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 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.

What is there to get? Do you mean you literally don't understand what it is? As someone said upthread, 'I don't get...' is usually code for 'I enjoy sneering at...' on MN. Also,why the inverted commas around the word sleepover? It almost sounds as though you don't know what one of those is either. Or is it that you call them something different? Sleepovers have nothing specifically to do with Halloween. I presume they were mentioned as another supposedly terribly dangerous thing to let your children do (like trick-or-treating).

Gosh some children must have such miserable, joyless childhoods if their parents truly can't see the point in harmless fun.

Halloween is one of my fondest childhood memories. My cousins would come over and we'd have a party, play Halloween games and go trick or treating. My own mum loves thinking about her own childhood at Halloween when my granny would spend the entire day baking traditional breads/cakes and they'd all have a big feast that evening. Where I'm from it's a very long-standing tradition.

If you don't want to answer the door to children then don't, but begrudging little kids happy times and sweets is miserable in the extreme!

It's good that it's become "Americanised" as the rules are simpler now. You want people to knock, decorate with a pumpkin. If you don't, then don't decorate and people won't knock. Not hard to grasp.

Previously, the rules were slightly foggy and those that hate Halloween had a good reason to whinge about "begging" children.

I've always loved Halloween and we go all out (we've done Alton Towers Scarefest this year but love Universal's US Fright Nights and try to go every couple of years).

Western Halloween has become an amalgamation of all types of Autumn equinox/Harvest/Summer end festivals for different beliefs and there are elements of Samhain, Day of the Dead and All Saints in the mix.

I believe so many people are prejudiced against Halloween because of the distrust and fear towards Pagan and Druid festivals and incorrect associations with Devil Worship. For what it's worth, Pagans, Druids and Wiccans do not believe in the devil, nor God either. Samhainphobia exists too but people are rarely introspective enough to look at their own fear/dislike objectively and tend to blame the event itself to validate their feelings.

I’ve never decorated the house, I often switch the lights off, I close the curtains across the door. Dozens of people still knock every year.
The majority of my street is home to elderly people in bungalows. It’s awful for them (one of them says she goes to bed at 9pm and people are still knocking and she’s scared). So we specifically do nothing to try and discourage them. It doesn’t.

I think because no one does it round here they just try every house regardless. I hate it! It’s never going to be like America in that way. I know people who live on streets where the whole street does it as a thing (and people drive to them because of it).
I wish people followed the pumpkin rule. I still expect to get lots of people knocking on Saturday night.

a slippery slope to the occult

Omfg

😂😂😂

Yeah, pumpkins, haribo, a dinosaur costume and WHAM, next thing you know you’re making satanic sacrifices.

This site 🤯

Can’t wait for the Santa vs. Father Christmas thread. Can I get in early and say as with Halloween Santa 🎅 is not an American invention!

And d) OP is definitely a plopper

Maybe the OP is a government bot, trying to nudge people away from letting their dc go trick-or-treating this year because of Covid. Apparently they're all over MN according to a current thread on the subject. Wouldn't explain the ton of tediously repetitive anti-Halloween threads every single other year though.

Because it's fun, my kids loved trick or treating, and we enjoyed giving out sweets when they were older. The dog gets in the spirit with devil horns and his red coat! Sleepovers are fun too. Let kids have fun!

BTW my children do Halloween, but we go to places for events instead.

I'm with Billy Connolly on fun in childhood.
You are a long time old, let them enjoy some magic FFS.
We celebrated everything in this house, tooth fairies, Easter, Samhain, Divali, Notting hill carnival, royal events, the lot. We went on holidays just to look for Dragons or King Arthur. We even had a colony of Teddy bears living at the bottom of the garden.
One of our adult kids has just applied for a masters in fairy stories in Denmark so I guess they are a bit fucked up though
You would hate me OP.

We had a very family filled street growing up where t&t was supported and many of us hosted parties too
We tend to be away for half term or find a party to take kids to so this year is different for us anyway.
Not that we planning to trick and treat anyway we are going to do a trail round the house and garden but we have bought some things in in case others knock.

