To think kids simulating a violent crime isn’t family fun?

[Greyrocked]

Increasingly I’m seeing young children dressed as if they have been murdered, sexually assaulted or are a violent criminal for Halloween. I don’t see what is good family fun about glorifying violence. One of my children is adopted and increasingly we can’t go anywhere at half term as violent scenes trigger their PTSD. Even family attractions aimed at young children seem to think it’s fine to display really scary images.

AIBU?

Goodness me, I agree. It seems to have really tipped over in the last couple of years.

How do you dress as if you've been sexually assaulted??

Agree.

We did Halloween this year after a break for a while.

Lots more kids doing just normal dress up - captain America etc. presumably the American influence.

In my day when I went trick or treating in the 80s it was all about murder and violence. I have fond memories of making "blood".

Halloween is probably not the best festival for a child with ptsd.

Absolutely.
What happened to the traditional choices witch (ideally in a home made bin bag dress) cat or Frankenstein’s monster.

We were at a Halloween party last weekend. There was a 6 year old dressed as Jason from Friday the 13th including a plastic chainsaw dripping with fake blood (that he proceeded to hit other children in the neck with). It was vile to see. Most parents were horrified, but his parents smiled on indulgently.

Really? Your 80s were different to mine- no blood or death here. Even zombies weren’t really a thing.

Very good question @BlackOrangeFrog

It’s not. But now a week of school holidays is dominated by Halloween. I should be able to take my child to a farm or soft play without worrying about them being exposed to images that wouldn’t be allowed before the water shed.

Agreed. A minor celeb proudly posted their children in their hallowe’en costumes on instagram and their 11ish yo was dressed as Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. Where do you even begin with that?

without worrying about them being exposed to images that wouldn’t be allowed before the water shed.

I've spent the last month, basically, at Halloween-themed farms and soft plays, and they've all been much the same... pumpkins, owls, witch hats, potions... Certainly nothing "scary"! Are the places you're going aiming for a much older audience? Perhaps going for the half-term crowd, rather than younger children?

I'm curious about how you dress up as if you've been sexually assaulted, too...

I'd say of the trick-and-treaters that I saw, 70% were wearing popular culture (Fireman Sam, Avengers, Bluey, etc), and 30% were traditional costumes, witches, cats, pumpkins, spiders, etc. I don't think we saw anything inappropriate, although we don't get a lot of teenage trick-or-treaters, either.

Excellent question which I note is being studiously ignored.

I am going to hazard a guess and say the OP is referring to outfits like the short, tight cheerleader ones that have been ripped and stained.

What's with all the Chucky outfits as well?

I came to ask this question as well. Please do expand on this.

This week I saw two separate gardens decorated with the usual 'cobwebs', graves, pumpkins... and a fake body bag made with bin liners and duct tape. Which I thought was a bit much in a family area.

The majority of kids we saw were either in those giant inflatable costumes (tweens and teens), home bargains costumes (under 10) or homemade costumes (ie normal clothes, torn up with mud and some fake blood)(tweens and teens).

The whole point is to be something scary. As long as it's not too gory or realistic and appropriate for their age.

I don't like seeing kids dressed up as horror film characters (ie Pennywise, Chucky etc) because they have no idea who or what these characters are whereas any kids who has seen hotel transilvania or scooby doo will know what a vampire or zombie is.

I've been pondering this. That said, I've certainly never seen anything to do with sexual assault.

Perhaps as we become more secular this is the representation of the barrier between life and death that becomes more porous at Halloween as we currently understand it. So, it used to be spirits and mythical figures, now it is the scenes of death themselves as we have less belief in any kind of afterlife?

I don't really like to see scenes or costumes from horror films. It's kind of lazy when the thinking has already been done. It's nicer to see when kids have made their own, even binbags

Oh come on. It doesn't take much imagination to figure that out and it's linked to misogynistic victim blaming / stereotyping.

I'm a lifestyle Goth aged 55 and steeped in the weird, macabre and even fetish adjacent when younger, however, I too think children should be kept from the darkest elements of the dark side.

Children dressed up as serial killers whether based in fact or fiction is distasteful as it's a projection that hopefully they don't have full understanding of, and if they do then it's a legitimate safeguarding concern.

As a side issue, it brings a legitimate Pagan based festival into public disrepute and gets devotees tarred with an unpleasant brush.

We really don't want to see a revival of Satanic panic do we? Because that's where it could lead.

There's plenty of scope for traditional scary concepts in costume form for children without appearing to celebrate the worst kinds of human behaviour via children.

I remember being at a party in a friend’s house this time last year (birthday party, not Halloween themed) and one person’s child, lad about 10 was there wearing big plastic glasses. His mum said “yeah he’s really into Jeffrey Dahmer at the moment”. I thought wtf?

Ah yes, the young uns were out like this (as was I years ago!) please tell me this is still older teenagers, and young adults going to parties, not young children?

Yes. My sons PRIMARY school held a pumpkin competition. The winner, the actual winner posted allover their website was of a ‘dead’ baby doll covered in blood and nails inside a pumpkin 😳😳😳

I’m guessing the OP is talking about Zombie Cheerleaders. That’s the only common costume I can think of with young women and blood.

But what a misogynistic description to use.

Well not cheerleaders but kind of thing

To an extent yes and no. Fake blood splatter etc I think is OK but the other day I saw a girl essentially dressed as a rape victim/victim of domestic abuse. The bruised hand print on her neck did nake me feel very uncomfortable, I was with my sister and niece at a daytime family thing, the kid was about 10. My sister is currently going through the ordeal of court against her ex who had been assaulting her in front of DN. Felt very surreal seeing a kid dressed up as my abused sister.