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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to really hate the idea of trick or treating and wonder why the fuck it's become a 'thing'?

389 replies

Excitedtoday · 26/10/2015 11:40

I find trick or treating really quite anti-social. Why is it acceptable to be rocking up at someone's house on a dark evening basically begging for food? You don't know who lives there or what the effect of you knocking might be. For example, an elderly or disabled person who can't get to the door easily or someone who, for whatever reason, feels vulnerable in their own home.

Perhaps it's just because an anti-social cowbag and I hate people knocking on my door that I'm not expecting, especially at night.

And I also wonder how recently this has become a 'thing' that loads and loads of people do? When I was younger, I'm 25, no-one went trick or treating but over the last few years I've noticed my friends who are parents and family doing it as a matter of routine and I just wonder when that happened?

Is this just me being an anti-social bastard?

BTW, no children and never answer my door after dark whether its Halloween or not.

OP posts:
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NotMeNotYouNotAnyone · 26/10/2015 19:21

I did it as kids, I've mostly lived in flats as an adult but in a house we gave out sweets. My mum always gives sweets out too but doesn't answer the door after about 8 once the little ones have all been round
It's a bit of harmless fun as long as it's just about dressing up and getting sweets.

Definitely against egging or flouring houses and people, as I suspect are most people.

ketchupontoast · 26/10/2015 19:48

Excitedtoday I got so pig sick of them knocking that I decided that if I couldn't beat them I would join them. They ask for a trick or a treat so a trick it is! I make things like chocolate covered boiled eggs, toffee onions, mashed potato truffles etc. The number of trick or treaters has decreased year upon year!

Sparklingbrook · 26/10/2015 19:51

Blimey ketchup. You do go to a lot of time and trouble. Confused A bag of sweets would be so much easier and cheaper.

ketchupontoast · 26/10/2015 19:59

It would be then they would come back! A bit of hard work goes a long way to achieve success!

Sparklingbrook · 26/10/2015 20:02

That's a bit bonkers,

EddieStobbart · 26/10/2015 20:05

If my DCs try just shouting "trick or treat" they'll be getting a kick up the bum from me. Guising didn't involve just demanding sweets when I was a hid, you had to do something and most of the kids who knock on our door tell jokes or sing, we even had a bit of dancing last year.

I distinctly recall going round my village with my recorder and choosing whether to give a recital of "London's Burning" or a short burst of "Ode to Joy" depending on how sophisticated I thought my audience was Blush

Being Scotland we didn't get any of this "Guy Fawkes" malarkey however (though my friend's dad did risk life and eyebrows every year with his dodgy fireworks)

BolshierAryaStark · 26/10/2015 20:08

Lovely Ketchup Hmm
I & DC love Halloween, they can't wait to decorate the house & adore seeing all the ghouls & witches etc. Costs a bloody fortune in sweets though as we get loads round.
It's definitely not a new thing though, haven't got a fucking clue where the OP lives an alternate universe perhaps but we always got dressed up as kids & I'm 36, we tended to get cash rather than sweets though which was put towards fireworks for the 5th of November.

tilliebob · 26/10/2015 20:11

We always went guising as kids in the 70's/ 80's but were hard core with neep lanterns - none of this pumpkin crap Wink. However I'm not keen on my kids going out and asking for sweets these days hypocrite. I certainly can't be arsed with decorations and making a huge thing out of it. I think I'm turning into my granny Shock

Sparklingbrook · 26/10/2015 20:14

It's not really 'asking for sweets' when the door is opened and someone is stood there offering them sweets. Grin

Thefuckinggrinch · 26/10/2015 20:20

fuckinggrinch Really? They actually tipped over a car? Surely that would take ages and you would have rung police by that point?

Yes really. Police were called but literally the whole of one side of town seemed to go insane so police where all over the place. It was further down the bottom of my estate so not right on my doorstep but I have friends down there and I saw pictures they took. A huge gang of teenagers literally turned over a car (onto it's side) "to see if they could" It was parked on the road so not on a drive and was a small car not like a big fuck off jeep or something. Egging happened all over the place. I saw many egg stained windows the day after driving down the roads. Bizarrely we have had no issues any other year. Just last year was horrific. Apparently a big group of antisocial fuckwits organised pockets of chaos all over the town though fb. It's making me dread it this year.

