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Where have you gone, halloween?
- Nov 1, 2009 at 12:09 PM
- By
- Comments (79) Total Views (1427) Everyone can see this journal post.
I have a few "bones" to pick with you, America.
#1. Since when is a "scary" costume TABOO on Halloween? We went to the "Mall-o-ween" with our toddlers at about 5, because it was easy and we knew we would take them around our neighborhood later. People were giving my son, husband, and I dirty looks for our costumes.. and PRAISING my daughter for hers (fairy) while IGNORING my son completely. Her candy bag weighed double when we got home.. and hers was full of nicer candy, his was full of the crap from China and stuff that I wont let them eat so we donate to the shelter. Nice.
I think they BOTH look adorable and worthy of equal treatment.. I was pretty disgusted by how many people went "oh, hi.. here you go" to my son and gave me a dirty look.. and then went "OMG HI CUTIE! OMG YOUR SO CUTE! OMG! HERE YOU GO! AWWW HAVE TWO!!" to my daughter. Yes.. shes cute. But wow, bash to my other kids ego much?
#2. Whats all this "Safe place" talk? "As long as we go to a safe place..." meaning what? A person who lives in a smaller house than yours is going to kidnap and murder you on the spot? You are going to get shot on a street without streetlamps? I don'tget it. Every year we went trick or treating at my friends aunts neighborhood before going to my grandmas neighborhood.. her aunts neighborhood was a.. GASP.. trailer park! And guess what? It was the BEST! The best candy, the nicest people, and just about EVERYONE participated. It was probably the SAFEST neighborhood we could go to, because there were lots of people and no cars racing past. I mentioned this the other day and someone sneered "ew.. a trailer park?" ARE YOU SERIOUS? Grow up.
#3. WTF is Trunk-or-treating and why does it insist on ruining halloween? When I was a kid, you wanted candy.. you had to work for it! Trudge up and down those hills in your costume, knock on doors. Our kids are so fat and lazy now (or our parents?) that we cant even knock on doors? We have to walk from trunk to trunk in a parking lot? We passed THREE trunk or treating events.. and the consequence of that is the $20.00 of candy we bought for trick or treaters is just sitting here still.. we only had 5 groups of people knock on our door.. maybe 20 kids total. We gave out big handfulls but still have a ton left over. Last year we had about 100 kids at least. What HAPPENED? Last year it was cold and rainy.. this year warmer and dry. So it wasn'tthe weather. I really don't care if this offends anyone.. There are only THREE reasons I can think that trunk or treating exists:
A. Because its inclusive.. aka, done by a church or such and meant for them only. Which is cool... but doesn't sound like any fun to me and then why not go trick or treating afterwords?
B. Because your lazy. You don't want to trudge door to door with your kids, and you don't want them going alone.. so you take them to a parking lot. Ooooh FUN.
C. Because your paranoid. Checking candy isnt enough for you. Walking with your kids isnt enough.. you are CONVINCED your child is going to be kidnapped, poisoned, and killed right in front of your eyes. Yes.. its come to that folks.
Really, I cant think of any other reason. What has happened to this holiday I cherished so as a child? I can remember walking down the sidewalks absolutely crushed with kids.. kids on every square inch of sidewalk.. costumes of ALL kinds. Zombies.. Monsters.. and some cute ones too. I called my grandma today to ask how she held up (its kinda a late night for her, they dont quit until 11pm) but she said she only had a few people there too. WHAT? One year we went through 10 five pound bags of candy at her place... this year she said she counted maybe 40 kids.
What has happened to halloween?
PS... if your kid was scared by my costume, perhaps your kid is a puss. Or perhaps its your job to explain what a COSTUME is? RAWR.
EDIT:
OK so I didnt expect this post to go "popular" there were only 9 comments on it when I went to sleep, all from friends.
#1. In regards to the donated candy: We dont allow our kids to eat sweets in general. We saved the lolipops, and donated all the rest to the local homeless MENS shelter, who specialize in helping these men kick drug habits. Sucking on candy helps them, that is why I specifically donate it TO THEM. I didnt say I give it to the food bank. I really dont give a crap what anyone has to say about that.. I do not think "its good enough for them" I think.. hey, this can help them out because they specifically ASK for people to donate their candy to them. Dont like it? I dont care. Oh and, we donate clothes, food, home goods, and MONEY to THREE local organizations... Salvation Army, The Deseret Industries, and a womans shelter.. on top of donating our christmas bonus ham and turkey to the food bank so you can kiss my ass. We give plenty, and I dont need a single one of you making me feel like donating our candy was the WRONG thing to do.
#2. The "puss" comment? Quite obviously a joke. You cant take a joke? Move on.
#3. My kids are not "exposed" to anything violent or gory either. My son wanted to be a chainsaw zombie killer, because he saw a costume like it in the halloween store. Oooooh I'm such a bad mom for taking him into a halloween store before halloween!
He has never seen Texas chainsaw massacre and wouldnt even know what it was. Scariest movie he has ever seen is ET. Its what he wanted, I'm not going to say "Oh you want to be scary? No no... you might scare someone. Lets just make you batman for the 4th year in a row." Get over yourself.
