Halloween rant

Your rant is a bit contradictory. You complain that people's kids are greedy for expecting sweets, but you also then seem to think your kids are entitled to sweets just because someone's house has been decorated. Aren't people allowed to just decorate their house for fun? Are people only allowed to celebrate a fun festival if they're going to agree to give your children sweets?! What about people who are just having a Halloween party?

As for 'gone out trick or treating' signs, what's the problem? People can go out for an hour, then go home and hand out sweets for the rest of the evening. People don't have to stick to your personal Halloween schedule. DP and I don't have kids and spent most of last night at a football match, but I have Halloween stencils on my front windows because I'm a massive horror fan and I love creepy stuff.

There's no set rule for how to do Halloween. If you're annoyed at people not answering the door to your kids, or you don't want to give sweets to people who have driven from another area, then just stick to only knocking on the doors of people you know and don't answer the door to strangers. It's not complicated.

When the kids are younger than 8-9 I wouldn’t take the responsability to supervise their friends as well (in the dark, in costumes, highly excited, crowded streets) so one parent per household makes sense.

Personally I enjoy the decorated houses even when nobody is in. It contributes to the global enjoyment of the evening.

Maybe next time go out with your kids and enjoy them and don't worry so much about missing folk at your door - there are literally children right now in other parts of the world being ripped from their parents arms and being killed in front of them. I would not be getting this worked up about trick or treating.

Umm now I feel ancient. But when I was growing up Halloween in the UK used to be about watching cheesy horrors on TV (with the best bits censored) and occasionally a Halloween party. All the while being ever so slightly jealous of the American children that went trick or treating.
Some time between me being a tween in the 80s and having my own children that were old enough, trick or treating became a thing in this country. I resisted it for as long as possible, but eventually gave in and started taking them out. In their black bags (that were either witches dresses or wizards capes), face made up using my make up. Back then most people gave out penny sweets and a couple coppers. And decorations were mostly limited to a pumpkin on the doorstep. If no one answered on the first knock then we moved on.
Now my younger children (there's a 25year age gap between eldest and youngest) have finally.persuaded me to let them go, it seems everyone is trying to outdo everyone else, both in the decoration and treat department. Plus there seems to be no etiquette among the trick or treaters, one set decided I didn't get to the door fast enough and were banging the door for ages (I was actually trying to get dressed ready for something completely different). No one knock and if mo answer move on was happening.

YABU, I did a bit of trick or treating with the kids and then was back by about 6 to hand out treats to anyone who knocked after that, I don't see why my decorations have anything to do with it, I can't be in two places at once and DH was working late!
YANBU about the rudeness of some kids though, which did annoy me. I always tell my kids to only knock at houses with decorations/ a pumpkin, say trick or treat, take one thing, and then say thank you. While most of the kids who came around were like that, a few weren't and it really irritated me, especially as my 6 year old DD was excited by the knocking and wanted to hold the sweet bowl, and some rowdy teenagers bowled over and grabbed handfuls off her, even after I'd said 'just one'. She was nearly knocked over! I put up the 'no more sweets' sign after that, put kids to bed, sat down on the sofa and ate the rest myself!

People see it as a social event 🤷🏻‍♀️ maybe they like doing stuff as a family with the dc and seeing other parents.

My kids went out trick or treating. My dh was at work. I was at my grandmothers house- she has dementia and I was worried she’d get callers. It’s not always possible for people to be at home for trick or treaters

I stayed in, with my dodgy pumpkin and home made decorations, and missed out on the fun to hand out treats.

Do you always like to martyr yourself or is it only for special ocasions?

It's always been acceptable not to be in!

If they want to take their own kids T&Ting then it's always been acceptable to do that.

It's never been either/or.

I really couldn't get mad about this😂

I'd wait for an answer and if there wasn't one move onto the next house, no biggie.

Maybe stay in next year if it upsets you so much?

I'm with you. I refuse to take my son trick or treating however I decorated the house and was ready to hand out sweets to the ungrateful little buggers who not only didn't bother saying 'Trick or treat' they also didn't say thank you.

Next year I'm leaving a bowl outside and saying don't knock, baby sleeping. If some greedy sod takes them all then sadly that's it.

I just don't understand when Halloween became about holding private parties

It's fun and a nice excuse to see friends. I'm not sure why it bothers you.

I mean yes someone should stay in to greet the guisers but I can't imagine being annoyed if someone doesn't.

Surely they decorate because they want to not because they are staying in?

We used to enjoy going out as a family. Now dc have all left home and I live in the middle of nowhere so don’t get trick or treaters anyway.

You do realise that some people are single parents, right? Can we not decorate our houses for our kids to enjoy? Or if we do, do we have to stay in and make them miss out on trick and treating just to make you happy?
Ffs.

I have to laugh at 'leave some in an honesty box' 🤣

Clearly said by someone who's never stepped outside of their 'naice' area 🙄

we left an honesty box once, and when we came back there were a few notes saying "thank you" and some sweets left over.

Lordy. Really, if you don’t want lots of kids knocking or to stay in, just don’t decorate.

I don’t think an adult needs to stay in to hand out sweets as both DH and I wanted to enjoy it with the kids but I do agree about either being there for some of it or leaving a box of treats. My DC opened the door for about 30-45 minutes then we went out at 6 leaving what remained for people to help themselves too. That felt like the right balance and is what most people in our area did.

Hardly worth the bother is it