Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Trick-or-Treat OR Mooch & Take Advantage

This will be brief, but it has to be said. Trick-or-Treating has gotten out of hand. My neighborhood in LOVES Halloween and decorates really well. People come from everyone where to visit the house across the street that is always awesome. A cop even comes to direct traffic once it's dark to ensure safety and hope to avoid parking accidents. I always run out of candy before kids are finished walking around. It's quite an event and one I like to experience, but I have to vent - Trick-or-Treating has some rules, and people today are breaking them!
Rules: 
  • Be under 13 years of age
  • Be in costume - homemade, store-bought, even if it needs to be explained.
  • Say "trick-or-treat"
  • Only take the candy that is given to you and only FOR you.
  • Say thank you
  • Again, be under 13

Violated Rules:
  • Repeatedly I had to ask some teenagers who they were dressed as, because they didn't appear to be in costume at all.
  • I saw a few 10-12 year olds who had a 2nd bag for their "nephew" waiting in some unknown place. 
  • I reluctantly gave candy to adults who were with their children, but with their OWN bags. 
  • I asked several, no - numerous children what they should say to get candy. Most said please, then with some coaching, finally said trick-or-treat. 
  • Once I let a girl with a good costume pick her candy, and she took a HUGE handful of tootsie rolls. I said - um...just 1 please. Then she didn't say thank you. 
  • One teenager couldn't even come up with "Uh, I'm a high schooler" as a lame answer to what she's dressed as. She got so uncomfortable she just walked away. I felt slightly like a jerk, but had to stick to my conviction and enforce the rules above. 
  • This isn't quite a violated rule, but I was slightly offended. A man was dressed in a gray sweatshirt with multiple paint sample colors attached to him. All were variations of the sweatshirt color. I looked him in the eye and said "Seriously are you 50 shades of grey?" He confirmed it and even suggested I count them all. I was disgusted. The only thing I could appreciate was the creativity in the delivery, but honestly - it just shouldn't have been done, especially as you walk your 8 and 10 year old daughters around the neighborhood. 
I'm trying not to become completely jaded about this tradition, and actually doing my best to protect the rules of the game :) In additional to all the ones that drove me nuts, I saw awesome bumblebees, Avengers, witches, Alice in Wonderland, a great TinMan and a lot of cute lion and monkey 2 year olds. I also had a lot of parents verifying that their child did indeed say "thank you" after receiving candy and held their hands as they walked down the road. I saw a couple parents dress up and walk with their kids, just because they wanted to be with them. They didn't ask for candy.

I want more kids like these at my house: