October Parenting Chronicles

In this months Parenting Chronicles I wanted to share some of our Halloween parenting stories. The good, the bad, and the good God I’m never taking y’all ever again moments. We have all had them. Every year we get the kids ready and take them trick or treating. Every year for a number of years I would say this is the last year. Although there was one in particular that really made me wary.

My Parents

When I was growing up Halloween was much easy, in my opinion. I can remember way back when people putting stuff in candy rarely if ever happened. Our costumes were never store bought, my mothers threw something together for us at the last minute. Occasionally it was thought out but soldiers, doctors, witches, and ghosts were our standard ones.

We lived in a neighborhood and would walk from one end of it around the bend and then back home again. Since our street was in town it was the busiest every Halloween. Usually one of our parents would walk with us if it wasn’t too cold. My dad did this a lot as he enjoyed Halloween but one year both him and Ma did. He always pulled a wagon, in case we got tired, and a garbage bag to dump all the candy in if our bags got too full. We were safe with him. If it was too cold he drove us.

That Year

The worse year I ever had was when my oldest nephews were young. My older brother worked nights so I told his wife I would take the kids with her. She got them all dressed up and out we went. This was horrible from the first stop. It was cold and they didn’t have jackets because it would ruin their costumes. So ended giving up mine and freezing.

The were running and screaming. We went to neighborhoods that had so many kids in one place at a time that you could barely move. I got my butt grabbed by some twelve year old and some teens took one of nephews bag of candy. I may have ran them down and gotten the candy back with less than lady like language and actions. I mean come on people! At the end of the night I wanted to cry and when my sister in-law made a remark about the next year, I told her she was crazy. I would buy each of the boys $200 worth of any candy they wanted and call it a night.

More Recently

We don’t go out and trick or treat. We did when the older kids were younger but Sam has food allergies so it’s not worth it. I just buy the candy they want and we watch movies. However, it never fails that some kids don’t ring our bell at some point. I don’t understand why either.

We live in the middle of nowhere and make a point of not turning on the porch light. I was taught you only went to the houses where the porch light is on. I guess that isn’t something people teach anymore. Not to mention, I would not come up to our house. Not that it looks creepy or anything but I live in the woods! It’s dark out here at night.

Of course, that doesn’t stop my uncle from taking the twins out and ringing the back doorbell. He has them yell trick or treat at me as well. They do this right after dinner and not ten o’clock like the other kids that show up do. Maybe they think it’s funny or something.