Saw a child with mum trick or treating at 11:20pm (school night here)

[fmla]

I was about to go to bed. Noticed outside was a girl aged 5-7 wearing a Halloween outfit with several of those one off glow necklaces (that made me draw attention to begin with) with her mum. They were going to paths to houses and knocked on a couple of doors.

Who in their right minds will answer the door that time of night, unless you are expecting it - member of household returning back from work etc or ordering that very late takeout delivery?

Half term was last week here. It's not acceptable for a young child to be out that time plus some of the streetlights switch off at 11pm. It doesn't matter if its half term or not,

If the mum was working until, say 9pm, then she should arrange with DD's friends' parents to go round with them. If that is the case that she finished work, who looked after DD after school?

Maybe this didn't happen.

You do realise that those black jumpsuits where you can see a full skeleton aren’t kids looking for X rays don’t you? If they have been using a black marker to draw a zig zag line to look like a broken bone then I understand you were concerned but unless the girls mums friends offered to take her to hospital then please people don’t always have x ray machines at home! 😂

30 years ago I used to see children of that age out with teens outside fast food shops at 11pm mid week regularly as I used to drive home from a relative’s every Wednesday night. I raised it with someone I know who is a social worker - who was far less horrified than I was. Seems it didn’t get close to the benchmark for taking action. But I was horrified.

It's a definite possibility.

😂😂😂. Because it’s usual for any old house to have an X-ray machine plus an HCPC registered radiographer to take the X-ray. That comment took the biscuit

I’d think it was strange being so late but we don’t know the reasons for it. I’m pretty sure the mum had a valid reason to take her child out at that time. Maybe she’d been working way later than she thought and she’d promised her child to go trick or treating, maybe the child has SEN or just wouldn’t settle for bed until they’d been out trick or treating. I doubt very much the mum had been sat in the house all day then decided to just get up and take her child out trick or treating past 11pm. My guess would be she promised her child and so she delivered that promise. Not something I’d do so late but I wouldn’t judge anyone who wanted to do something nice for their child! So seeing as you don’t know the reasons then maybe it’s better to mind your own business.

As you've said, no one in their right mind opens the door at 11pm unless they are expecting someone, so it's likely these were houses of people that the mum/girl knew and it was pre-arranged and wouldn't have taken long.

I agree it's not ideal for a child that age to be out so late, but it's not awful as a one off either.

At no point did I mean an x Ray at somebody's house. It is entirely possible for a child to have fallen, hurt themselves and need an xray to rule out a break. It is also entirely possible for friends or relatives of the child's parents to say knock on our door when you get home so she can get some trick or treat sweets.

If half term was last week it's way too late for a little kid to be awake, let alone out and about on a school night.

It's the school holidays here

Your comment was clear. I really do worry about some people's reading comprehension.

Most of ours were 5-8 yesterday, we left a bowl out while we took DS with some friends 6-7, we got a knock at 9 but we'd left the pumpkins out and lit. It was a couple of teen/tween boys who live down the road, they lucked out because we gave them the rest of the bowl! I looked out of the window and they didn't seem to go to any others so I think they just chanced ours on the way home as we still had decorations lit.
11 is far too late for trick or treaters of any age

OP says it was half term last week where they are.

I spotted that as it’s half term here - but it’s still far too late to be knocking on peoples doors.

Perhaps they were real mother and child VAMPIRES, who can only go out after dark, and decided to take advantage of Halloween to boost their blood-sugar levels?

You do realise that those black jumpsuits where you can see a full skeleton aren’t kids looking for X rays don’t you?

🤣🤣 This comment.

I understood what the original x-ray comment was about, but I did enjoy this 😂

Could be a child from another district visiting. Grabbing at straws I know but who knows?

Absolute chomper behaviour

Goodness people on here will try to excuse anything won't they! No matter how ludicrous they have to be.

There is absolutely no reason for a child to be out at 11.20 trick or treating.

Well, I agree with you and if I saw this I'd privately judge (maybe pass a comment to dh). But as others have said, you don't really know the circumstances and it's really none of your business anyway.

Its just so random that you might would leap to that, thats why your comment is funny

Why not appendicitis? Why not trapped finger in fridge door? Why not fell over a wooden spoon on her way to pick up a discarded crisp packet in the door way? Why not hair got tangled up with chewing gum

All of these things are just as important as potentially needing an x ray but you didnt seem to care that these things might have happened to this poor young child!!!!

I think people are simply pointing out that we don’t know the circumstances.
The more people offer ‘solutions’ as to what the mother ‘should’ have done, the more we are in the realms of complete speculation, let alone judging someone else.

Maybe the mother was a single parent.
Maybe childcare isn’t affordable.
Maybe something had happened which prevented the trick or treat visit earlier and they were visiting one known neighbour as a one-off, never to be repeated treat.
And maybe they are even a terrible parent, but it is still nobody else’s business to say so when absolutely nothing is known. This was someone just looking out of a window at someone else!

We bring the pumpkin in and turn the porch light off around 8:15.

I like how Halloween Mumsnet was book-ended by “3pm is way too early” and “11:20pm is way too late” posts. Very satisfying.

11.20 is a ridiculous time for trick or treating. But maybe it wasn't that, maybe a couple of friends live at those houses and agreed the child could knock at that time? I mean it still seems ridiculous for a kid that age to be out at that time of night trick or treating but still.

I go to sleep at 10

Aside from the fact it's not an appropriate time to be out with a young child, it's not appropriate to be knocking on doors at that time... it's the middle of the night