To not want my 2-year-old to go trick or treating?

[MunchkinGrower]

Strangers houses. Begging. Sweets and chocolate. Anyone else not massively keen on this for their toddlers? Mine doesn't even know what sweets and chocolate are yet!

My 3 year old ds went with a little group of his nursery friends. only knocked on doors that had decorations. Everyone enjoyed it. The kids were cute and respectful and the home owners liked seeing their outfits. If it's not for you don't do it that's fine.
Edited to add . He doesn't get very upset that he cant have all the sweets at once..he can have 1.or 2 and then saves the.rest for other days. It's the same as saying no to other things in life

We had two year olds to our house including an adorable little The Gruffalo.

We go all out at Halloween, house decorated and costumes. I make mine and can sew and craft. My Mother was on the stage when young and I always joke I’m channelling her. We made quite a lot of parents laugh last night with our antics. Enjoy complimenting the children on their costumes and nice manners, telling them to please take more sweets because they are so polite.

Kids are not begging because people are offering and it’s obvious who is offering by the Pumpkins outside. Plus it taking sweets off someone with the consent of your parents.

OMG it’s not begging, get over yourself. Some years we stay in and hand out sweets, other years we go out and show off our costumes to houses who have specifically indicated they are giving out sweets by decorating their houses. It’s fun for little kids to dress up and ‘scare’ people, but it’s not obligatory.

I do think in our house that 2 was a bit young.

However, most little kids aren't that arsed about sweets and chocolate. So it is easy enough to just put them away and forget about them.

But you don't even need to explain yourself. Nobody needs to go trick or treating and kindly, you don't have to make the decision for every halloween right now, just two years into being a parent.

tbh I think that there has been a switch from what you perceive as begging to decorated houses offering. But it’s not mandatory. If you feel as if you want to do something, you could always do it at home (decorations, dress up and have something seasonal to eat). But it is equally fine not to bother.

It is fairly standard to ration what you give your children to consume day in and day out especially with sweets and other sugary goods. Halloween, Easter and Christmas should be no different.

My parents never took us as children. Their parents didn’t allow them to go. They saw it as begging. So it's generational and that's why I'm interested in views as I don't want to be miserable mummy who doesn't allow her child to have fun. However I also don't really like it, genuinely. I think parties, pumpkin picking/carving and other Halloween activities are much nicer. And I really don't understand why you'd take a toddler unless they are with older siblings.

My kids went from a young age and they LOVED it! The dark, the dressing up, the other kids etc. It's been a highlight of their childhoods. We only went to people on our road with pumpkins - the kids have a sweet or two afterwards and then forget about the rest of the sweets so I've never found it problematic. They love handing out the sweets after they get back as well.

When i was in ireland we did Halloween rhyming. But when we got too old we just had halloween parties. You could do that if you wish or just sit with your lights off to deter those terrible beggars coming to your house. It is a perfectly ok choice. Many people do it.

We have a family nearby who go to church on 31st October then turn all lights off and stay home despite having small kids as they are quite strict catholics. Nobody bats an eyelid.

I’m confused, what 2 year old was going round the doors begging?
Did they come to your door?

As a child my parents never took me trick or treating as they saw it as ‘ begging’ .
But now I take my children , I realised it’s far from this.
People have made an effort to buy treats for the children, decorate their houses and dress up it’s a lovely community feel. My children always say ‘thank you’. We only go to houses with a lit pumpkin outside or Halloween decorations.
The youngest I’ve taken is age 4 , just because of the sweets they get given and we go around with friends which is a lot more fun.
One year a child was giving roses to people who gave her sweets , I thought this was a lovely idea.

I think it’s like most celebrations - you can pick and choose which activites you want to participate in, until they get to a certain age and start asking to go with their friends I guess!
We chose to go to a pumpkin carving event at our local play cafe and a Halloween disco instead with my 22 month old. I haven’t got anything against trick or treating and we would follow the only going to houses with a pumpkin outside, maybe in the future.

I never took mine - I thought it was bonkers to teach them not to talk to strangers/accept food from people they don't know but at Halloween those things are magically okay!

Instead we had a Halloween themed tea party, lots of sweets, costumes, school disco. It was fun and although the youngest did whinge about not going trick or treating, I still maintain it is okay to not give children everything they ask for, if you have strongly held beliefs as to why it's not a good idea.

I didn't celebrate anything as a child, Halloween, Christmas, birthdays etc. so I admit I do enjoy seeing my little ones and others get dressed up and excited for Halloween. 2 is perhaps too young, but it's certainly not begging, that's ridiculous! The etiquette is only to go to decorated houses, and many adults stand outside the door with the sweets, so they're not being begged to give sweets.

I love taking my daughter and her friends out trick or treating. The whole community gets involved and spends a lot of time and effort decorating their houses. We love it. It’s actually not about the sweets actually though that is a benefit to the kids! I also decorate the house and I like it’s only for one night.

I feel it’s a privilege to go because soon they will be old enough not to want parents to accompany them and so I make the most of it and enjoy how excited they and being included in that.

My Mum loved Halloween, it was the highlight of her year. She would buy a ton of sweets and little books or stickers (in case there are diabetic ones!).
She loved them knocking on the door and having a little chat with them and their parents.
It's a community event. It is not "begging".

Well we don’t trick or treat but do lots of other Halloween activities. When my children were 2 they hadn’t ever had sweets or chocolate and even now sweets are only really had at birthday parties, same for chocolate with the addition of Christmas and Easter. We don’t do sweets at Halloween. It isn’t unhealthy to not expose very young children to sweet things - years later they don’t have a particularly sweet tooth and still eat plain yoghurt for example.

My kids dressed up as superheros and princesses and went to a light party organised by a church. They had a great time, there was a bouncy castle and some sweets.

We did have some trick or treaters come to the door even though we didn’t have anything out. I don’t mind little kids doing it that have made an effort but teenagers in scary masks knocking on my door asking for sweets I don’t like at all. I’m glad my kids weren’t in to see them as they would have been upset.

I did it as a kid, my parents are into dressing up but my DH never did, his family were more religious and didn’t acknowledge Halloween at all.

I quite like that i can put my decorations out the day before and bring them in again on halloween night. I get sick looking at my decorations at Christmas

Two is a bit young but my kids absolutely love trick or treating – one of their highlights of the year. Our whole neighbourhood really gets into it with decorations etc. It’s not begging! We only go to houses with decorations.

You could get involved and join in the fun without going door-knocking. Plenty of kids around here go trick or treating but equally lots put up decorations, dress up at home and enjoy handing out treats to the people that come knocking.

It’s a good lesson to learn for kids that they can’t have them all at once. Same as when they get party bags full of sweets or sweet cones. You just ask them to choose a couple to eat now and then put the rest away for another day.

You could have a party or just do a couple of activities if you don’t want to trick or treat. I always took mine to people we knew, we didn’t knock on strangers’ doors but we had children come here last night and I was ready for them. I think as long as it’s supervised and the children are polite it’s all good fun.

We took a gang of 3-4 year olds trick or treating last night and it was the highlight of their day. I don’t see it as begging or teaching kids to not be wary of strangers, it’s a fun little activity for them to do once a year.

It’s not begging because you only go to the houses which are decorated and obviously participating.

It's massive where we live, literally very young children, teens going out to young adults (students)and adults going to themed club nights. We had gone to a family gathering in a different City in the day where it is also huge and when we drove back the big houses on the outskirts have loads of children trick or treating, might displays and projections on these houses and as you get into the city, people young to old dressed up plus there was a corresponding fair at a city park. I really don't think of it as a begging occasion.