because it's the expectation for a holiday. Not because we need it to sustain our overworked and undernourished bodies.
I hope that you take the time to head over to simplemom.net and read "Chocolate: the industry's hidden truth (and the easy stuff we can do to still enjoy it). You may not want to think about it, but if you look a little further and do some internet searching you will find that it is true. So please consider how the unveiled truth might influence you to make some simple changes to your sweet tooth spending in order to positively impact our global community.
