So Trick or Treating is "harmless" fun for young children is it...................?

[TheQueenOfQuotes]

6ft 1 doesn't sound very much like a young child to me

We had two lots of trick or treaters. Both at 9.10pm, both as tall as dh - 6ft.

That article makes it sound like they hadn't even bothered with the fright masks ours were wearing.

Lots of things are fun for young p[eople, just because some prat chooses to mess it up doesn't mean its not still fun for the kids. Nobody who came here was over 8 (know that for a fact- in ds2's class), when mum gets older ones she just laughs in their face.

what's your point? the fact that teenagers have been known to throw eggs/fight people who don't give them sweets doesn't stop it being harmless for children.

I'm not 100% comfortable with it myself, but it is harmless.

how is it harmless when things like this happen? And I know it's not an isolated case as there were several reports in the local newspaper today, and quite a few mums at the school gate said they'd had trouble too.

And if idiots like that are roaming the streets at the same time as young children??? (who incidentally were the ones that threw stones at our windows in our old house when we refused to open the door...)??

"when mum gets older ones she just laughs in their face."

well I'd say given recent reports of adults being attacked by teenagers that's a pretty brave thing to do!

not really, given the fact that most teenagers are actually rather nice. those ones are just not very newsworthy.

at christmas lots of people drink-drive or get into fights. would you blame that on christmas in general?

No I'd blame that on binge drinking.

Just as I'm blaming these problems on Trick or Treating (ie NOT halloween in general). If Trick or Treating wasn't so prevelant there would be a lot less people on the streets, and a lot of people that wouldn't be scared/refuse to open their doors if someone should ring it.

Mum is fairly scary actually, far moe than a 14 year old in a plastic mask! (and dad is 6 ft 3 and 20 stones LOL so not tiny...)

Why ruin it for the littlies becasue of the bigger kids? thats pretty prescriptive and unfair isn't it?

Agree that most teenagers are lovely, something society seems to have forgotten. ALL the supposedly 'needy' teens I mentored at school last year were lovely indeed- sweethearts.

In general I've found that while yes I FULLY agree that the majority of teenagers are lovely (even the group that sit drinking and smoking on the church steps every ) a lot of the teenagers out Trick or Treating are not very nice.

And if it means that people are afraid of opening their doors how is that a good thing???

See I told you it should be made illegal

Much trick or treating is ahrmless- its done by the kids up the road to their classmates, or to their Gran. If its amde illegal thats who gets the brunt, do your eally think the idiots who think egg and flouring an old aldy will care if its illegal? Honestly?

In three weeks back home the dodgier t4eens will start on the carolling- door to door, one line of a carol and an outstretched hand, that scared the old folk too. But where's the logic in banning that for the charities later on, or the normal kids who go in December and whose visits most people love?

yes - remember threatening behaviour and assault is already illegal.

my dad had his car sprayed with some kind of resin on halloween. So did the people whose house he was visiting at the time - they didn't even come knocking just carried on their destructive path. And the people across the road had the locks on his car sprayed so had to get brand new ones - hundreds of pounds worth of damage.

Trick or treating is a mennace. Children are not being deprived by not being allowed to do it, if no-one did it, then no-one would be any worse off would they?

I opened the door to a couple of 12 year olds who couldn't have appeared more miserable if they'd tried. so I said "aren't you a bit old to be begging for sweets?" at which point they left.

I did give sweets to the little ones that came round, but ds wasn't allowed to go as I think it is begging.

Again, its not begging if you just do it to agreed freinds or grandparents, as most people we know do.

And vandalism is illegal in itself isnt it, why would a teenager who is happy to vandalise a car and break that law adhere to a different one?

I didn't get any kids - just youths battering my door and letterbox. Wasn't much fun for me either.

"I did give sweets to the little ones that came round, but ds wasn't allowed to go as I think it is begging. "

Yes me too, it's just bad form to go around people's houses and ask for sweets or money. Yuck - grasping and materialistic / fostering an entitlement complex (there's a lot of that around!)...and a good excuse for oiks to go around demanding money with menaces. Vile

Don't mind it when parents arrange for their children to make pre-arranged visits to close friends and neighbours houses. That's a different ball game

we all had fun round here. you can't exactly ban it though can you.

as a good parent i do not allow my children to go to houses trick or treating now they are 14. they think i am being mean. i think that some peolpe find teenagers threatening. I would not like people to feel threatened even if it was not the intent.

so i feel tis another parenting problem

"you can't exactly ban it though can you."

...but I'd like to try

just read more of the thread. I do not consider younger children to be begging - rather i consider them to be participating in a modern cultural event.

as such i prepare for this - even though i do not have younger children myself - i LOVE LOVE LOVE when the younger children come dressed up - their mums and dads at the end of the path - i just know that they have spent lots of time with their children making the costumes and spending time with them face painting and preparing and i delight so much in this fact that i consider it a lovely thing and therefore more as a 'reward' for the loverly children

It's a horrid American event, which gives all the louts an excuse to throw eggs at the doors of the local teachers and elderly people - who won't respond. I'm not either but have a street lamp near the front door - assists the aim perfectly, and we gave sweets to everyone who knocked. This year the local corner shop banned egg sales for the week before and none - we still gave sweets - but no pleasure this end.

Baseball cap and joggers, it seems to be the uniform. An idea for next years guising.

And we don't do trick or treat, we go out guising. All the local kids do and I see no reason to stop, the paper let it be known that if anyone didn't want guisers at the door they should either put up a notice or leave the hall light/outdoor light off if visable.

Just a thought........has anyone who's refused/ignored Trick or Treaters and had vandalism/yobbish behaviour towards them as a result ever refused/ignored Carol Singers and had the same response???

yeah them effing carol singers - bloody yobbos with their 'come all ye effin faithful'