WIBU to strangle the little bastards who have egged my front door and doorstep?

[WaxyBean]

We don't do Halloween and never have. We don't take the kids trick or treating, we don't put a pumpkin out and we disconnect the doorbell on Halloween evening (so no idea how many visitors we had last night).

Was gobsmacked this morning to find that my front door (stealth boast - bespoke, handmade with stained glass) and doorstep were covered in egg. I've just spent 30 mins cleaning it all off - and to top it all off DS has an egg allergy so I've had to be very careful about not treading or dripping it back into the house.

I doubt I'll ever find out who it was - probably not from DS' school as live too far away so probably kids we don't know. But if I ever do find out - WIBU to strangle them?

Yes it's nothing to do with evil, it's to do with death and the other world. Traditionally (before Christianity) a time when the boundary between the living and dead becomes fragile and ghosts etc can be seen. Then in some Christian traditions it's become about remembering the departed.

Not evil at all, unless you consider paganism evil (in which case you'll need to throw out a load of "Christian" festivals as they're mainly adapted from the pagan ones).

I'd have reported it to the police.

Wouldn't that be wasting police time? Can you imagine the conversation

Caller - hi I'd like to report a crime, 2 zombies, a witch and the grim reaper just egged my house

Police - well that narrows it down on Halloween night???

What could they possibly do? It's just unfortunate that these are the odd few that like to ruin it for any little ones that are just enjoying themselves.

I do however feel for any of you who had to spend time cleaning that crap off, it is awful.

BubbleTree I still don't believe that the OP giving out treats would solve the problem.

Because the people behaving like this are not out looking for treats, they are out looking for trouble.

People on this thread are saying that they give treats and still have been egged, and one poster above said that the people who egged her house just ran by without even attempting to knock.

I really doubt that most of the children who knocked at the doors for treats then went on to egg the houses, but even if it was, all that shows is that giving out treats doesn't work if someone is antisocial enough to want to cause some sort of trouble.

Logging the incident somewhere, with 101 or with the council, perhaps even the local schools, may be the best option. Not because they will catch someone for it now, but in the future if they know that some homes or streets are prone to trouble they may be able to keep an eye out. If they don't know what's happening, they can't do much to fix it.

And it sounds like many of the houses on the OP's street were targeted last night, which does suggest to me the people responsible were out to cause trouble that wouldn't have been stopped by being given a few sweets.

So elderly people who are scared, or may even struggle getting up and down all night to the door, should have to give sweets just to stop the idiots?

I should have let Ds been petrified all night just so we didn't risk someone wanting to vandalise property?

Or should we tackle to actual problem of a small amount of idiots making things hard for everyone else?

No Sirzy, I was referring specifically to the op and how she could lessen her problem. It isn't a solution for the elderly/immobile, it is a potential solution for the op.

So basically move the problem to someone else. Hardly a solution is it.

YWNBU.

We took our DC out for a little while last night round my parents, where people get into Halloween with houses decorated etc. All DC were very polite and said thank you every time.

I saw a group of four young lads, ranging from about 5 to 9 who were out with two women. The lads ran ahead to the house next to the one we were about to knock at, jumped onto the door step and said to some other DCs who were coming up behind them, this is our house go away. Then they began knocking and knocking 'come on open the door' etc. All the while the two women were stood talking a couple of foot away.

It's yet to have been misery night here yet but I get anxious every year. We've been egged once, front upstairs bedroom that we couldn't easily wash off. It's not nice.

Always some who spoil it for the rest.

All this egging and trashing pumpkins is awful. It's not something that even comes onto the radar here. (Scotland) I've lived all over and never seen this at Halloween.
Since I was a kid it was decorated and or porch light on houses and it's the same now from littlest to teens all were polite and all had a wee joke or rhyme.

I do always think begging is an odd word to use to describe it though. It's not begging I am decorating my house and lighting a pumpkin inviting children to come and knock on my door. That's not begging.

I think parents need to have a chat with DC about what is and isn't acceptable when they're out trick or tricking with their mates. If I found out mine were chucking eggs and look roll around, they'd get a hiding. Sorry if it's a naive thing to say, but where are the parents in all this? Where do they get the money to buy eggs?

I didn't get egged this year, but around 8:30 something hit my front window really hard. This morning I found a piece of pumpkin about 4" square, some three feet from the window. It must have been thrown hard to have bounced that far. I dare say if they'd broken the window they would have thought that hilarious. Think it was older teenagers (I heard the voices). There were occasional groups of youngsters about with parents earlier but they didn't bother us.

It was quite jolly to see a café today where it was all Halloween-y, unlike the bloody Christmas decorations that seem to have popped up overnight in a number of shops. It's only 1 November ffs!

I had a party for my DS (10) last night and he had 6 friends over
I took them out and made sure they didn't knock where there were signs saying not to
They knocked once and if no reply moved onto the next house
They said thank you to everyone that offered sweets etc
I also offered my thanks
I think the problem is with most things a small minority spoil it for everyone else
Kids get over excited but that's no excuse for rudeness
If I ever found out my child had egged someone's house he would be cleaning it off!

I think reading this I can see perhaps the thinking behind our 'event' we seem to have every year here - maybe not our street but other parts of town are quite rough, and it probably gives the rowdy teens somewhere to congregate rather than being a nuisance in their own neighbourhood.

My house was egged many years ago by 4 teenaged boys who came to the door dressed up for Halloween - more than a week before the night. I told them they were taking the mickey and shooed them off. They egged the house. Fortunately, they didn't do much damage, but I was livid. I didn't know them, and they didn't go to anyone else's door in my street. I shudder to think what might have happened if they had had an elderly person alone in their home. They were pretty intimidating. So please, strangle away!