Trick or treating...

[bumblebee39]

AIBU or is it a bit odd/weird/rude?
Didn't want to take DC but it's become the expectation now as I don't know how I feel about knocking on strangers doors and asking for things (obviously we never do any tricks...)

[MakeAHouseAHome]

It is begging, it is trespassing and it is an invasion of privacy. I HATE that some people seem to think it is appropriate to trespass on a strangers land and beg. We ignore the door. Each year I get more and more tempted to set the dog on them or put razor wire down the drive...

[Sparklingbrook]

Ooh now. Trespassing. I haven't got that one on my Bingo Card. Must be new.

[Willow2017]

Dd is 12yo now and I feel getting a bit old to go out trick or treating but will see how i feel on the night.

If he wants to go let him. I have had older teens all dressed up and always polite. They always looked fab really put the effort in😀

Mine still went out at 12.

[watfordmummy]

Once again in England it wasn't common years ago in Scotland it was! We went guising www.scotsman.com/news/how-scotland-celebrated-halloween-in-7-pictures-1-4272133

[Louiselouie0890]

We love it we have a big spooky tree in our garden that we put decorations and lights on and then we hang bags of sweets from the tree, kids love it. It's not rude if you knock on decorated houses.

[smallchanceofrain]

It was never a thing when I was growing up. We had mischief night or "mickey night" on the 30th instead. It mainly consisted of playing pranks and vandalising things. Trick or treating seems tame in comparison!

I usually cave in to pressure and put a few decorations up / pumpkins at the door etc. I find the whole evening very wearing. Last year it was more than four hours of constant doorbell ringing, dog barking etc. It also cost a lot for sweets to hand out. DS2 returned with a bucket full of sweets that I threw away several months later because no one wanted to eat them.

[OftenHangry]

@MakeAHouseAHome you ok, hun?

[nottakingthisanymore]

I think the problem is that some people like me don’t participate, don’t decorate houses etc and still have people knocking on the door. At our last address it was older teens who were abusive and scary. So we aren’t participating but end up being involved even though we don’t want to.

[bumblebee39]

Maybe I'm a hypocrite because I love bonfires night.

Always love a good firework display, me, though sometimes the guy Fawkes stuff seems a bit violent

Maybe I'm just being a tad very sensitive...

[OftenHangry]

@bumblebee39 everyone is different

[showgirl]

I'm in my 40's and did it as a kid. My mum is in her 70's and also did it as a kid. (She is Scottish.) Not a new thing at all.

[FlyingMonkeys]

Trespassing 😂 yes! Also the postman and people dropping off flyers... Or maybe not and you could just ignore them vs setting the dog free and then having to pay out on insurance claims and getting the dog euthanised after biting someone when incited by the owner 😁

Nobody likes bonfire night either because 'hedgehogs in bonfires, upsetting cats/dogs, kids getting their hands blown off with crackers'... And then there's Christmas! Sitting on Santa's knee and elves posing with them for pictures (the bastards!)... Let's just scrap the lot and all sit at home grumbling.

[DuggeesWooOOooggle]

smallchanceofrain round our way Mischief Night is Nov 4th ie the night that Guy Fawkes and his gang were out causing mischief. We do live in his home city mind (York). One local private school, St Peter's, doesn't celebrate Guy Fawkes night as he is one of their alumni.

[bumblebee39]

To be fair I think maybe I'm overthinking the whole thing and should just do what older DC wants and do some trick or treating.

Hopefully we won't be kidnapped/ mugged by teenage sweetie thugs/ fed toffee apples filled with razor blades waylayed by Pizza Hut on the way home...

[bumblebee39]

Mischief night... Learn something new every day!

[5foot5]

We had mischief night on the 30th instead

On the 30th! Where was that?
We had mischief night but it was always on 4th November. This was North Lincolnshire but I think it was the same in Yorkshire.

[HotNatured]

I love Halloween. We don’t have kids but will decorate the house and carve a pumpkin. Trick or treaters are welcome

[Snitzelvoncrumb]

If you look only there might be Halloween activities near you.

[LittleLionMansMummy]

The rule is fairly simple, house not decorated, don't knock.

My parents didn't like trick or treating and never took us, it wasn't as popular back in the 80s where I live. I went to some parties so it never really bothered me. But my dc would feel incredibly left out if they couldn't join in the fun. Everyone around here makes a massive effort and have an unwritten competition for best dressed house - all the pics go a local Facebook site. The children are impeccably behaved.

I've explained to ds that the reason we only knock on certain doors is because a lot of people can find it intimidating, so he should never play a 'trick'. The police have in the past handed out posters to people who don't want trick or treaters. So I don't really know what the issue is, providing you're with your dc when they do it.

[Josiebloggs]

Its quite a big thing where I live, around 70% of the houses join in with pumpkins outside their home. We go every year and the streets are packed with witches and ghouls, we leave a help yourself pot while we are out, it works well.
Alot of the OAPs join in and most view their role as trying to make the trick or treaters jump.
I think we are lucky because it is almost a community event.
I wouldn't feel comfortable going if the majority didn't join in and we lived in an area where i felt it could scare people.

[ShatnersWig]

I'm 44. We only ever visited the houses of people we knew well. Never ever knocked on strangers' doors. Or sometimes we'd wander round the town centre just showing off our costumes.

[Elementtree]

Mischief night on the 30th October when I was little near Middlesbrough. It was just knockadoor-run and a few eggs though. It was hardly the Purge.

[tillytrotter1]

Whatever you do, don't do this. My OH was renowned in the cul-de-sac where we lived for 'joining in', he had a mask, wore my long velvet cloak and would appear from odd places, the local kids loved it! One year, the knock came at the door and he went into his party-piece but at the door was a group of total strangers, one was about 10 carrying a toddler who screamed blue murder and was almost dropped! They went off eentually with their booty but then the parent, from another road, came round all guns blazing, calling the police, perv, the usual rubbish. Luckily our neighbours had been out with their children and pointed out that ours was the only house they'd been to and questioned why they were allowed so far from home alone!

[CaraFara]

It's quite a big deal round our way. We decorate our house and all observe the unwritten rule that you only knock on houses with decorations or a pumpkin outside.