Better Off Jed

Two years ago, my son was 3 and rather frightened by the whole notion of Halloween. In fact, last year he totally opted out. He told us straight up that he did not want to go trick or treating, so he stayed home and helped pass out candy.

Over the past year, I have definitely noticed my son becoming more confident socially. I wasn’t sure how this would translate to Halloween, but I was hopeful that he’d want to participate this year. A couple of months ago, he decided that he wanted to dress up as Anakin Skywalker (btw, I will hopefully write a separate post regarding his growing obsession with Star Wars).

My daughter, who dressed up as an Eskimo, had arranged to trick or treat with 4 friends, who each have younger siblings. We ended up having a caravan of 10 kids (ranging in age from 3 to 9) and 4 dads. On a crowded and dark Halloween night, it’s not always easy to keep track of everyone.

My son was quite the trooper. It was as though he was never afraid in years past. He really had a great time. He didn’t even think twice walking up to the house that caused his body to quake with fear two years ago.

As an adult, I’ve learned that the trick to “trick or treating” is figuring out where the half way point should be to turn around and head home. That is a trick I haven’t yet mastered. At what I thought was the half way point, the thought of turning around and heading home was outrageous to the kids.

My son gave out first. He complained that his bag was too heavy. My rule is that if they want to trick or treat they have to carry their own bag at all times. He wisely chose to surrender his bag and hang with me while the rest of the kids secured more candy.

Soon after that, I could sense the energy level of the group diminishing. They weren’t as chatty and they stopped trying to run ahead. Finally, one of my daughter’s friends declared she was done and within about 20 seconds they all decided that they had had enough. The problem was that we were about a 10 minute walk from home. So we decided to skip the rest of the houses and go straight home.

As usual, only about 1/2 the candy was worth keeping. There really ought to be an approved list of acceptable candy. Does anyone really like getting a small, yellow box with two Milk Duds that end up being hard to chew and stuck to your teeth? The only time I ever see a 100 Grand bar is on Halloween. And hard candy? Come on! Lollipops maybe, but little cinnamon flavored suckers? Please. If it were up to me, you could only give out the following:  Kit Kat, Reese’s, Crunch, M&Ms, Nerds, Hershey miniatures, 3 Muskateers, and Whoppers. That’s it! That’s the list!

Anyway, despite the steady drizzle of rain (I forgot to mention that part), my kids had a successful Halloween night. I was very happy that my son got over his fear and had a great time trick or treating!