@TheKeatingFive

a slippery slope to the occult

Omfg

😂😂😂

Yeah, pumpkins, haribo, a dinosaur costume and WHAM, next thing you know you’re making satanic sacrifices.

This site 🤯

We could do a halloween bingo with this thread.

'American' indeed - Google is your friend.
Halloween (Samhain) is a huge deal where I am in NI - houses and gardens decorated and usually big community celebrations, parades and festivals.

I had a good laugh at "a slippery slope to the occult"

Some of our most fun times as a family have been Halloween, dressing up, going out with the neighbours, we only ever went to houses which had Halloween signs (pumpkin outside, decorations) so no danger of bothering the unwilling. Such a fun time of year, preferred it to Christmas sitting in or going for a boring walk.

Your childhood sounds stifling and sad. YABU.

I still expect to get lots of people knocking on Saturday night. why don't you just embrace it then? Why would that be so hard? It might actually bring a smile to your face instead of hiding behind your curtains worrying about people knocking. Too stingy to buy a couple of packets of lollipops? Odd behaviour

Because its great fun and good community spirit , if you don't decorate you have no callers in my area .
What about abusers in school , do you send them to school?, you have to calculate risks .
Most children are with an adult / sensible older kid on Halloween .
You may cause more harm to your own children if you don't let them experience things because of ' just in case .'

I send them trick or treating to feed my mini mars bar and swizzel sweet addiction of course.

It's the only reason I had children.

Trick or treating and sleepovers aren’t the same thing and you’re hardly going to agree with it if you were never allowed .
Do I like trick or treating? No but my dd enjoys it so I took her with some friends .
We most definitely won’t be doing anything like that this year .

My children love halloween. They usually go trick or treating, why not it's all just a bit of fun. I buy sweets for when children knock too, nine enjoy answering the door seeing their friends costumes etc when they knock also. We then usually do a little party in the house with games etc. Obviously different this year but we are still going to make it fun. Lots of lovely memories.

We were not allowed either and my dh is not a fan of guising (he thinks it is akin to begging and we should but sweets for the kids ourselves). However we live on a new build estate and for the last few years have had several kids guising. I love the effort the kids go to with the costumes and trying to remember the jokes they have rehearsed. It is a bit of fun and I have a lighthearted approach to it. My kids are preschool age, they are having a Halloween party at preschool today and we are having a Halloween party for them at home. Just costumes, some food and Halloween arts and crafts as they cannot go guising this year.

We were not allowed sleep overs unless at our grandparents or aunties home where my mum would also stay with us. I would prefer not to have to facilitate sleepovers but my kids are only little yet so we will see.

I'm so old that it wasn't much of a thing when I was growing up, I think bobbing for apples was the only thing we did, Bonfire night was far more significant.

I love it now though and although DS15 has SEN and doesn't really get the concept of it, we still decorate and join in.

DH and I miss out on so many "normal" childhood experiences with DS that we get genuine joy and pleasure seeing other NT kids enjoy it as much as they do.

And those who use the glorified begging argument, wasn't that the case with "penny for the guy?"

These days I much prefer Halloween to Bonfire night, because of fireworks and I also worry about Hedgehogs getting unintentionally roasted!

Don't forget to check folks!

@Onxob

I still expect to get lots of people knocking on Saturday night. why don't you just embrace it then? Why would that be so hard? It might actually bring a smile to your face instead of hiding behind your curtains worrying about people knocking. Too stingy to buy a couple of packets of lollipops? Odd behaviour

What about the fact there is a global pandemic currently and having lots of people knock on your door for sweets is a terrible idea ?

I also seem to have sweets left over so I get to eat them at the end. Win, win all around!

What about the fact there is a global pandemic currently and having lots of people knock on your door for sweets is a terrible idea? well yes you're right but the poster I was referring to hides behind her curtains every year so I was speaking generally/covid aside. It would be much easier to embrace the fun instead of hiding in misery.