To use blue Halloween buckets when kids don't have autism?

[ThisIsSamhain]

Asked my mum to get trick or treat buckets.

She text to say she got the last 3 in the shop.

They're blue. I thought they were cute and just a £1 shop design.

SIL pointed out they are for autism awareness? I had no idea and neither did mum. She said there was no explanation on shelves.

I can't go all the way back to town and spend £10 on bus tickets and £3 on buckets when we already have some, just blue.

Can I just use them?

Blue isn't for autism. It was started a couple years ago with blue pumpkins to show which houses were allergy and gluten friendly. If anything people will ask what allergies they have and will have separate treats for them.

I’ve just read a local newspaper article which says blue is for autism, so be aware not to scare these children or have flashing lights, and teal ones are for food allergies, so be careful what you give them.

Long gone are the days of merely worrying about having your house egged!

I’ve just read a local newspaper article which says blue is for autism, so be aware not to scare these children or have flashing lights, and teal ones are for food allergies, so be careful what you give them.

1. When you answer the door to a child in the dark you almost certainly cannot tell what colour their bucket is. The chance of recognizing that it is coloured teal is remote.

2. Even if you do recognize that it is blue what action are you meant to take? be aware not to scare these children If someone scares that easily why exactly are they dressing up in spooky questions and going to strangers' doors?

3. teal ones are for food allergies, so be careful what you give them Again - how about not going to strangers' doors begging for sweets if they have food allergies?

I’ve just read a local newspaper article which says blue is for autism, so be aware not to scare these children or have flashing lights

DS tolerates flashing lights and traditionally "scary" things don't scare him but if he was bothered by any of those things then I wouldn't be taking him trick or treating, same applies to other parents of autistic children that I know. We don't tend to deliberately shove our kids into stressful situations and are usually well aware of their triggers.

Articles like the one you've mentioned are so unhelpful as they give people the impression that it is difficult, stressful, or awkward to make reasonable adjustments for autistic people (or indeed other people with disabilities) when really it's not. The only reasonable adjustment you need to make on Halloween is to hand out your treats or collect your treats without being a dick about it because you don't know what struggles other people have going on and really that shouldn't even be an adjustment as it should be the default.

It’s just made me more anxious about strangers knocking on the door, so I won’t be answering the door. Instead, I’ll be anxiously sitting inside, praying the house doesn’t get egged!

I think this highlights that the best approach is to go trick or treating to people you know and who know your children!

It’s more of a FB awareness around this I think than anything else isn’t it? I’m not convinced that that many people are aware really - and besides, if you’re going to knock, say ‘trick or treat’, grab sweets and go, I think very few people will notice anyway.

I thought that they were for older trick or treaters who had autism and therefore to explain why an older person was trick or treating?

Ps yanbu

I’ve just read a local newspaper article which says blue is for autism, so be aware not to scare these children or have flashing lights, and teal ones are for food allergies, so be careful what you give them.

This is just silly - these buckets are definitely not enough of a ‘thing’ that you can put that kind of responsibility/expectation on the people answering the door. You open the door, say ‘oh what scary costumes!’, give out sweets, job done. Some people like to answer the door wearing a scary mask or whatever - they can’t check before opening the door. Why is everything turned into such a faff/minefield. If your child has autism and struggles with meeting new people/ scary lights or costumes/ general activities that are different from the norm (not all do and I’m sure there are plenty of autistic children who wouldn’t even require a particular coloured bucket) then maybe trick or treating/ knocking on strangers houses asking for sweets in general isn’t going to be a fun activity for them, so don’t force them into it same with food allergies - no one’s going to look that closely at a bucket ffs so it’s not their responsibility to be aware of food allergies.

I don't know and don't care OP.
But we don't do halloween.

Apparently there are also teal buckets for kids with allergies. I very much doubt anyone knows about that one either.

And just to make it extra confusing, teal means the child has allergies.

Most people aren’t aware of these color conventions so they really aren’t that useful.

I’m not even sure the stores know because dd had a blue pumpkin for years And it predates this color coding trend. Blue is her favorite color so that is what we bought.

So what was the point in you posting on the thread @Drabarni? Yes exactly @VengerD's loves Trick or treating ,he has non verbal autism, but if it distressed him in anyway we just wouldn't take him no parents that I know of children with autism would put the child deliberately into a situation they knew would distress them

As one of mine has autism and a food allergy we'll be swinging our many coloured buckets about. Oh it makes me cross - I am responsible for what treats my child will eat not someone up the street.

As said previously....the point of the teal = allergies, is for the person giving treats to have a teal pumpkin....showing they have non food items. NOT for the allergic child to have a teal bucket.