To LET the DCs gp trick or treating!!

[BigMomma3]

Maybe we are lucky that we have always lived in relatively friendly areas but I have taken the DCs trick or treating for the last few years and they love it. I also think it is a good opportunity to have a chat and a laugh with people in the neighbourhood that we would not normally get a chance to chat to.

We only knock on doors that are decorated outside with scary stuff and if the door is not opened within a few mins we will be on our way!! I am also letting DD (age 12) go round for the first time on her own with her friends this year but I will be following her on the sly with the younger DCs .

The kids dress up and get tons of sweets so they love it. It only happens once a year so they are not going to get fat or tooth rot from that . AIBU and anti social????

[BigMomma3]

ahem......meant go not the kids doctor!!

[FluffyPumpkins]

YANBU

[sweetnitanitro]

YANBU. I love halloween and I love getting all the neighbours' kids knocking on my door. I can't wait til DD is old enough to go It's only one day of the year and if you only knock on houses that are decorated then you're unlikely to pee anyone off.

[Deemented]

YABU

Whilst i too love Halloween, i shan't be encouraging my DS to dress up and beg at strangers houses. There's plenty of other fun to be had without doing that.

[mwahahahamwahahahallyroger]

we are not going this year as we are going out for the day and will not be back in time to go Trick or treatng. Many many houses around us welcome Trick or treaters and the majority of Trick or treaters respect the unwritten rules.
YANBU if you visit houses where there is obvious evidence of expecting trick or treaters.
Otherwise you would be disappointing those who have made an effort in decorating their houses, bought sweeties etc.. it would be rude not to

[piscesmoon]

I think that 12 is the cut off point-after that they shouldn't do it. I can manage to be pleasant to the DCs, who are excited about being dressed up in the dark, but I have to really make an effort with teenagers. I think primary school age only.I wish they looked for decorated houses-I can keep ours in darkness and they still ring the bell!

[MontyPieThong]

YANBU so long as the house is decorated. We only go to houses 'celebrating' Halloween.

[piscesmoon]

I try to pluck up courage to give the teenagers fruit, but fear it would be used to pelt the house or car! We just go away and completely miss it.

[halfcut]

YANBU its called having fun

[Chulita]

Only letting them knock if the house is decorated is a brilliant idea. It's DH's birthday and it pees him right off that every birthday meal we have gets interrupted with doorbells. We don't decorate anything cos we don't celebrate it. We used to escape for the night but with a LO it's not so easy...
YANBU if you only knock on doors where people want to play. Everyone who pesters people who obviously don't ABU.

[TAFKAtheUrbanDryad]

YANBU - we're going to go ToT earlyish (4 or 5 pm) as we're off to a party later and have pre-arranged with some friends and neighbours to go round, so we know that they want to play!

My parents don't like Hallowe'en at all (quite strict Christians) and i used to feel a little left out at school when everyone was going on about the fun they had ToT. Having said that, I don't think that Hallowe'en is an excuse to behave like a little shit - I can't believe some of the shite some kids pull. My parents have had eggs chucked at their house, and their windows broken - although, thinking about it, I think that was by carol singers!

[TheDemonicButDandyLioness]

YANBU.

I'll be taking DD, who's four-and-a-half. She went last year too.

My rules are:

We go early
We only knock on friends' houses or those that are decorated - there are loads of people from DD's school within a very short radius from us, so that gives us loads of houses

DD should say trick or treat, and definitely thank you

I don't give sweets to people who come before/after the 31st Oct, even if I have sweets

I don't answer the door after about 8:30pm
(have a small baby this year)

Not so keen on teenagers, those that haven't dressed up, those that don't say please or thank you

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

We're going. It's a neighbourhood thing, lots of us do it and we only go to houses who we know are taking part - knocking on random stranger's doors completely out of order IMO. But it is fun and the children love it, so why not?

[Danthe4th]

We do it round here but I like you only go to decorated houses with the young ones. I do object to high school children knocking for sweets but always make sure we've got enough. My older children take the younger ones round.

[BigMomma3]

Well they don't actually beg - I always make them do a trick in return for a sweet . They will be singing Michael Jackson songs this year!!

[MuGGGhoulWump]

YANBU, and it's not begging either. People buy stuff to hand out, and the kids to something to earn it.
We only knock at doors of decorated houses, which to be fair is most of them here, and we don't go too far, just to the houses around us where we know people.

[Marioandluigi]

YANBU - we are lucky that we have alot of families that we know around us, so we only go to those houses, and they all come to us. We dont beg or go to other houses.