to not understand why parents allow their children to go trick or treating?

[teaandtoast49]

Even disregarding the current coronavirus situation, I have always found myself disagreeing with the concept of allowing children to go trick or treating, as well as Halloween in general. My dp is slightly more relaxed about this, so am I just being ridiculous? I was never allowed to go trick or treating as a child, go to sleepovers, etc. and while I understand now that my parents probably were in the right, I would love to gauge the opinions on MN about it.

I find it hilarious how people think they are 'better' than others because they don't let their children join in with T or T.

We have a great time where we live. People make lots of effort to decorate their houses and it's a lovely community event.

I always feel sorry for children who aren't allowed to join in, they really miss out. And the begging argument is just ridiculous, they are invited by the people that live there.

But ultimately, just do you! But don't yourself in knots trying to think of reasons to pour cold water on other people's fun.

You can't lock children away and never let them do anything because they could be abused, children are abused in their own households more than anywhere else!

YouKidsIsCrazy just what i was going to write...

We always went trick or treating early when we were little then got chippy on the way home as we passed it doing our walk. Basically from ours to my nans in a circle then home. Knocking on doors as we went. Bloody loved it.

I think the OP is a plopper!

I always find these threads amusing. People can be so joyless. Personally I find Halloween boring but the kids love it and our neighbourhood has a large number of people who make it clear they are "open for business" so why not?

And no playdates or sleepovers? My god. Not only does that sound miserable for your DC, How on earth are you teaching them independence and socialisation if your'e supervising everything all the time? But then, I don't really understand all he parents who are outraged that schools are teaching sex and reproduction either and seem to think they shouldn't learn any of this stuff until they're teenagers or more. I'm guessing there'a large overlap of the types of groups.

@AlternativePerspective

I find it interesting that for 364 days of the year people are almost evangelical about not letting their children speak to strangers, not accepting sweets from them etc, but for one day that all goes out the window and the expectation is on the strangers to do what they’ve been told they would be considered suspicious for doing the rest of the year.

And if it was only little kids with parents going out then that might be one thing, but fact is it isn’t. Teenagers, groups of children with no adults, who egg houses and cars and scare older people even if they don’t have lights on and decorations.

I never allowed trick or treating and DS genuinely didn’t miss out. In fact he could have gone with eXH and his DSC but didn’t, and now he’s nearly eighteen and still doesn’t see the point. But that aside, a couple of years ago a parent with two small kids, around 3/5 came and knocked at the door, and when I didn’t answer it he screamed “you miserable fucking cunt!” Through my letterbox. I think that if we’re going on examples to set for the kids, me not opening the door to them pales into insignificance there, and he’s not exactly a model of good parentage just because he took his kids out trick or treating. Wonder what their lives are like for the rest of the year....

Did Santa never visit your house then??

The man who shouted through the letterbox was wrong to do that in front of his kids -but I suspect he was also right-

Halloween is a very American tradition that has been passed on to other cultures a long time ago....the retail industry has latched into it as a marketing tool to get us to spend more money.
And, especially when spoiling our kids is involved, we have fallen for it hook line and sinker. What a strange concept to encourage our children to beg for sweets from strangers and gorge themselves on sugar, never mind buying environmentally unfriendly outfits each year that will only be worn once.

Having said that.....I never stopped my kids from trick or treating as I didn't want them to miss out on the fun their friends were having and I dutifully handed out sweets to all the pint sized beggars in my street quietly keeping my 'spoil sport' attitude to myself.

Halloween is a very American tradition that has been passed on to other cultures a long time ago

I’m not sure I can deal with the proud ignorance being paraded on this site for much longer 🤯

Guising and Hallowe'en has a very long tradition in Scotland, don't know about elsewhere in the UK. I think it is probably the origin of American trick or treating.

This thread.

Every. Single. Year 😂😂

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.image.ie/amp/life/pumpkins-irish-samhain-halloween-132501

In the interests of educating the masses.

Loved guising as a child. And my kids are older now but they did too. I went with my children guising as did the rest of the families. My older brothers took me wound the doors as a child. We knew not to go to older or unwell people's doors. It was a real community thing where I'm from. So glad someone mentioned that it is a Scottish tradition, not American. I feel sad for the children this year but will decorate my house as usual and give in some sweeties to my neighbour's children. You sound a bit stuffy if you don't mind me saying so, OP but you do you.

