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Strollerderby
What these ten-year-olds had in their costumes was scarier than the costumes themselves.
Halloween is notoriously known for being a night of hazards, and some precautions are more well-known than others. For example, most parents are careful about keeping their kids in brightly colored costumes or equipped with flash lights when crossing dark streets.
This year, many of us in the Northeast had to watch out for falling tree limbs after the unexpected Nor’easter, and some families had their trick-or-treating plans canceled completely due to the storm.
But most people wouldn’t consider young children packing heat along their trick-or-treat routes — yet that’s exactly what one woman found out in South Carolina.
At what age did you let your kids go trick or treating by themselves?
This morning, right before we head off to school, my son says, “Oh mom. I forgot. [Insert best friend's name here]‘s mom wants to know if he and I can go trick-or-treating for Halloween by ourselves this year. She says it’s okay with her as long as it’s okay with you.”
It’s Monday morning. I’ve been gone all weekend. The house is a mess. I’m tired, and now a Halloween parenting dilemma? No mother should be asked such questions on Mondays, especially not prior to 8am.
My husband happens to be standing there, and he says it’s okay with him … wait for it … as long as it’s okay with me. So everyone else thinks it’s just fine for our 10-year-old boys to go out by themselves tonight for Halloween, but they’re all waiting on approval from me. The mom with the anxiety disorder.
Point us to the candy, please!
Recently my husband and I were discussing whether or not we’d drive to a neighboring city to trick-or-treat. We recently moved to a small village out in the country and wonder whether the trick-or-treating scene is a good one.
I think it will be just fine for a 2-year-old and an 8-month-old who has no clue what’s going on. Maybe when the kids are older we’ll search for a better Halloween scene, but not yet.
When I was growing up my mom used to drive us to the wealthier neighborhoods to trick-or-treat. It was rumored that the people living in the houses on the hill (the wealthier side of town) gave out full-size candy bars!
I never received a full-size candy bar, nor do I believe they gave out better candy than my immediate neighbors, but driving to nicer neighborhoods to trick-or-treat is something I’ve heard that other families do as well. Not just because of the hope for better candy but to seek out more family-friendly environments. Continue reading »
Chocolate coins are not a favorite in my house.
One of the topics of conversation among kids in the neighborhood on Halloween always centers around which homes give out the best candy, the full-size Snickers, Milky Ways, and Tootsie Pops.
While I am always thankful that people take time out of their day to offer candy to my kids and make Halloween fun, honestly there are some treats given out that they should just keep. You know those treats that aren’t treats at all…we’ve all been there in seeing something dropped into our children’s trick-or-treat bag and cringing just a little.
Here is a round-up of five worst treats to give out on Halloween:
Waiting until dark is not the best choice.
One of the most fun fall holidays falls on a dreary Monday this year. For the past two years, moms, dads, and kids have been able to enjoy Halloween on a weekend, but for the next four yeas or so, we’ll all find ourselves trick-or-treating on a school night. Or school afternoon at the very least.
Weekday Halloween celebrations just aren’t typically as much fun as rummaging the streets, collecting loads of sugar-laden candy, knowing you’ll have the day off to enjoy (or recover). The dilemma with weekday trick-or-treating is that no one ever really knows what time to go. Continue reading »
Too old for trick or treating?
Halloween trick or treating – how old is too old?
Our middle school aged son has been asking that question, as he wonders (at age 11) if he should be abandoning the trick or treating tradition this year.
Uh… not yet, kid! Continue reading »
All Halloween candy is not created equal
When I was a kid, there was no such thing as peanut allergies. Everyone consumed gluten (particularly since no one knew what it was) and “vegan” wasn’t in any dictionary. Eating meat was something all people did (unless you were a relic from the ’60s, in which case we didn’t know you existed anyway because you lived far away on some kind of a commune, or in Oregon).
Which is why Halloween was that much better back then. No one had to tiptoe around special dietary needs. Sugar wasn’t the enemy. In fact, it was every kid’s best friend. Particularly when it was served in straws (hello, Pixy Stix!).
Take a stroll down memory lane and revisit the candy that made Halloweens of yore so much better than it is today (and also be reminded of some of the “treats” that kids dreaded having dropped into their plastic jack-o’-lanterns):
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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