Every year at Halloween, I'm consistently blown away by what some people will let their kids get away with when they trick or treat. Or worse, what they will do to get their hands on some free candy.
So parents, pay attention, and please don't do these annoying things to your kids on Halloween.
- Let teens go trick or treating. I'm perfectly fine with teenagers walking around with their younger siblings, even in costume, but keep your hands out of my candy bowl. If your kids are old enough to get a job, then they should be purchasing their own candy and not taking mine.
- Drive kids from house to house. Since the houses in our neighborhood are a bit far apart, we'll often take our littlest kids in a wagon. But everyone else gets to walk. If you need to drive your kids from house to house, then they shouldn't be trick or treating in the first place. And if you're too lazy to walk them around yourself, then maybe you need to check your own priorities.
- Leave your own neighborhood to trick or treat. I'm all for heading over to a friend's neighborhood to trick or treat, especially since where I grew up, we had no sidewalks and the houses were really far apart, but when you load your kids up in a car and just drive to random neighborhoods where you don't know anyone just so your kids can get more candy, you're being greedy. And you're setting a bad example for your kids.
- Let babies collect candy (for you). One of my favorite parts of Halloween is seeing all the tiny babies dressed up in cute costumes, until their parents hold out a trick or treat bag for them. Really? Your baby can't even hold his head up, so I'm pretty sure he's not eating candy. Here's a thought: Buy your own. It'll probably be better than the Smarties I'm going to give to your baby anyway.
- Force your kids in a Halloween costume. I know first hand that my kids love to wear costumes and masks in theory, but then when they need to walk around a neighborhood in full garb and start to freak out, I don't force them. I understand that you really want to get the perfect photo opp, but for goodness sakes, if your kid is crying because she doesn't want to wear the mask, let her take it off.
What drives you nuts about Halloween?
Photo via Flick/andrechinn
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Comments 27
You sound like your no fun on Halloween.
Teens are kids too and they deserve free candy, if your tight on money, then turn off your porch light and don't buy candy for people.
Babies don't eat the candy, yes this is true, but, everyone is excited to take the baby out on the first Halloween, and not to collect candy, just walk around with nothing to do, would be weird, of course you collect candy for the baby and then go home and eat it. Better other parents then you.
i don't see the harm in letting teens trick or treat. my bigger pet peeve would be when they just show up in jeans and a tshirt. i'll make them do something stupid for candy, like sing or do a dance, since they couldn't be bothered with a costume. it makes for some entertaining teenagers. ;)
the only thing that really bothers me are the kids who are running around unsupervised. even if it's a "nice neighborhood", i don't think kids should be out stopping door to door with other kids and no supervision. i'm not a 'helicopter parent' in the slightest, but if you can't be bothered to go with your kids, you should at least make sure someone responsible (and that doesn't mean "but the neighbor's 12 year old is SO RESPONSIBLE") is overseeing things.
It seems like you're missing the point of trick-or-treating, which is not simply mooching off neighbors for free candy. By your logic all parents should just go buy a bag of candy, hand it to their kids, and write off the whole event. There is fun in trick-or-treating that involves more than mooching and if you don't want to participate in the evening then shut off your porch light and be done with it.
Not only did my kids trick-or treat all the way through high school, we drove them outside of our neighborhood to do so. Just to the nearest town, because we live in the back of beyond with only my mother and my sister for neighbors. My wife and I dressed up, and we went to the doors and yelled "trick or treat!" with our kids as well. We didn't get candy at every house, nor did we expect it. If someone was running low, we would hang back and let the little ones get the candy. We did it this way because my son is allergic to chocolate and this way we could swap out the chocolate from his bag without him feeling like he was getting less candy than his siblings.
Wow, I guess my 5 year old is out of luck then - we live 12 miles out in the country, with houses half a mile to a mile apart. If we can't drive into town to trick or treat in another neighborhood, and we have to walk to each house, she might get to trick or treat 2-3 houses before exhaustion kicks in.