AIBU to think WTF were the parents thinking?

I’d cancel it personally. Just another excuse for shops to sell tat, sending your kids out begging for sweeties off strangers in sexy outfits or dressed as serial killers is utterly bizarre - why we need this in our lives I do not know. There are so many other events more joyful and positive that we could celebrate.

Depends whose funding the research tbh

Is it debunked? I thought it was inconclusive.

I am actually a strict parent when it comes to what I let my children watch and am inclined to agree with you that it’s not great parenting to let young children play/watch such things, however the comment I quoted earlier was trying to say it was the reason for so many children stabbing each other these days and I disagree because that will be 99% drug and gang related.
There has also sadly always been children drawn into the criminal world did you miss Oliver Twist and the pickpockets? Nothing new.

All is besides the point the child this post inspired most likely didn’t even watch the scary Santa film and just saw the costume in the shop and thought it looked cool.👌🏻 The other point being some children find traditional costumes like ghosts, witches and vampires scary so where do you draw the line on banning costumes in case they scare other kids or do you just cancel halloeeen altogether?

Because this argument has been going on since slashers became big in the 80s and just as much research debunks the idea...

Sure ok. Whatever you say.

When you have games like grand theft auto being played by young children where you can buy drugs and guns and engage with pimps, etc - I’m not sure how this wouldn’t impact young minds. There are children age 6 playing this. There have been so many studies proving the link, that it’s surprising that anyone would still try to argue against it. Very odd.
Isis use videos of beheadings to desensitise their child soldiers for a reason.

I have to say that when I was looking at zombie cheerleader costumes for my daughter last year, I didn’t see any that were sexualised. Just skirt and top/dresses with pom poms.

You’re incredibly naive and clearly don’t have children.

You are not being unreasonable.
But my kids were never at Halloween events, it’s a horrible thing.

I would assume the op is objecting on the "tiny cheerleaders outfits" maybe being sexualised? and not leggings types

The part where I explained how there are non-horror movie versions of the characters which children may have encountered?

There’s nothing wrong with it at all. My daughter (10 at the time) went as a zombie cheerleader last year. The costume wasn’t in the least bit sexy - just a knee length dress with pom poms.

I still don’t know what you mean by age appropriate cheerleading outfits, girls can go to cheerleading classes at that age and wear the costumes, they are in no way sexual, especially at that age?

how can it be the same when kids only know the cute version of witches and ghosts, but the only version of a horror character is that horror character.

You really don’t see an issue with making young children scared of Father Christmas? And you don’t understand that young children may not necessarily appreciate it’s a costume?

The comment above yours explains what I am getting at more eloquently than I can try to. Halloween is meant to be scary, the traditional costumes aren’t much different vampires and zombies are terrifying to some kids and commit violent acts. Witches were real women killed for being spinsters or a little weird etc.

My guess is that the parents didn't want to spend money/time on a costume and just bought the mask online to go with a Santa costume they had left over from Christmas. It's a desperation/last minute thing, I'd have thought. I doubt it means the child has seen the film it's from, or knows anything about it.

Obviously if there was a rule that specified no masks, he shouldn't have been wearing one and the school should have taken it off him. But other than that, I think you're overthinking really. It's Halloween. It's meant to be scary. That's the whole point of it.

One of my friends dressed her small child as Hannibal Lecter once. The child didn't have a clue who that was, obviously, or what the film was about, but was running around in his boiler suit and hockey mask cheerfully telling us all that he was 'dressed up as a scary monster who wears a mask so he can't eat people'. I personally found it to be the funniest thing ever, particularly because he was such an incredibly cute and cuddly child. (Admittedly that wasn't for a children's party; it was an evening party mostly for adults, but there were quite a few kids present who were playing together.)

The ones without trashy parents with impaired decision making skills still are. Look on the bright side- it’s a rare opportunity to cull some of these families from your social circle. There’s no way I’d be encouraging my child to form or continue a friendship with a child who had parents who thought it was appropriate for them to dress up as a murder victim or a character from 18+ media in primary school.

Wow really?
You don't want to talk about the history of violence and brutality, and how it goes through the generations. People are not born violent it comes from the way they are brought up. Not the last 20 years of horror. I was brought up watching horror and I never stabbed anyone. There is no statistics for how many people watches horror and enacts it. I've read it all now and that criminal justice degree I completed ain't worth shit it's horror that's the cause of violence now.

It's exactly the same

Just because there are "cute" versions doesn't stop them coming from a place of horror, violence, aggression and evil

Pennywise, Art, Freddie, Jason, Chucky... all come from violent, scary films but are also now pop culture icon who do have "cute" versions and parody versions and humorous videos on social media and cuddly toy version and Fortnite skins. It's entirely possible to know these characters without ever having seen the movies they come from

I see go issue with a little “zombie cheerleader” or whatever. But that mask… not ok. These are young kids and imo their costumes should be fun not properly scary.

But claiming witches and zombies and vampires are somehow cuter and less horrific is ignoring their past and context the same as a child dressing as a character they only know from memes and social media rather than the film

not really

witches, zombies and vampires are so deep in our current culture in all forms, including cute versions, Kawaii versions, soft toys version that they cannot be compared for a minute to a current movie where the character only exists in the horror context.

Casper the cartoon carter is just a friendly ghost, it's not that deep, it's just cute.
Primary school kids don't know the context, why should they.

Funnily enough, I used to live in the US, when DD was of elementary school age, and American Halloween costumes are usually not scary. It’s just a chance to wear fancy dress. The younger children often dressed up as their favourite Disney/superhero characters, the older ones as a whole variety, from a vending machine to an old lady. There was a school rule that no weapons or masks were allowed.