Children's costumes too scary

[Caszekey]

Am I just being a massive wimp?

Took kids into school today in dress up. Two pumpkins with extras, one character from a show - normal clothes, add on and red eyes so not scary at all

But some of the costumes... it's not so much the dead cheerleaders with blood splatter on their face or the broken doll with cracks, it's the shop brought plastic masks.

Scary clowns get a special mention but also a harlequin jester which was an awesome costume but the face mask was a full goblin / demon kinda mask. Honestly I'd have cast him in a horror movie there and then!!

DS was worried all week because the kid he sits next to is going to be wearing a "really scary clown mask" so that might be biasing me.

It just feels so much darker than when I was a kid

Are they going to be wearing their costumes to school? I don't think they will be allowed to keep masks on all day.

Our school said no masks, maybe partly for this reason. I agree, it's too much.

I agree, it’s too much. I hate Halloween anyway so I get that I’m coming from a biased POV but it shouldn’t be actually frightening to children. A bit of gentle spookiness is one thing but what six year old wants to be haunted by the sight of a genuinely terrifying clown mask or blood splatters everywhere?

And it’s not coming from the kids, is it - little girls aren’t asking to be blood splattered cheer leaders or murderous clowns, how would they even know what those things were unless they’ve been exposed to inappropriate content? It’s something parents are pushing because they think it’s somehow fun.

Yeah this is for school, I don't know of they make them take masks off if they can see ok, but had all the little creepy kids going through the gates this morning

Sounds the exact same as costumes when I was at school, other than maybe costumes for toddlers.

I think Homes last paragraph is where my disapproval probably comes from because I can imagine when asked some of them HAVE said ooh how about a zombie cheerleader like in X... Etc. and it's precisely because they're watching stuff they shouldn't.

Our school didn’t allow the plastic masks.

halloween in Scotland is more just dress up than having to be anything scary though which I prefer

One of the books my toddler LOVES is 10 little monsters, for context its a childrens book

Anyways my 8 year old loves reading it to her and therefor wanted to dress up as a zombie.

So just coming on to say its not always that they are watching inappropriate stuff or parents pushing the agenda.

Edit as sent too soon.....anyways she also loves cheerleading and gymnastics, so chose to dress up as a zombie cheerleader.

I agree, they're horrible. Our school don't allow masks, but kids still wear them to the gates. I don't like looking at them, let alone my four year old! And I really don't like the blood-spattered ones. Nasty stuff.

Maybe it's my age then. I can't remember it being like this on primary in the 80s and early 90s. No money for much anyway which probably makes a difference

Fair point, I love those books.

I live in a tiny village in Scotland where the community council goes absolutely overboard with decorating the village. There are hideous gibbets flying from every lamppost and a pair of trousers with fake guts spilling out on the bench. On the night people come from all over to photograph them and do the scary walk. It’s bloody horrible, and if I could afford a hotel for two weeks I would leave home.

Re the inappropriate viewing, I know some of these kids tho. I know what they come into school talking about cos my friends DD was upset about the then 6 yo class mate basically telling her about the woman in The Ring or one of those. You know, long hair over face, walks on the ceiling type. Lots of Stranger Things fans and that game with Huggy Wuggy etc. So whilst there might be a couple of "I love zombies cos they're cute" costumes, there's plenty not.

Plus tbf I was ok with the dead cheerleader costumes, you can still see it's Molly or Mandy under a bit of face paint. It's Def the choosing of objectively scary masks for your kid in a primary school

Lol I advise you not to look up the children's Halloween costumes of the Victorian era then, they were truly cursed and terrifying compared to the naff plastic masks and corn syrup blood of today.

Isn't the whole point of Halloween to be scarier than the spirits so they leave you be?

I mean there's no way a spirit would take on the little Jester kid to be sure!

Perhaps, but if you don’t actually believe in “spirits” it’s a crap excuse for having the life frightened out of your small child who, in general, you try to protect from the idea of murder, torture, abuse and horror.

Well the child DS was worried about came out in a pretty scary clown mask altho D's he got used to it so looks like he kept it on. And a massive plastic but still massive cleaver / knife. You couldn't have hurt anyone with it unless you wacked them but still. They're 8 fgs.

I admit a grudgingly like of the headband with half a pair of scissors on the top as if stuck in head but not for primary school.

It used to be turnips and witches and now it’s blood and horror movie related , it’s horrible. We have a local fancy dress shop that goes all out at Halloween and it’s shocking, lots of fake severed limbs and machete wielding clowns and fetish outfits. Last year loads of squid game related stuff and fake weapons 🙈

We literally wore a bin bag with paper stars and moons stuck on with a witch’s hat in the 80s. If we were lucky, a bit of green face paint!