Halloween!

On Halloween, my boyfriend and I took his son traipsing through our neighborhood. He is the most adorable 8-year-old boy and is still enthused by the glory of trick-or-treating.

We had taken him to pick out his costume a few weeks earlier and it was such fun watching him walk up and down the aisles that were teeming with masks, robes, gloves and other Halloween “must haves”. In the end, he chose a scary ghoul mask, a hooded robe and some sort of plastic weapon. When I took him home from the shopping expedition, he had to try on the “goods” and make sure he was sufficiently scary.

The last time I actually participated in this fabulous tradition, I was in the 9th grade. A group of my gal pals and I had a slumber party and decided that it would be a fabulously funny idea to get dressed up in our silliest garb and go knocking on doors for candy. Of course, this was 1988 and our silliest outfits could actually qualify as our daily wear. Yes, I am shaking my head from the sheer horror and shame of 80s fashions. Of course, the first or second house we knocked on, a gorgeous male specimen opened the door, looked down at us and quickly said “Aren’t you a little old to be trick-or-treating?”. Thus ended my brief but glorious time trick-or-treating and I never went again.

Since then, Halloween has consisted of either ignoring the holiday all-together or spending it at the local bar, catching a band, drinking with friends, and so on.

However, this Halloween, we went trick-or-treating. My boyfriend and I took his son and nephew through our neighborhood and happily watched as they knocked on doors and said “Trick-or-treat” and were rewarded with candy. It was fun to watch their excited faces at all the “loot” they had acquired. At one point, his son dug through his Halloween stash and pulled out a box of raisins! Oh the horror! Who gives raisins on Halloween!!?? Those ended up by the curb somewhere.

As we were walking home with tired kids in tow, I started thinking about this holiday. What are we doing to our kids!?!? We are giving them such mixed messages!

We spend years saying to our children, “Don’t talk to strangers!”, or the ever popular, “Never take candy from strangers!”. However, on Halloween, all bets are off! We practically drag them to strangers houses and have them beg for candy!

Well, I, myself, enjoyed this time honored tradition and I didn’t even inspect the packaging when I took a piece of candy from the kid’s stash. But is it any wonder that kids never listen to what we tell them?!

Just my random thoughts on Halloween and I am looking forward to doing it again next year. I might even pick out a costume!