To think Halloween is just highlighting selfish behaviour?

[girlfriend44]

Is it going downhill?
Keep seeing ring doorbell footage of kids grabbing all the sweets left out and walking away. In some cases emptying all the sweets into their bag

Surely your meant to knock the door . What is this leaving sweets out? Is it new?

Why leave weets out of your not in?
To think the whole thing is to see how many sweets you can eat is horrible.
Bringing out the worst in people.
No doubt I will be called boring but hey ho . I just can't see anything nice about it now. Not to mention the stolen and smashed Pumpkins.

We leave sweets out when we’re not there because we want to, really. We got home after 2 hours yesterday to find about 6 packs of sweets still left in the bucket, and our Ring footage shows a steady stream of children taking 1 each.

A lot off kids are sugar addicts. Would you leave wine out for alcoholics to help themselves to?

You see ring doorbell footage of kids taking all the sweets because people now have ring doorbells not because kids have suddenly started stealing all the candy. Its
not a new thing, there’s always been a minority of (shitty) kids who do it.
People leave a bowl on the doorstep if they are busy and/or don’t want to be up and down all evening. We did it last night as
were in the back room watching TV and couldn’t hear the door. Again,
not new in the slightest.

I think where kids take all the sweets, you are right, that’s grim. But last night I saw no evidence of that. We leave sweets out because we want to give, but we also want to go guising with our kids. Some people leave signs saying that the baby is sleeping, please help yourselves.

Leaving sweets out isn't new, it's happened since before my now adult kids were born.

If you're asking whether it's selfish for kids to take the whole bowl, then of course it is.

But that's something that's always happened too.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

The most Mumsnet reply ever! 🏅

I was away last night but i usually always have a big bowl of sweets for kids trick or treating. The amount of children that just grab a huge handful rather than just taking one is astounding. Its usually done with the parents standing right there and saying nothing to stop them either! Do parents these days not teach their children manners?

And a lot of kids aren’t. Plus most children have their food intake moderated by their parents, which doesn’t tend to happen with alcoholics and their booze.
Id say 90% of the kids who came to our house last night were under 10 and with their parents. If their parents don’t want them eating sugar, they are free not to take them Trick or Treating.
My 7 year old goes Trick or Treating because he enjoys it. He’s never eaten a sweet in his life (autistic with ARFID).

For the first time in years, we didn't decorate this year, as we went out. However we've been lucky enough not to have this where we live. It's disappointing you've experienced this.

What's smashing eggs go to do with Halloween too?

Nothing?

We leave a bowl out because nobody over the age of 10 wants to have to open the foor every 5 minutes.
We have found since ring foorbell cams kids font nick the lot any more

Is this stuff you're personally experiencing or seeing in your neighborhood or videos you're seeing on social media?

I’ve always loved Halloween, so, maybe I’m biased but and I can’t bring myself to get too worked up about kids taking a couple of extra handfuls of sweets. Obviously kids being really badly behaved is unacceptable, but I do think that’s a very small minority. I actually think trick or treating is more civilised now than it was when I was growing up because now that more people decorate, people tend to only call on houses decorated or with pumpkins out - when I was younger it was more of a free for all. And I definitely find it less selfish and anti social than bonfire night with fireworks being set off all hours!

We left a some out while we were going trick or treating ourselves. There was still some left when we came back.

My friend on the other hand came back to everything, including her fancy new bowl gone

Nothing. More shitty kid behaviour. Some teen threw an egg at me one Halloween. I grabbed one of his eggs and smashed it over his head. He ran off crying. Karma.

I went out with a group of children who kiss took a sweet when a box was left. And there were plenty of sweets left in the box we left out so childrenhere were obviously only taking one or two.

People leave boxes out when they are not in because they have decorations out and bought sweeties. I've never taken the dc track ot treating before ad really enjoyed it! They went to the houses that were decorated, said thank you, those handing out sweets were happy, it was just really nice!

I think you are being a bit of a misery. Halloween is massive where I live but if you don't invite trick or treating by decorating and having all your lights on, people don't knock. Loads of people decorate their homes and the local scout hut does an event. Some years there has been a burger van or the fire engine might turn up. Kids do love a fire engine!

Most kids are respectful and polite. All dress up and sometimes their parents too (we used to when we took my son out when he was younger). Parents often shouting say thank you, or only take one. Occasionally you get ones that try to grab a handful, but I used to open with 'Happy halloween! Please just take 1!'. You get occasional pumpkins smashed but really it isn't much of a problem where I live and no worse now than it ever was. We've lived here 17 years and it has always been mad. We are on the main road through a housing estate and people literally drive here to go trick or treating!

So some years we have given and some years taken. Some years both and some years none. This year me and the dog were sat in the dark with the door firmly locked as the dog is barky and anxious and having 50+ people at the door would stress her out. No one knocked but I heard lots of chatter and laugher going passed. It's lovely to hear and you can take it or leave it. Never had anyone play a trick.

As for leaving out bowls, some do it because they are out themselves. Some because they want to partake but don't want people knocking. It's not a new thing round here.

Oh and just to add, my son's sweets rarely all got eaten. It was much more about the going out than it was about the sweets.

I honestly don’t understand why people leave sweets outside! It isn’t how ‘Trick or Treat’ works. People are either being lazy or inviting a problem and a reason to complain about this (or don’t have the brains to think it through!).

The idea of ‘Trick or Treat’ has always been to knock the door, and keep the sweets inside to offer to the children at the door. I enjoy seeing the neighbourhood kids all dressed up and ‘trick of treating’ is about interacting with the neighbours. It’s not JUST to get your hands on sweets! What’s the point of dressing up if everyone just leaves sweets by their door?!

And to preempt ‘how can I be at home to see the children calling when mine are also out?; one adult can stay at home, go out then come home and put a pumpkin out - or don’t do both!

😂 😂

Or I could just do what I personally prefer to do, which is to leave a bowl out while I go out with my own children 🤷🏻‍♀️

Was so proud of my son last night, they asked him to take some, he’d take one at a time. Years ago he’d have grabbed a handful. They gave him extra so he at least saw it as the same outcome but I do wonder if he was with friends at a door would he be so good, hoping he wouod(I do think he would)

You should only call at homes who have left a clear signal to knock, usually a pumpkin.

We leave sweets out in a bowl at our house when we take the kids out trick or treating. We do this so kids have more houses to visit and because my kids really like decorating the house.

I’ve never had a pumpkin smashed or decorations tampered with and my ring footage has never shown kids raiding the bowl.

Guess it’s area dependent.

Also, the 'trick' part seemed to have disappeared now! I went out with some friends in our road when I was young and the trick was going back later and doing knock door run. Not the most tricky of tricks but no sweets in the 90s meant a trick!