Should guising/trick or treating have an upper age limit..?

[AmberRose86]

I live on a fairly small new build estate. Halloween is a pretty big deal here. Quite Americanised. Decorations are elaborate (for those who wish to participate. It’s quite well known in the area and families from surrounding areas travel to the estate to go guising there (another argument in itself but generally it does t really bother me).

Ive been taking my kids guising there since we moved in 4 years ago. There has always been a lovely, friendly atmosphere, just lots of families milling about. The kids absolutely love it.

Last night however I’d say the vibe was a bit different. Maybe because it was Friday night? Big groups of teenagers walking about in scream masks etc, pushing their way through crowds of small kids to the doors. I’m not talking 12-13 year olds. I mean 14, 15, 16. They looked like fully grown adults.

Someone (not me, for the record) has posted on the estate facebook page bemoaning these teenagers, too old for guising, intimidating, taking sweets that are for the wee ones etc. An argument has duly broken out. Surely it’s better that they are guising and not drinking in the park, who is this person to say that these teens are too old etc.

I’m kind of on the fence, but to be honest I did think the groups of teens were a bit on the ridiculous side. My eldest is 11 and understands she is at the upper end of the guising age scale.

The worst thing for me is that people tend to leave bowls of sweets outside when they take their own kids round the doors. These groups of teens have been caught on Ring doorbells emptying these bowls into their bags so the wee ones don’t get anything. But to be fair I accept that’s a hazard of leaving stuff outside (although this hasn’t been a problem in previous years).

Groups of teens descending on our street after years of being known as a good street to visit, is basically why no one here puts anything out now.

It's great to hear the young teens are still having fun with it!

funnily enough, they're not all sweet stealing thugs!! 🤗

I had older teens come round last night and they were all really polite and said thank you so no problem with that, but honestly yes, I do think they were a little too old to be asking for sweets on the doorstep. The boys who came round absolutely towered over me and looked quite intimidating, even though they were fine. I'd never refuse to hand out sweets to a nice teenager, but I do think 15 + is too old.

My lad is in year 8 and he decided this was his last year. I have to say I begrudge giving sweets to 16 year olds! I had this one lad who was dressed up but taking his younger siblings out. He wouldn’t take any sweets bless him. He was about 15. I thought that was quite sweet.

I don’t see the harm. We had older kids knock on last night. All Polite enough and looked like they were having fun. It’s only a lolly or a pack of haribo. Plenty to go round. It’s nice to see them still enjoy themselves.

I'm in Vancouver, Canada. Here little kids are usually out with their parents trick or treating 7-8:30pm or so. Lights off at your home means you're done giving out candy.
I don't think you can have a legal age limit... if young people / teens want to dress up and have some fun that's fine. I take exception with the pushing. I had my littles out last night and three teens did push by us going up stairs to one home, got their candy then hurried down pushing by us again. I said, Hey, these kids are 2 & 4. Response was, I feel ya.
🙄

I kinda wanted to trip them.

Teenagers can be a PITA at Halloween. A bunch of them were hanging around our churchyard in costumes, being disrespectful by walking over the graves and terrifying the choir group who rehearse in there on a Friday night (most of whom are over 70) as they came out.
Meanwhile another group found out where the vicar lives and were banging on her door and going up to her front window in horrible masks. She was on her own and felt really threatened.
By all means eat sweets, but please keep things respectful and safe for everyone.

I don't see why there should be an age limit.

What's the harm in polite teens trick or treating?

It's for children, they are still children. As long as behaviour is good, I don't see why there has to be an upper age limit for play.

That's a situation I'd have called the police about. 🤬

Some children look older. Some have additional needs so mentally more like a younger child. We had older kids visiting, they had costumes on and were polite. I said to some older ones they could take a few each as I had loads left later on and they were genuinely happy. I thought it was quite sweet that a group of 13? Year old lads wanted to trick or treat. I also offered sweets to older teens accompanying toddlers and they were happy to be included.

Thought this was interesting, if they are well behaved and having fun why not? If they are rude and aggressive then obviously not

My ‘too old teenager’ went out last night with her friend. There was a no parents house party but they chose to trick or treat.