MrsTedCrilly · 26/10/2015 20:20

I'm 30 and everyone I know went trick or treating when we were younger. It was a lot of fun and most people had sweets waiting! I do think nowadays, with all these anxious people around who don't answer the door, that people should put a halloweeny decoration out if they're up for visitors, and kids only go to these. I actually thought it was dying down as we never get any knockers, and it's just a normal house on a normal street..

FannyFifer · 26/10/2015 20:21

Have never called it trick or treating & never will.
Guising is what it's called here, kids tell a joke, sing a wee song or something to get a treat, I did the same when I was wee. Smile

QueenPotato · 26/10/2015 20:22

We used to make lanterns out of swedes. This was Yorkshire and we lived in a cardboard box on the motorway Anyway, when as an adult I first discovered pumpkins, it was heaven! So easy! It's got a ready made hole! I remember literally hours of scraping away at the inside of a tiny swede. It was grim.

DulliDulli · 26/10/2015 20:32

I grew up in the SW in the eighties. I don't remember Halloween being discussed in school, certainly there were no parties and no trick or treating or dressing up. It was such a rural area that you would need to drive between houses.

Bonfire night was a big thing though.

YANBU, I really can't see the appeal of trick or treating.

Doobigetta · 26/10/2015 20:33

It's not that new, we used to do it 30 years ago. It's cute when it's really tiny kids, but crosses over into nuisance territory when they're old enough to actually play tricks.

KittyLovesPaintingOhYes · 26/10/2015 20:39

Well I'm 50 and hadn't heard of it until ET came out in eighty-something, otherwise I'm ambivalent - anyone who made it all the way out here in the dark would deserve a medal reward and a stiff gin for the supervising adult

FFSYourself · 26/10/2015 20:41

We went trick or treating as kids 35+ years ago in Devon - we only went to houses that advertised they were open for trick or treaters and There were quite a few houses in our street who gave out sweets. We didn't go to anyone's house unless they had Halloween decorations. Most years someone would have a Halloween party. I still have the photos of when my mum hosted a party at our house.

Halloween is a lovely holiday. It involves sweets and dressing up, what could be bad about that.

Knocking at houses which don't have decorations up is obviously wrong. I don't put up decorations and I have never had people knocking to treat and treat. I live in a town.

PerspicaciaTick · 26/10/2015 20:51

Funnily enough ET came out 33 years ago...perhaps there is a link?

feckitall · 26/10/2015 20:58

I'm not fond of it either OP...
We had Halloween parties 'spooky' themed food, apple bopping etc but not trick or treating when our dc were small..and it certainly wasn't generally done when I was a child where we lived.
My DS has argued with his DP over it..she wants to take their toddler DC out Trick or Treating..he feels it gives mixed messages..teach kids not to accept sweets from strangers..then take them begging...
I suggested a compromise of a party like we did when he was a kid, he could offer to do the food..

SideOrderofChips · 26/10/2015 21:10

i put signs up every year as we dont do halloween

And the little sods ignore it every year anyway

MrsJamin · 26/10/2015 21:20

I can't stand it. An excuse for local little thugs to stand at your door with a scream mask on and demand something from you. I tend to hide upstairs at the back with no visible lights on.

SpecialLittleLady · 26/10/2015 22:13

If you don't have a pumpkin or any decorations out no one should be knocking if they do they are rude!

MamaBear98 · 26/10/2015 22:21

Yes, asking for sweets of people might seem unreasonable but these are innocent kids who are just trying to have some fun in their lives...if you use don't want them to come ignore the door or put up a sign...I don't see the problem with kids trying to enjoy themselves.

Katarzyna79 · 26/10/2015 22:22

it may have started in the uk but its not taken off like it has in the US. It is crazy bonkers over there, its bigger than xmas.

Lets be honest most people do not stick to knocking on doors of people they know they will knock on strangers doors and effectively ask them for money or sweets, any other time of the year this is inappropriate behaviour but on Halloween its fine?

I think its weird, and though it began here America has made it popular and they have created this revival in the uk.

having said that I'm not a scrooge and usually give the children money unless ive got a big tin of sweets by chance.

Kidsrulethishouse · 26/10/2015 22:30

I'll be staying in with my children. We'll dress up, do Halloween type crafts and be ready to answer the door to my eldest daughters school friends and local children. We'll have a pumpkin full of sprouts to give out to them and another full of sweets :)