OP forgot to moan about Halloween being American and how no one in the UK even mentioned halloween until about 15 years ago.

Which isn't true btw.

I don't 'get' the idea of Halloween, nobody ever did trick or treating when I was a kid and I'm glad to say it doesn't happen where I live. I don't see what 'sleepovers' have to do with it though.

Halloween is a very American tradition that has been passed on to other cultures a long time ago

Funny that my almost 90 year old mother remembers Halloween being a big thing when she was a child in Northern Ireland.

😀 done trick or treating once with the kids - they didn't want to do it the next year so we didn't.

😀 Sleepovers - I drop the kids off at school on the way to work, I pick them up from the after school club on the way home. Wouldn't be able to pull out the parents of the kids in the class in a line up, kids have never asked for a sleep over so I've never had to try and work out who is who in the playground scrum.

Do my kids have a joyless existence? Apparently so!

Trick or treating is fun.

You and your parents are killjoys.

When I was little we didn’t do it but our youth club, which everyone in the village went to, put on a hallowe’en disco. The idea was that it wasn’t safe in a rural village with no street lights.
In my last house it didn’t happen much as we were a house on a busy road.
Now I live on a really family friendly estate. Everyone knows that houses with decorations are fair game and all children are polite. I didn’t do it as a kid but I love joining in with it now.

Halloween is a very American tradition that has been passed on to other cultures a long time ago

No its not. It originated in Scotland and its been a big thing in my part of the world (Northumberland) for a long time too, probably because we're Scotland's nearest neighbours and the border between Scotland and Northumberland is political not cultural so we have the same origins.

It was taken to America by immigrants and over the years America evolved their own version of it. Our version stayed more or less the same - carved turnip (pumpkin these days, much easier on the wrists), kids in costumes, and you sing a song or tell a joke in exchange for your treat. Scotland call it guising, we used to call it halloweening although most now call it trick or treating.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/the-story-of-jack-o-lantern-if-you-knew-the-sufferings-of-that-forsaken-craythur-1.4065773%3fmode=amp

@AskMeOnce

Halloween is a very American tradition that has been passed on to other cultures a long time ago....the retail industry has latched into it as a marketing tool to get us to spend more money. And, especially when spoiling our kids is involved, we have fallen for it hook line and sinker. What a strange concept to encourage our children to beg for sweets from strangers and gorge themselves on sugar, never mind buying environmentally unfriendly outfits each year that will only be worn once.

Having said that.....I never stopped my kids from trick or treating as I didn't want them to miss out on the fun their friends were having and I dutifully handed out sweets to all the pint sized beggars in my street quietly keeping my 'spoil sport' attitude to myself.

I think you mean “Halloween is a very old tradition that passed to America years ago with the mass immigration”

The problem with people saying, " Most people know not to knock on a house that's not decorated" means that some people don't. And when I was at my worst with anxiety it didn't matter if it was one knock or twenty, I'd still spend Halloween sat in the dark pretending I wasn't home. Maybe it's moved away now from actual tricking nowadays, but I still remember unaccompanied, non-dressed up early teens throwing eggs at my parents house because we wouldn't give them sweets when they came round the week before Halloween. Hate hate hate it. There's no other point in time where it is acceptable to knock on stranger's houses all masked up and demand things or something bad will happen.

As an aside, having worked in nightclubs and other night-time venues, bad behaviour around Halloween spikes enormously, and in a different way from other, high alcohol intake holidays. A mask gives anonymity in the same way as keyboard warriors on the internet. And on a holiday where things are supposed to be a bit dark and creepy, and people are play acting alternative personas and dressing up as things people have a legitimate fear of.

All. The. Nope.

Having said that, we always went to Alton Towers on Halloween. Not to celebrate it as such, but it was open later than normal, there were far less crowds than in the summer and got us out of the house for the evening. I don't "hate" Halloween as a holiday. But I've experienced enough of the shit side of it to not really want anything to do with it.

Apart from trick or treating. That can get in the bin.

@AliMonkey “a slippery slope to the occult” FFS You sound very uneducated and a bit of an idiot.

@WorraLiberty

This thread.

Every. Single. Year 😂😂

Every single fucking year.

Halloween is a) fun, b) not American (and even if it was, so?) and c) nothing to do with sleepovers

And d) OP is definitely a plopper