She said, “Christmas, birthdays, Easter, all can be ruined by mean or struggling parents. But Halloween any child can knock and ask and be given sweets”. Let’s all be as kind as my teenager, who is lovely, says something nice about the house, and actually gave some of her stash to a house that had run out!

I wouldn’t even open my door to teens who are not dressed up on Halloween unless they were with their parents.

I think nowadays based on kids behaviour they should need to be supervised by adults whatever age they are.

I live in a flat building and thankfully didn’t get anyone knocking 😆 but I did hear teens screeching obnoxiously on the street my bedroom window faces.

I personally told dd the cut off age is 12yo, I don’t like older teens knocking on the door 🤷‍♀️

My dc stopped at 12 of their own accord.
Rude teens pushing away children that hasn't happened here, where we live. Some teens (polite and giggly) come later on, about 8 pm, not when younger kids are out. I have no problem with teens trick or treating.

We trick or treat in our own neighbourhood, and many people will sit outside with a tray of treats to hand them out.

I don’t mind teens at all. I live in an area that is “up and coming” so I much prefer the teens knocking on the door than the mayhem that goes on later in the night,

it’s very hard to tell what age kids are anyway. Some of them at 12 are just very tall. There is a lovely girl with additional needs who is 16 near us and she loves it, I always keep her favourites. We have had no bad experiences.

I said that to her. She's far too soft. She just turned all the lights off and went to bed at 8 pm but didn't sleep. And the mess in the graveyard today was so sad to see. Especially as tomorrow is All Souls and lots will be coming to put flowers on the graves.

I'm sure they were just stupid teenagers messing about and wouldn't have harmed her in any way, but a big gang of them dressed up and invading someone's property isn't funny.

I felt very sad when DD no longer felt able to go out guising. She clearly wanted to, can’t remember what age exactly but early secondary school.

i would quite happily give sweets to older kids as long as they are polite.

It's so hard to say what the morivation was, isn't it? Stupid pranks by a still developing brain or consciously malicious. Maybe a bit of both. Regardless, it sounds awful. 💐

That's what I was wondering. Are we going to dish out fines? Make adult Halloween parties illegal?

I’m kind of on the fence. We go to a different area of our city to trick or treat, but that’s because there aren’t many young families on our street. It’s mostly old ladies who live on their own, so we go to the street I grew up on because almost every house is a ‘pumpkin house!’. My children are 6, 4 and nearly 2, so still little. But my sibling is autistic and he absolutely loves Halloween. He comes trick or treating with us and people don’t mind him taking a sweet as he’s with the children. Me and my husband never take any (I imagine if it looked like the adults all wanted one too people might be less friendly!) but people are really nice about it. We only ever knock on houses that are decorated for Halloween, and I make sure my children always say thank you and happy Halloween. It makes me wonder what it will look like in less than 10 years though :( Childhood seems so short.

Goodness, Halloween when I was sixteen involved nightclubs (heavily costume makeup meant less likly to be ID'd) and MDMA. If their biggest sin is being greedy with the haribo, let them have it.

What is T&T?

We had them empty the bucket we left out last year but by then the little ones had already been round and its none of my business who takes it, as long as it goes. Taking the whole thing in one go is just how some kids enjoy it 🤷‍♀️ once it's gone, it's gone.

That makes sense if you have a bucket of sweets for each caller, and they then enjoy their own bucketful either by wolfing the lot instantly or ekeing them out over a week or two; but surely the bucket of sweets is for everybody?

If you're happy to say that it's a legitimate way to enjoy yourself - by taking everybody else's share too - does that apply in other circumstances? If a child/teen were at a party and decided they would enjoy themselves far more by taking the entire cake and scoffing it, rather than just a slice, is that OK? Are the others just expected to want to enjoy themselves by having no cake at all?!

Tbh I think it’s time it died a death. What other night of the year would you actively encourage your child to a knock on a strangers door or take sweets from a stranger seems mad to encourage kids to do this given the number of weirdos out there