Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not want my children to take part in trick or treating?

293 replies

ValerieDavis · 09/10/2012 16:18

Coming to that dreaded time of year again ... Halloween.

I've fairly strict with my children's diets and I really do not want to take them trick or treating this year. All those sugary sweets are no good for their teeth.

I've spoken with DH about this and he thinks that they've only young once and it's only for one night but the sweets tend to last a couple of weeks and I'm doing it for their own good.

I'm more than happy to buy them costumes and let them dress up and have fun on the day and will let them have a few sweets, just no trick or treating!

AIBU?

OP posts:
exoticfruits · 09/10/2012 19:33

We had bonfire night and turnip lanterns- I never saw a pumpkin as a child.
We once had bobbing for apples etc with Scottish neighbours.

lipglossandlashes · 09/10/2012 19:33

We called it guising, got dressed up and went round the doors locally, we had to tell a joke or say a poem though. When we moved to a rural area there was a Halloween party with dooking for apples and games for all the kids. Still had to get dressed up in (depends how creative and competitive the parents are!) homemade costumes. Prizes for the winner etc etc
Gets a bit controversial some years depending on how talented the parents are at making these extravagant designs! They will be planning the costumes now! Hmm

EmBOOsa · 09/10/2012 19:33

"I think people were referring to the trick or treat part not Halloween itself"

Trick or treat isn't new or American either, it is a traditional part of the Hallowe'en celebration.

MaryZed · 09/10/2012 19:34

You have never seen anyone in Ireland trick or treating?

You can't be serious. You just can't. The whole country trick or treats. We even have a bank holiday for Hallowe'en, it's a massive holiday here and has been since I was a small child.

I trick or treated in the early 60's.

My parents generation trick or treated before that. My mum's mum taught her to carve turnips; I remember carving pumpkins in the '60s as well as dunking for apples and nuts. My Granny used to go around the local farms when she was a little girl, doing songs or rhymes in return for cakes on Hallowe'en.

MaryZed · 09/10/2012 19:36

That was to bureni, by the way.

How could anyone live in Ireland and not see trick or treating Confused.

EmBOOsa · 09/10/2012 19:36

Origin of trick or treating
"The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays dates back to the Middle Ages and includes Christmas wassailing. Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of souling, when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (November 2). It originated in Ireland and Britain, although similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as Italy. Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593), when Speed accuses his master of "puling [whimpering or whining] like a beggar at Hallowmas." The custom of wearing costumes and masks at Halloween goes back to Celtic traditions of attempting to copy the evil spirits or placate them, in Scotland for instance where the dead were impersonated by young men with masked, veiled or blackened faces, dressed in white.

Guising at Halloween in Scotland is recorded in 1895, where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money. The practice of Guising at Halloween in North America is first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood."

exoticfruits · 09/10/2012 19:36

It caused endless arguments with my DCs so I was pleased when they were too old. There are not many things that I was adamant about, but they did not do trick and treating.

quirrelquarrel · 09/10/2012 19:38

I only trick or treated with my best friend when we were teenagers, when most of the kids had finished.
When I was a kid we bought enough sweets to fill a bowl, I answered the door, I was allowed a few before and after, and I think my mum threw the rest or something. Not that there was much left.....we got loads of people! There are lots of traditions every year where you eat junk- Easter and Christmas for two, Halloween just seems to be about the sweets now, so it's no big deal.

MaryZed · 09/10/2012 19:39

Unless of course you mean Northern Ireland, which is a completely different country.

Where I am, there are very few (in fact I can't think of one) families with primary age children who don't go t&ting.

mrsrosieb · 09/10/2012 19:39

it is harmless fun

BegoniaBampot · 09/10/2012 19:39

Yes, I guess we call it guising in Scotland - not trick or treating though it's very similar.

LadyBeagleEyes · 09/10/2012 19:39

It's the same every year Maryz.
I think there's been a few posts from Scottish and Irish posters already on this thread who've said the same thing.
It'll all be repeated next year.

bureni · 09/10/2012 19:39

The tradition is Ireland is called Souling not trick or treat which is american. Since when where pumpkins grown in Ireland cos I have yet to see a field of pumpkins growing anywhere in the country, turnips were always used as they grew here.

exoticfruits · 09/10/2012 19:41

it is harmless fun

It depends entirely on your neighbourhood and whether you think that eggs thrown at your windows is 'fun'.

