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?

But if there was a major life event that meant 11.20pm was the only time you could go out surely you would say sorry but we can't do.it this year?

Was it you!

Are you serious? It was 11.20pm at night. I’m often in bed by then. That is just stupid. I would have been annoyed if she came knocking on my door potentially waking up my children who would have been in bed asleep by then. Some of the responses to this thread are just ridiculous 😂

That’s extremely specific 🤣

I voted YABU because you have no idea of the circumstances (home schooled, visiting a house of people they knew etc) and it was none of your business. I might have thought it odd but I wouldn't post about it.

What did she say when you told her all this?

Try thinking the best of people.

Maybe the kid is on cancer treatment, can't sleep and wanted to avoid heat and bumping into lot's of others.
Perhaps the mother is a shift worker and the child is top of her class and her school has a morning off tomorrow.
Her Mum was with her.

You don't know, really. It is odd but not necessarily bad.
Did you ask?

This thread has actually got amusing with the competitive pearl clutching.

What I want to know is why on all these threads, is the subject of the OP never a Mumsnetter herself. Please, if you're the "terrible" mother who dragged her poor infant to strangers houses in the middle of night, make yourself known so you may be forced to explain yourself to other strangers on the internet.

Quite ,who in their right mind takes their child trick or treating gonne 11 at night! Whatever the circumstances of why she couldn't do it earlier its completely inappropriate at that time!

Even under all those scenarios I can't imagine many people opening their doors at that time can you ?
I certainly wouldn't

Appropriate bedtimes (whether half term or not) and safety reasons aside, I’d be fuming if someone knocked on my door at that time for anything besides a complete emergency, and they certainly wouldn’t be getting any sweets (not that I’d likely answer the door anyway).

But yes, I would certainly hope that they’re knocking on doors of people they know who have said it would be okay (in which case it’s fine). If not, that is ridiculously stupid and rude behaviour.

We had small children and an adult knock at 10 last night. We didn't answer because a) it's too late and b) we had nothing left as some delightful little cherubs nicked all the sweets AND nice halloween bowl we'd left on the step 🤬

That's such a shame. My son couldn't sleep last night (he has SEN) so he put his outfit back on and we went for a walk around the block (yes at 10:30!) There were still bowls with sweets in.

While yes it seems crazy I’d assume exceptional circumstances- child anxious/ refusing to go earlier for example and then they decided’we’ll do it!’. There was a lady posting the other day that she didn’t want to leave the house. If they’d all decided last minute ok Halloween is ruined if we don’t do this crazy thing … I mean with kids sometimes it’s all about tick boxes. I hope they got something and are smiling/ laughing about it today

She probably knew them.

It's half term so I'm sure a lot of children are up late. You have no reason to assume she was knocking on the door of strangers houses.

7pm was my cut off for answering the door but thankfully nobody knocked after 6:30.

It’s likely that they’ve been travelling home from wherever they’ve been for evening and the girl wanted to knock. They could know them for all you know.

Exactly! How many MN'ers with kids I mentioned in the OP would take their children out at 11pm?

I doubt the visits were planned as one house was in total darkness.

That's fine if you're not actually knocking and just taking sweets from bowls left out (and not the bowl itself as well!).

I don't think it's OK to actually knock on doors later in the evening, SEN, xray, or for any other reason as other people also have their issues. My dog for example, was terrified all evening due to the fireworks and the door going so late set her off again, waking my children and probably my neighbour's children too.

You think it's ok for ANYONE to knock on someone's door at that time? I'd have gone mad.

Discuss what you want, it’s just a pretty low blow to come on here to rip into a stranger you know nothing about

If you’re the sort of person who spends your time discussing things like this, I genuinely question your intelligence

Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people

Hope all the judgey lot have fun playing pass the brain cell

It's not a shame at all. Help yourself to sweets at that time, yes; don't KNOCK ON PEOPLE'S DOORS.

YANBU. Whatever extenuating circumstances there may be, you don't go round knocking on doors for sweets at 11.30 pm.

Can't believe how many people are sticking up for the mum taking her kid out, without acknowledging that they KNOCKED ON DOORS. Not just helped themselves to sweets left out.

It's irrelevant what the reasons were though. People might have reasons why they don't appreciate people knocking on their doors late at night. It's common sense not to knock on stranger's doors after a certain time. It's called respect.