AIBU to think WTF were the parents thinking?

I have helped at too many pta run discos and we have guidelines but we can’t actually take things off of children. Can’t touch them to start with but also have no power to confiscate. I think in this scenario we’d need the parent to do it themselves and if they refused… genuinely no idea what we’d do. And I could absolutely see plenty refusing.

my daughter just couldn’t cope with Halloween when she was younger. The fake blood was really hard for her as she has a lot of health related anxiety. Now she loves it all at 12 but did not until maybe p5 or so.

my son’s friends love all the chaos and he’s right there with them.

I remember a few years ago half my daughter’s friends were characters from stranger things and I had no idea what any of them were. I wouldn’t have recognised this character either.

God no. Thats too much.

I simply don't see the danger. Children, adults and families have celebrated Halloween for years.
Most haven't dropped dead.

Of course it looks like harmless fun.

You wouldn’t participate if you saw the reality behind the mask.

Opening doors to these entities is extremely dangerous.
Don’t say nobody told you.
I’ll leave it there.

No but if we are watching movies as a family we would be on one of the adult Netflix pages and they could see then. Its pretty hard to shelter kids from absolutely any inappropriate imagery so I would rather just explain it to them in a way that removes the scary. Eg for michael myers I will talk about the fact its a William Shatner mask which got spray painted and I will tell them the name of the stunt person wearing the mask etc. I watch ALOT of horror and the kids ask me questions which I answer in ways like the above, so they dont find this stuff scary.

Plenty of girls and boys in the UK do cheer the same as they do dance, karate, swimming, football, Scouts etc...

I think people hanging bodies in body bags and hanging nooses etc, blood everywhere is a a new thing though. Putting up cobwebs, skeletons and pumpkins seems ok but I think it’s upsetting to see the way it’s heading. Where does it stop?

Our primary school was religious and had no Halloween anything so we never had this issue. In defence of some parents, they may have older kids/teens and lose sight of what was scary and inappropriate at age 7.

I don't really understand why Halloween costumes moved from ghosts & ghouls (sheet with eyes cut out) to the killing fest which seems to be the norm now. And I can't see how cheerleaders fit in at all.

Partly consumerism and another selling opportunity for retailers, partly Americanism?

I'm showing my age here.

I also think that Santa costume is revolting.

Plague doctor is a great costume but you can't have possibly thought it was appropriate for a 6 year old to be dressed as Pennywise, a fictional clown that murders children which was partially based on real life murderer of young boys John Wayne Gacy? There's no way a 6 year old should have seen the film and the book is full of child abuse, racist language, homophonic language and sexual scenes culminating in a group of 10 year olds taking it in turns to have sex with the one girl in the group.

Sorry but seeing children dressed as characters from such inappropriate media is a real pet peeve of mine.

They see pictures of them when scrolling through Netflix.

Kids netflix doesn't have adult horror films

What I don't understand is that if the kids haven't seen the films/know of the history behind certain figures, then how are they sufficiently aware of them to want to dress up as them?

My DC would never request any of those costumes, because they don't know the characters exist!

I don't get it either

I don’t see an issue with it. It’s a costume and Halloween

they walk among us!

Why aren't little kids dressing up as witches cats and ghosts anymore? Honestly what are parents thinking? Halloween doesn't = horror

Mine still do

I have read about Oíche Shamhna but tbh I don't follow you.

Most Halloween celebration is harmless fun. Even my childrens' Roman Catholic secondary school throws a dress up party. But ok they also expect the pupils to go to an All Saints' Mass. It might even the evil influence.
At our home it's mostly pumpkins, food and games with friends tonight.

Halloween aka Oíche Shamhna (the eve of Samhain) is a very ancient celebration. You can look it up if you’re interested.

The issue is it’s a locus of evil spiritual activity, particularly necromancy and divination.

Participation, even meant as ‘fun’ opens a door to evil influences in a person’s life in quite unintended ways. I strongly urge people not to do this to their children.

How come? Do you think it harms the children to celebrate halloween?

Fun on the surface but underneath Halloween is a dark and sinister night, dabbling in occult practices. You do your children no favours by celebrating it.

Halloween isn't meant to be cute. Of not scary too scary but you should expect to meet a dressed up monster, ghost, mummy, fake blood and alike.

Halloween is about frightening away evil spirits - it's not about being cute.
However keeping things age appropriate for a school party is much more important than the origins of Halloween - that means nothing completely terrifying for very small children, and also nothing inappropriate in any other child protection sense either.

not in the UK they don't - this is a primarily UK site.

"A child Jack the Ripper"
"Just fun costumes"

In what universe is a child dressing as an actual rapist and murderer considered fun?

Perhaps it would be even more hilarious to dress a child as Wayne Couzens or Ian Watkins. After all, Halloween isn't meant to be "cute". 🙄

It is meant to be cute for younger children. Horror film references ruin it for me. It was never about that.

Interesting as DDs have got older their costumes have become more camp and funny than scary.

I’m in the US and it’s a fun holiday here. No overthinking, just kids dressing up and having fun - very positive and joyful.