Woozley · 09/10/2012 19:42

YANBU, but I don't think I am either. We know all the people on the street who don't mind & have sweets ready and who we would avoid (older people who might be scared). The code locally is if you want people knocking you put a pumpkin lantern in your window or outside as it shows you are celebrating Hallowe'en. It's mainly just little ones with their parents. And I don't mind if DDs eat their own weight in sweets once in a while.

MaryZed · 09/10/2012 19:45

[sigh]. You are splitting hairs with the name thing. No-one calls it souling, just as they no longer call it All Souls' Day. Just as they call Father Christmas Santa - the names change, the traditions are the same.

It has been called trick or treating here since the '50's at least, probably before that. Every child in Ireland goes trick or treating on Hallowe'en night. They all call it trick or treating, as did their parents and grandparents before them.

The name may be of American origin, if you want to split hairs, but the tradition of going door to door playing a trick or singing a song is of Irish and Scottish, not Celtic origin.

btw, my grandad grew pumpkins especially for us for Hallowe'en. And we used to buy them in the shops in the '60s, just because the lanterns were bigger that way. They were still (imo) jack-o-lanterns, whatever they were made of.

I accept it is new(ish) to England, as when I lived in England we did "penny for the guy" - which my mum (ironically disapproved of as it was asking for money Hmm).

GreenEggsAndNichts · 09/10/2012 19:46

Also, we only go to houses decorated for Halloween, or the people are sitting out front with treats. It's a rather festive atmosphere for our little suburban area, lots of neighbours out and about, chatting.

EmBOOsa · 09/10/2012 19:47

"The tradition is Ireland is called Souling not trick or treat which is american"

It's the same tradition! It's just a different name.

Woozley · 09/10/2012 19:50

People went trick or treating when I was DD1's age, so 30 years ago in Greater Manchester. Was more older kids and teenagers though, not little ones dressed up with their parents. By the time I was old enough to be allowed go I couldn't be bothered. It usually rained, too. Plus I was always a bit scared to go to sleep on Hallowe'en night. I didn't like the whole thing that much until recently.

I like going out with DDs to do it now though. I even have a witch costume from Sainsbury's for myself this year :) I enjoy it much more.

bureni · 09/10/2012 19:51

Mary, penny for the guy is for Guy Fawkes night, nothing to do with Halloween

MaryZed · 09/10/2012 19:53

That's what I said Confused. In England they had Guy Falkes night, in Ireland we had Hallowe'en and trick or treating.

My mum didn't mind us going around, and having to dress up and sing a song or do a dance in return for sweets, but she wouldn't let us go around asking for money for a guy - she felt that was begging.

MaryZed · 09/10/2012 19:53

Guy Fawkes, not Falkes, where did the l come from?

gordyslovesheep · 09/10/2012 19:56

Mine do it - before I had kids I was very cats bum mouth about it but we live on a small estate and people dress the houses up and have lanterns etc and all the kids go door to door - it's fun!

the only rule is not to knock on houses with no Halloween decorations - it's a great way to meet the neighbours Grin

fuzzpig · 09/10/2012 19:57

Nobody goes trick or treating round here! Every year we get lots of sweets just in case and end up scoffing it ourselves

Well, last year the neighbour's 8yo put a mask on and knocked on our door Hmm that's why I don't like ToT really - I don't mind if there's been a decent effort put into the costume :o but I think it's a bit off to just stick a mask on and ask for sweets!

Mine are only 5 and 3 so don't even really know about Halloween yet, but we want to start a tradition of a nice snuggly night in with a themed DVD (I got the new shrek's thrilling tales one for this year!) and pumpkin carving etc.

AmazingBouncingFerret · 09/10/2012 20:14

bureni that Halloween song is a Christmas song! Shady little gets can't even think of their own song Wink

I think it's sweet seeing the littlies that just mouth the words trick or treat cos they are too shy to speak very loud. They always get an extra sweet from me.