AIBU to think WTF were the parents thinking?

Someone on our local CRAP page has been thing to give away a Pennywise costume for a child size 7. The listing has two photos of her child posing in said costume, so she’s obviously proud of if.
I can’t really see why a 7 year old needs to know who pennywise is, or wear the costume. Assuming others agree with me as she posted a couple of days ago saying it was still available.

It's all about the parents! Some who are just generally not very bright and don't have any boundaries, and others who just want to be the centre of attention.
We had 7yr olds in Scream Masks carrying blades here, and also an 11yr old neighbour dressed as a Playboy Bunny, with her dimwit mother proud she looked so "stunning and sexy".

The argument that scary movies make kids violent has literally been going on since the slasher films of the 80s and it's really not the case

Violence is worse now because police officers are stretched to the limit and don't have the manpower to have beat patrols and be visible, growing disregard for the police (which mostly is an American import in ACAB because of racist cops but also because of police actions here like Sarah Everard and lack of action in grooming gangs) meaning kids don't respect them, parents generally not having the same respect either, fear of even trying to discipline children because of being labelled "abusive" (and that's by the parents)....

Then I as a parent would have said no you can’t have that particular mask. It is not appropriate for a child. As I said previously some parents don’t see an issue with allowing their children to be exposed to these characters (however the child is exposed to the characters). Those parents might buy the mask for their child. Their choice. I find it depressing and an erosion of childhood innocence. Just my view.

Witches are such fun costumes aren't they? The systematic oppression of women, turning those who were free thinking, didn't conform to society, were a bit ugly, a bit odd, didn't marry ... those women being murdered and tortured in horrific ways is all just a bit of fun right?

Same with ghosts - the restless spirits of the dead are just hilarious

And vampires - drinking human blood, killing people, hunting maidens is all fun and cute!

Oo and the rotting, reanimated flesh of corpses which then feasts on the brains of the living! Zombies are adorable.

Terrifier isn't child friendly, the films are extreme to the max, but Art the Clown is now a pop culture figure like Jason, Freddie, Chucky etc. Kids will have been exposed to the character without knowing the absolute violence he comes from. Same with Squid Games - pink guards are even in Just Eat adverts!

It wasn't, however, the first "scary Santa" and it won't be the last. There's a whole series of films based on a killer Santa!

If the school has a no mask, no weapons policy then it should have been enforced

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

Ah okay, I have heard of The Terrifier but if I'm honest I'm a bit wimpy for horror movies which are actually scary. Give me a Troll 2 any day! I will add Mean One to our xmas viewing list!

Our schools has a no masks or weapons rule.

Presumably he was dropped off/signed in by an adult at that age so they should have been told to take it off him before he was allowed to come in.

Absolutely, many of the children obsessed with Pennywise from IT haven't seen the movies, let alone read the book.

It was everywhere, and still is. You don't need to have seen the movie to know the character and want the costume.

Do people think kids dressed as Harry Potter have read the books?😂 At best they've seen one movie

Does that necessarily mean the child has seen The film and didn’t just see the costume in a shop and say “mummy can I have that one and go as scary Santa”?

I missed that comment technically I was way too young to be a parent but shit happens lol, scary Santa is different to old women being turned into a nightmare costune through witches or deceased people being turned into a nightmare’ costume through ghost? I seriously can’t see the problem hallowee is supposed to be scary

P1 is 5 and 6 year olds right? I don't know the film but just seeing the picture of the mask I don't think it's at all appropriate.

It is mentioned several times upthread by different posters. It is from a film called ‘Terrifier’ or similar. I can only go on what PP’s have written as I have never watched crap like that.

"Now"

There have been Killer Santas since the 80s 🤣

What film was scary Santa in? I genuinely must of missed it but can imagine it being something someone thought up themselves

I agree with you about the super skimpy outfits on little girls btw not appropriate if you ask me but Halloween is meant to be scary so I see nothing wrong with scary Santa. Some kids would be scared of the traditional ghost/witch stuff so where do you draw the line, might as well cancel Halloween

I actually agree with you but young children should in an ideal world not be exposed to characters from films made for the adult market. It seems that some parents have no problem with it though. Very depressing.

It’s for the views, likes, comments and sharing. It’s for social media. Parents are not just sending cutesy photos to the grandparents anymore, it’s a performance for the world now and they need to stand out from the crowd. A black pointy hat, green face and an ugly wart doesn’t cut it nowadays.

Terrifying masks and fake knives or weapons can never be appropriate in a school, certainly not for smalls.

Kids stabbing each other has absolutely nothing to do with dressing up as scary Santa for Halloween. It’s mostly drug and gang related

I’m looking at current statistics and how violence amongst children is increasing, especially knife crime.
I’m not referring to medieval times - we’ve moved on from public executions - or would you like to see them being brought back? Even still, Child on child crime has never been as bad as it is now. This is going on official statistics - not anecdotal evidence or the daily mail.
I’ve shared my thoughts and won’t engage further with you as we’re clearly on very different pages.

Halloween costumes are meant to be scary. This makes more sense than dressing up as a cute bunny or bob the builder, completely missing the whole point of halloween

Yes exactly how do children even know who these characters are if they haven’t seen the films? Reminds me of years ago when I was teaching and a six year old told me his favourite film was a Chucky film. I had a word with the parents and told them it was totally inappropriate for a child of that age to be watching films like that. It is probably not allowed for teachers nowadays to challenge parents regarding stuff like this. I still remember the reporting on the James Bulger murder. It was found that what was done to that poor little boy was partly based on the Chucky films that his murderers had viewed along with the horrendous parenting the two perpetrators had suffered.

This is about a scary Santa, though, with little kids around who think that Santa is that lovely old guy who brings them presents.

Thank you x

I’m guessing YouTube, Roblox, friends at school?