vent about halloween

[happyscooter]

actually i have a few but this is recent.

so the town has a halloween fest each year. it's free. the city sponsors it, buys the candy, sets up games, they just have volunteers to work. it's for the KIDS. why oh why, do adults feel the need to dress up like Freddy Krueger, Jason, zombies, etc... to scare the beejezus out of these kids? rattling chains, fake blood, those kinds of things. why can't they have a halloween party and invite their friends to dress up? why don't they go to a bar that is having a costume contest? why don't they go to a haunted house? they have to come and spoil a good time for a 5-6 year old ballerina or star wars character. way to go.

[Deleted]

Because it is FUN? Um, gee i don't know? Most the kids seem to ENJOY it when adults dress up too?

[happyscooter]

50 plus year old man (and if he wasn't 50, the years have not been good to him) walked up and said 'can i have some candy"? DH said 'if you want to come back when the games start and play our game, you can.'

and yes if the kids (really the parents) couldn't make an effort to dress up, they got a small piece of candy. if they had an imagination, i loaded down their bag.

[happyscooter]

shooby, i don't think it is fun when the kids start climbing their parent's leg and crying because they have a zombie with blood dripping down their face, start to come toward them making strange noises.

[Deleted]

Oct 28, 2012 7:48:19 GMT -5 happyscooter said:

shooby, i don't think it is fun when the kids start climbing their parent's leg and crying because they have a zombie with blood dripping down their face, start to come toward them making strange noises.

It IS fun. Part of Halloween is being scared. Are we going to take the scary out of Halloweeen now too ?

[raeoflyte]

I'm irritated that all of the halloween stores have the gruesome monsters and decorations right by the front door. Last year, I could take ds2 in and laugh at the witches and cauldrons and completely avoid the adult area. This year I actually asked my parents to babysit for an hour so that I could finish my halloween shopping without ds along.

I know some people like being scared but I'm not one of them, and so far neither is ds.

[Colleenz]

I am just glad that this year DS (who is 6) really got into the scary stuff. Last year he did not want to trick or treat because some of the houses were too scary. This year his favorite house was the one with the motion activated disembodied hand.

They should have at least section of your festival that is not scary for the toddler set though IMO.

[Deleted]

Part of Halloween is always going to include gruesome costumes. It is what it is. If that isn't your bag, then i would check out other offerings such as Trunk or Treats at local churches and so forth who try to deemphasize that. But, ghosts, goblins and monsters are what make Halloween what it is.

[Colleenz]

But would it really be that hard for the city to set up a small scare free zone? Toddlers don't need much room and the rest can be scary.

[Deleted]

I don't know. Have you approached anyone and suggested it and offered to man the area to do so?

[raeoflyte]

Oct 28, 2012 8:53:08 GMT -5 Colleenz said:

But would it really be that hard for the city to set up a small scare free zone? Toddlers don't need much room and the rest can be scary.

I totally dig halloween as an adult, but the focus should be the kids.

[Deleted]

But, does the city have to set up something to please everyone? We know what Halloween is. If it is really that bothersome why go?

[Deleted]

So, someone walking around in a costume in some well lit area at a Halloween party going "boo" is too "scary" for the little kids?

[raeoflyte]

There is balance, and if you have an extremely sensitive child that is scared of anything they see then you might have to go to some extremes. But it isn't unreasonable for adults who are dressed up in scary costumes to not engage with strangers kids and certainly not try to scare them. That isn't acceptable behavior the other 364 days of the year either.

Go to haunted houses if you want to intentionally scare people. Those people are paying for the thrill.

[milee]

I love how 97% of the people on this Board completely freaked out at the idea that a poster's coworker would yell at her (suggestions ranged from calling the police, to demanding immediate firing of the yeller to getting a restraining order) yet at the same time there appears to be support for the idea that it's completely OK to dress in a frightening costume, get in the face of an unknown 5 year old and yell something that is meant to be scary.

[InsertCoolName]

I would have to say that if some jackass walked up to my toddler and was scaring him enough that he was crying....I would probably kick the shit of them.

I wouldn't allow that any other day.

[wvugurl26]

The event is for children not adults!! And really a grown man walking around scaring random children?

[Deleted]

There is no reason for a grown ass man to be walking around a kid event scaring the little ones. I would have been pissed if someone walked up to one of my kids when they were little and scared them. There is a time and a place, but a daylight Halloween party is meant for little ones and people should not be trying to scare them.

