To go trick or treating to strangers' houses?

And anyone who is ignorant enough to be unaware of the origins of Halloween should do a bit of reading.

Clue: not American.

So don’t take your four year old around the houses dressed as a pumpkin because in ten years she’ll be egging people’s caravans and terrifying 90 year olds?

Anyone who undertakes this ridiculous American import, which is essentially extortion with menaces, is unreasonable

Go to decorated houses! Anyone who doesnt want callers will be in the bqck of the house with no lights on in the front!

oh the hilarious ad hominem!
what would MN be without them?

We go to those that are decorated - they're only the streets around us (know some visit whole other areas that are big on Halloween) but we don't know many of the residents.

Ignore mumsnet ,every year there are threads about begging ,it likes to suck the joy out things like trick or treat.

“Everyone on this thread has said it's only decorated houses…”

hopefully the wee thugs round my way have gotten the memo.

It’s that and the incessant fireworks.
I’m hoping for zero knocks.

I will report back on Friday.

Absolutely fine to go to houses if they have a pumpkin outside. That's why they put a pumpkin outside - to welcome trick or treaters.

Children become teenagers. Where I live it’s common for groups of teenagers to wander round on Halloween night. They pay zero attention to the only knock if you decorate rule. One of my neighbours is 90 and lives alone. She’s always very scared on Halloween night.

I don't take my kids trick or treating because every year as a kid my mum would turn all the lights off, hope that no-one would knock (and groan if they did and say to my dad don't answer the door) and tell me that its begging (she's not British born to be fair its completely outside her culture) & I'd be thinking of this every time I approached a door lol. That being said I thought the rule was if the house is decorated, you can knock and if I had decorations up I'd have sweets on hand in the expectation of having someone knock. I think its safe enough, usually there's an adult with the kids and as you say all sweets are wrapped/sealed.

We go to the decorated houses. I assume they must be happy to get trick or treaters.

No one said to put all your lights out, I said the light(s) on the front of your house as in your outside lights.

Do you usually have trouble with reading comprehension or are the words unclear because you're stubbornly sitting in a darkened room?

I don't even teach mine stranger danger, I teach them about tricky people instead because the biggest risk to children is people who are already well known to them and there are doing to be times in their lives where they're going to need to interact with strangers.

This would probably get me reported to social services in MN Land.

I’m sincerely hoping we won’t get any knocks. I can’t stand Halloween. So I suppose it will have to be “lights out” at 5:30 just in case we give the ”wrong” impression.

@SoporificLettuce don't be daft. PP said outside lights, as in ones on the outside of your house. Not your living room.

But people who decorate their house don't mind people 'begging'.

Then according to MN you must put all your lights out and present a totally dark house to the world in the hope that the little beggars trick or treaters will take the hint and not knock your door.

I think some of you need to be teaching your children about stranger danger. My eldest is 10 and have been trick or treating since she's been about 4. She knows it's a stand alone 'thing' and wouldn't go into someone's house or anything just because they gave her a lolly one time at Halloween. That's just basic common sense and parenting.

There is no beginning of a relationship when trick or treating. Kids say 'trick or treat', person at door says 'don't you all look scary' and kids grab a sweet from a bowl- that is it.

Well, trick or treating is begging, let's face it. So probably best to only visit houses where you know that the occupants don't mind.

Yes, of course, that’s the whole point of Halloween! Actually many of them won’t be strangers. Most of the houses we went to last year were friends or parents from school or teachers or someone’s auntie, but honestly, unless you’ve invited me to your house before, I wouldn’t know that you or your nan or your auntie lived at #6.

I think trick or treating is American and I encourage my kids to call it guising which is what I called it as a child.

That aside - I hardly know anyone near me but we live near a new estate with loads of young kids. The streets are busy and we go to any door that’s decorated and always get loads of kids we don’t know coming to our door. I won’t even go this year will let the 14 and 13 yr old take the 6 and 3 yr old while I stay home with a bucket of sweets!

It really doesn’t. Trick or treating children are entirely focused on sweets, their costumes, one another, and the novelty of running around after dark on a school night. A person who comes to the door is an irrelevance holding a bowl of mini Haribo packets.