To complain that Halloween party was too scary

58 replies

strawberriesandcream23 · 24/10/2025 18:21

Now my daughter is a sensitive soul however we attended a Halloween party for an activity club she does earlier this week (ages 4-6) and the decorations were terrifying! I imagined it would be a party with Halloween crafts, a few games and dancing etc however we turned up to a room completely dark with a huge creepy clown hanging from the door to enter followed by figures activated by movement which jumped up and make creepy noises. We had to leave early as she was absolutely terrified and now wont sleep and won’t go through any doors alone as she thinks the clown man is gonna be hanging there. Now I know Halloween is meant to be scary but is this inappropriate for that age group? I mean only one other child seemed scared so maybe it’s just my child

OP posts:

Terrribletwos · 27/10/2025 17:36

strawberriesandcream23 · 25/10/2025 09:02

Thanks for all the replies and messages for dd, she went to bed a bit better yesterday so hopefully she won’t be scarred for life. Constructive feedback is a good idea. I don’t know if more people were scared or left as we left quite quickly and like I said I only saw one other girl crying. I’m more annoyed at myself that I put her in that situation. I don’t think I could have researched it more as it was just said at the end of last weeks session we are having a Halloween party next week so children can come dressed up. For a kids activity club I naively assumed it would be aimed at 4-6 years olds as the activities usually are and I was comparing it to my older dd brownies party she had earlier in the week where they painted pumpkins, did apple bobbing, Halloween crafts, and a disco (with all the lights on).
I think as someone posted earlier on the organisers just got carried away with Halloween theme as the decorations looked good and a lot of effort had been put into it, just more suited for older children. But lessons learnt, stay away from Halloween themes for a while. I think we’ll have to hibernate this week to avoid any!

I do think that Halloween is much more graphic and ridiculously horror these days. Who needs that?!

Pre the americanisation of Halloween it was very much only about witches and slightly scary stuff. Now it's all about bloodied hands (in my local supermarket) and other wildly inappropriate stuff..in my opinion.

Pinkpoems · 01/11/2025 10:13

I wouldn't say anything in this case then, or maybe volunteer to help out.

wow @Whoevenarethey are people really this afraid of speaking to people that they would volunteer their free time to a private company, to try and influence things, rather than just use their words for an adult conversation!

It sounds inappropriate to me - for the little kids Halloween should be spooky not scary. Broomsticks and friendly ghosts not blackout rooms with motion activated horror figures.

TempestTost · 01/11/2025 10:19

For that age group, yes, I think that's too scary. I love scary, but I would probably look at 7 or 8 for more scary things.

It's not that no 5 or 6 year olds like scary. But there is a pretty high proportion that don't, at that age.

evtheria · 01/11/2025 10:21

I love Halloween but I think that kind of gory, jump-scare stuff is inappropriate for 4-6yo. I’d assume they were hosting things for older ages too, and just carelessly forgot they had little ones coming in as well.

Pizzajigsaw · 01/11/2025 10:22

Mydahliasareshit · 24/10/2025 19:49

Does she like McDonalds? You could show her pictures of 'Ronald Mcdonald' to give her an emotional tie that clowns are not really scary.

I sympathise though OP- as a 4 year old my toes were tickled by some weed in a lido, and I thought sharks were hovering to gobble me up 😂

Ronald McDonald is terrifying

theunbreakablecleopatrajones · 01/11/2025 10:24

You can give feedback

No point complaining because they will make a judgement on what suits most kids

youalright · 01/11/2025 10:33

So basically this is a you problem and instead of addressing that you are blaming everyone but yourself and potentially ruining it for others in the process. You know your kid is sensitive and doesn't like this stuff so why did you take her. Most kids understand this stuff isn't real and love it. People really need to toughen there kids up.

poids · 01/11/2025 10:33

sounds more appropriate for older children and teens.
At the age you’re talking ahout, decorations should be glow in the dark ghosts, witches cats, bats, pumpkins etc. Clowns are featured in 18+ movies for adults, such as Terrifier, IT etc. Whoever did the decorations weren’t thinking of age appropriate ones.

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