7 Deadly Sins Associated With Treating Your Child
For previous generations, Halloween tended to be a fairly low-stakes holiday. Parents simply covered their children’s heads with sheets and pushed them out the door, expecting that at some point they would return with candy. But the parents of the previous generation were psychopaths. Now we know better and are more involved in our children’s lives, even on the scariest night of the year. Too involved? Avoiding the seven deadly sins below is the start of making sure your little boils and ghouls have a safe yet sensible and enjoyable Halloween experience.
scare your child
Halloween is supposed to be scary and fun for kids, but some parents have skipped the reminder and are taking their little scared cats to adult horror movies, over-the-top haunted houses and evening treats. Children are frightened on a spectrum. Some young children really like the grotesque, scary monsters that come with Halloween. Some older children (and adults) are afraid of the slightest fear. Don’t shame your child if he’s scared – if he doesn’t want to go to the treat, don’t take him. If they get scared in the first house, turn around and go home. You can’t argue with kids because they’re scared, trying will only make things worse, and you don’t want to deal with a week of nightmares. Remember: there is always next year.
Lack of concern for safety
The real horrors of Halloween night aren’t the wolf people (wolf people?), Draculas, or even Frankenstein’s monsters; these are cars. When you combine kids with diabetes running around in inappropriate costumes and masks with adults driving home drunk from Halloween parties, the combination is potentially deadly, so make safety a priority. Here is a checklist for a safer baby suit:
- Make sure your child has a flashlight, glow stick and/or reflectors.
- Bright colors are preferred over dark ones.
- Make sure their mask isn’t blocking their view – wear makeup if at all possible.
- Make sure their suit won’t trip
The most important rule is to keep the mom/dad radar at peak performance. This means not packing a flask or smoking a joint before taking them outside to beg unless other adults are on duty sober.
Worry about people slipping drugs into candy
We’ve all heard countless warnings about criminals slipping drugs, needles, razors, and other nasty things into Halloween candy, but that’s actually not the case . So don’t feel the need to x-ray your child’s candy or break a magnifying glass. Sometimes well-meaning oddballs give out unwrapped or homemade treats, so take a quick look at the candy and throw it away. It also gives you a chance to steal all mints.
Let your kids be rough
Halloween is a great time to teach your child how to behave in a real life situation. Make sure they say “trick or treat” when someone opens the door* and say a heartfelt “thank you” when someone tosses candy into their bag. After all, we live in a society. *insert the usual disclaimer that yes, some neuro-atypical children may not be able to do this, and that’s okay. They can still enjoy Halloween.
Distribution of sweets with nuts
This is advice on how to give candy instead of getting it, but it’s so important that I include it anyway. Nuts are a real, potentially deadly poison for kids with allergies, so when you’re choosing which treat to give for the big night, just skip anything with any kid’s nuts. Parents of kids with allergies should be vigilant, but there’s a lot going on on Halloween, so make their lives easier by not handing out anything that contains tree nuts or peanuts. Also, some parents don’t know that their child has a nut allergy, and it’s not good to find out because you almost killed him.
Bad planning
For toddlers, going to a couple of neighbor’s houses can be all the Halloween excitement they can handle, but older kids may want to stay longer and move on. Plan your meal so you don’t have to carry the dead weight of a sleeping three-year-old in a bumblebee costume up a huge hill to get home.
Halloween itinerary planning can take a lot, so check out Lifehacker’s guide to optimizing Halloween candy acquisition and maximizing the potential for holiday magic .
Complete rejection of tricks or treats
More and more people are turning down treats for a variety of reasons — security concerns, philosophical differences with the idea of begging strangers for free treats, a global pandemic, it’s a pain in the ass — but we can’t let that happen. Treat or Treat is a great American tradition and one of the few initiation rites for children that is not completely controlled by the parents. It is also a community building lesson. We trust our neighbors to “play along” with our children, and this is one of the few remaining “official” reasons why we should visit them. In addition, it gives parents the opportunity to look into the houses of their neighbors and assess the situation. So invite your child to Halloween every year. Like everything in raising children, you don’t have many years to care for them, and you’ll miss it when it’s too late.