It’s Halloween! I’m sure every parent of young children is well aware of that today. From school parties to candy overloads to costume contests and pumpkin carving, preparation for Halloween has consumed many households for quite some time. In our house, it is the last big to-do before we start gearing up for the holiday season. It always seems that as soon as Halloween is over, you blink and it’s Thanksgiving and you blink again and it’s Christmas. So, I thought I’d take some time to record some thoughts about Halloween.
This is the first year ever that I haven’t accompanied my daughters on their trick-or-treating adventures. For the first time in ten years, my husband has taken the girls out for Halloween while I stay back to pass out candy at our own home. My first visitors this evening was a group of teenage boys. I have seen a big push this year on Facebook and other social media to embrace the occurrence of having older children knock on your door looking for candy. As the most popular post circulating right now points out, they really could be doing a lot worse than knocking on doors at this age. I am happily giving out treats to any children, young or old, who come to our house tonight. I’m even handing it out to the adults if they want it. That begs the question: How old is too old to trick-or-treat? Is there even such a thing?
We live in a world that exposes our children to so much more than we experienced growing up. With cell phones and internet readily available and TV shows on 24/7, it is difficult to keep our children young at heart. Gone are the days of Saturday morning cartoons being the only thing you got to watch all week. I see it at my home, I see it at school. Now before I start waxing nostalgic, I am the first to admit that wireless communication has added a much appreciated level of convenience to my life. But has it robbed our children of their innocence? I think that yes, maybe a little, it has.
So, when my 10 year old begs me to try three different stores so we can find her the right Gryffindor accessories to be Hermione Grainger on Halloween instead of just any Hogwart’s student, I will happily oblige. When my 5 year old has her heart set on being Officer Judy Hopps from Zootopia and I can only find the costume on Amazon, I will order it. They aren’t asking for much. In fact, all they’re really asking is for me to let them be children.
When teenagers show up at my door, some in full costume and some in no costume at all or even just because they’re taking younger siblings around, I will happily give them candy. Halloween may have originated as a spooky night to scare people and commune with the dead, but now, at least for me, it is a reminder that our children need protecting. They need protection from the adult problems that so many of them face. They need protection from judgment and bullying and overexposure. They need an outlet for their creativity that allows them to be outside and hanging out with friends rather than requiring them to be plugged in all the time. They need a community that embraces who they are instead of expecting them to be and act older. Our children do not need a “good dose of reality.” Instead, they need to be allowed to embrace the fantasy of Halloween. Let them dress up. Get them outside. Let them be a unicorn or a zombie or a hippie or a cat. Most of all, let them be a kid.
There is plenty of time for them to be jaded by what the world has in store for them. Eventually they will grow up and have families and mortgages and car payments. Eventually they will learn that the world isn’t all butterflies and rainbows, that there really are mean people out there. That is reality. But at least for tonight, let them live the fantasy that is Halloween. Let them be children, whether they are really children or not. There is plenty of candy to go around for children of all ages – at least at our home.
Trick or Treat!