If you took offense to something in my post.. quite frankly I dont care. If it doesnt apply to you, you shouldnt be offended by it. You should say.. oh well, thats her point of view.. I dont agree, but its hers to have.
Tags: halloween, trick or treat, wtf people? truck or treating?!, spooky cosumes rock
Comments:
Oh, by the way, Your son looks AWESOME and your daughter looks super cute.
My son was the Grim Reaper last year, this year however, Batman won out.
Rock on Mama!
You look HOT. ANd of course, awesome. But mainly, hot.
We didn't see nearly as many kids as I expected either, AND not as many people as normal were handing out candy. I don't get it. I agree with everything you said, by the way. It's freakin' disappointing, both for me and for others. Some poor woman who went all out asked me, "Where IS everyone? My favorite holiday is dead right now." She looked so sad, and so was I!
People LOVED our son's costume, though... I don't know why yours got such bad looks!
(By the way, that's inspired by your other post! He wouldn't let us do nearly as much liquid latex/tissue as we wanted, though.)
LOL thats AWESOME!! Rowan looks great!!! Yeah we only had ONE person compliment his costume and they said "Is he dexter?" I about fell down laughing... we LOVE dexter! hehe. I just feel like halloween is a totally different thing now then it was 20 years ago or even 10 years ago.. so sad!
I totally agree! we went to a downtown event and to the mall because fewer and fewer people handed out candy around our neighborhood- we handed out candy as well but only got maybe 30 kids- i have a HUGE skull filled with candy now...
I miss the scary fun "dangerous" feel Halloween used to have.
I'm so glad you wrote this because all hubby and I were thinking last night was, "This is so lame!" Literally, less than half the houses on our street and the adjoining one were opening their door. We, too, only had about 20 kids come by for candy. We had our 10 month old in the stroller and our 2 year old walking door to door! He only got about 10-15 pieces of candy! Which I guess we don't mind too much because of all the damn candy WE have leftover from lack of Trick-or-Treaters.
I'm not that old, I'm only 26, and I remember when there were so many Trick-or-Treaters, there was a crowd at every single door you went to! Actually, I can remember this just last year in our neighborhood in North Carolina! The "Bible Belt!"
I agree, what the heck has happened to Halloween??? On a lighter note, we got a flyer for the "Harvest Festival" at the Christain Life Center right behind our house, and we noticed there was a costume contest. Well, in parenthesis it stated, "No witches or devil costumes, please." Hahahaha, LMAO!
hahaha! Thats hilarious!! Yeah I'm only 24 but I can remember halloween being a BIG DEAL... now its more money being spent but less people truly ENJOYING it.
Yep... I agree. Neither of my kids were in "scary" costumes (heck, Justin just wore his Batman PJ's with the attachable cape because he wouldn't tell me what else he wanted to be!), but if they had wanted to they would have.. and I am sure they will!
Both of your kiddos look awesome and I really think it SUCKS that people weren't as nice to your son!! Oh, and your outfit ROCKS! I just wish I had the cahonies to pull it off myself... maybe one day!
I also agree about the trick-or-treating part. What was wrong with just going door-to-door?! Really?! We started out on our own block but in a HUGE row of townhouses only 4 houses had their light on. FOUR! So, we WALKED *gasp* to the next neighborhood over and they actually had a semi-reasonable number of houses participating... several even went all out decorating and dressing up. After that neighborhood I sent my mom back home with Patrick because I was worried he was getting cold and he has been fighting getting sick again this week.
Justin and I went on to try a third neighborhood (his little pumpkin bucket was still less than 1/3 full at this point). Ultimately I think he loved the third neighborhood, but only because he got to walk with mommy by himself for a change. We went around two full blocks in the third neighborhood and went to a total about maybe 10 houses. Disappointing.
My major vent last night.... we saw several people out DRIVING their kids from house to house. Yeah, you read that right... we're in FLORIDA, it's 60 degrees out, overcast but not raining.... and there were people do DAMN LAZY that they DROVE house to house to trick-or-treat. Ugh! When did getting candy become more important that having fun just walking around showing off your costumes and enjoying the company of your family and friends. How about you save the gas and just drive to the store and buy the candy for your kids instead. Not to mention it puts everyone else who is trick-or-treating the good old-fashioned way at risk that you could hit their kids too. Bleh.
Still... for all the ranting and raving, we had a lot of fun last night. The kids got some candy... enough to last through to Easter I'm sure as long as I can hold up to their begging! Justin LOVED getting to spend mommy and me time without having to share me with his little brother.... and we enjoyed getting to see all the costumes and decorations. (Now I just have to get it through Justin's thick skull that he really is NOT supposed to blow out the candles in pumpkins!)
Thats so nice you and Justin got to have some one on one time! I am starting to notice as they get older how much they enjoy that. Poor Halloween.. its just not the same! But I wont give up... as long as a few of us dutifully carve our pumpkins, light our porches, and keep up the neighborhood marches it will live on! lol
I totally agree with you on all but one thing... If the candy isnt good enough for your kids to eat, why would you donate it to a shelter?
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WooHoo!!!!!!!
I feel the exact same way! I miss the old days of Halloween when you could walk up the street and go to almost every house. Now, almost every house is dark. Yet, my 3yr old, my hubby and I still walked up and down those streets, trick or treating door to door. The way it is meant to be!