[Deleted]

I have no idea why you would dress up like that for a kids event. I wouldn't support sexually suggestive costumes for adults in a kids area either. Some people are just dumb or mean.

[milee]

Oct 28, 2012 10:18:42 GMT -5 @anne81 said:

I wouldn't support sexually suggestive costumes for adults in a kids area either.

Have you been shopping for Halloween costumes lately? If you're an adult woman, there are really only two options:

Prostitute ________ (fill in the blank with any theme - pirate, lady bug, nurse, zombie, etc. - somehow these all end up being short enough to expose your undies when you bend over and are so low cut, you'll be afraid your nipples might make an appearance...)

or

Witch. The witch costume is a big, black bag from your neck to your toes and comes with a wart you wear on your nose.

[Formerly SK]

To be fair, younger kids (toddlers) could be just as scared by a walking Chuck E Cheese as a guy dressed as a zombie. Unless your kid knows what a zombie is, having colored paint on your face (blood) isn't any scarier than another costume.

[Deleted]

Have you been shopping for Halloween costumes lately?

No, but that is why. Most of my friends make their own costumes if they are going to dress up.

[Tennesseer]

'vent about halloween'

ToTers who come to the front door even though all of the front house lights are out.

[TheOtherMe]

Oct 28, 2012 10:52:28 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

'vent about halloween'

ToTers who come to the front door even though all of the front house lights are out.

And I don't answer the door. My house is situated such that nobody can see any lights on inside.

[Deleted]

Oct 28, 2012 7:46:53 GMT -5 happyscooter said:

50 plus year old man (and if he wasn't 50, the years have not been good to him) walked up and said 'can i have some candy"? DH said 'if you want to come back when the games start and play our game, you can.'

and yes if the kids (really the parents) couldn't make an effort to dress up, they got a small piece of candy. if they had an imagination, i loaded down their bag.

Yeah, taking it out on the kids makes total sense. Way to go - you should be REALLY proud of yourself. Hope you get to walk in some of those shoes you so disdain.

The only reason my grandkids have costumes is because I can buy materials & me and auntie make them up. Mom works 2 30 hour jobs and isn't making ends meet. I'm loving that you want to make the kids feel that much shittier about their life situation . . . because every day isn't hard enough.

[busymom]

I agree that Halloween was a lot more "fun" oriented years ago. Remember going to the stores, and the ghost & jack-o-lanterns had smiles on their faces? I'd never even seen a zombie until I was an adult.

I don't think we need to have the weapons dripping with blood, scary stuff out when the kids come trick-or-treating. If the adults want to have a scary party, well, that's fine. One of my kids & one of the kid's friends has some serious issues with certain Halloween characters due to adults going "over the top" on scaring kids when they were little. If you need, as an adult, to scare a little kid, you've got issues. I'd like to take a baseball bat to the guy who scared the h@ll out of DS when he was little. There is NO excuse for jumping out & chasing little kids down the street.

[zibazinski]

Rats I lived in the neighborhood I taught in and I always dressed up and answered the door. Kids loved it. Plus I decorated and played scary music. We all had fun with it. They loved seeing their teacher and I loved seeing their surprised faces!

[Deleted]

Oct 28, 2012 9:07:51 GMT -5 raeoflyte said:

There is balance, and if you have an extremely sensitive child that is scared of anything they see then you might have to go to some extremes. But it isn't unreasonable for adults who are dressed up in scary costumes to not engage with strangers kids and certainly not try to scare them. That isn't acceptable behavior the other 364 days of the year either.

Go to haunted houses if you want to intentionally scare people. Those people are paying for the thrill.

No, it isn't acceptable the rest of the year. But, if you go to a Halloween party, what do you expect? If someone is that sensitive, they should probably just stay home so they dont' have nightmares.

[busymom]

The kids were only at the door trick-or-treating. I'm thankful that neighbor moved!


Oh, & by the way, the kids didn't have issues with Halloween until that night.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

No, it isn't acceptable the rest of the year. But, if you go to a Halloween party, what do you expect? If someone is that sensitive, they should probably just stay home so they dont' have nightmares

If it's a private house-party where the kids know the adults, it's one thing to play scary - but this was a public event (childrens' party) where very young children were - and adults were dressed up in scary/creepy costumes and frightening other people's kids who they didn't even know - nor did the kids know them. That's just not right, IMO.