Posted by Helen on: 10.29.2008 /
Shelly posted this question on here.
What’s everyone doing for safety precautions for Halloween? My husband came across an article (http://i-newswire.com/pr220892.html) with some info about background checking neighbors. I thought that may be a little overboard but it had some other good suggestions for some precautions I haven’t thought about. Last year my youngest son came down with a massive fever after Halloween. I almost thought about just taking the kids to our church’s fall festival this year instead of door-to-door to prevent that from happening again. I don’t know yet. What’s your advice? Am I over-reacted or just being a concerned mom?
Comment by: Helen
1When my children were very young I used to go with them and take them up to the house. Then when they were a bit older I would go with them but stay at the street when they ran up to the house. Now my daughter goes on her own with friends and my son is going to spend the evening at a friend’s house - he’s past the trick-or-treating age.
Everything my kids have collected is wrapped candy so it seems ok.
I’ve never said my kids can only go to houses of people we know. We haven’t had any problems with weird neighbors. If anything I’m always impressed at how friendly everyone is on Halloween.
Do you think Halloween was responsible for your son’s fever? It seems like a lot of viruses are going round this time of year and children catch some of them just from going to school.
Halloween was always a big deal when my kids were younger and I think they would have been upset had I said no trick or treating. But you need to do what you feel comfortable with.
Comment by: seekingsomething
2I think Shelley is right to be a concerned mom but the scaremongering by companies like backgroundchecks.com really makes me angry. Would be more appropriate to name the company scaremongering.com, IMO!
Remember that these businesses are not an arm of the government or social services, but are companies that exist to make profit for the shareholders.
If a house has a sign saying ‘No Candy Here!’ then maybe instead of rushing to ‘find out why’ we should simply respect that not everyone enjoys celebrating holidays… the only surefire ‘trick’ involved here is that scaremongering.com are encouraging our emotions about child safety to run so high that we are willing to pay them to conduct checks on folk who have actually actively discouraged contact with our kids!
We don’t have such a strong tradition of trick or treating over here in the UK as you do in the US (although it is growing) but I do feel personally that it is important to take extra precautions on the one night of the year that we throw our usual caution to the wind and allow kids out in the cold and dark to knock on strangers doors, asking for sweets and money. I think Helen’s tips about accompanying children at appropriate levels as they grow up sounds very sensible.
Given that it is cold and dark and trick or treating tends to take place during the hours that many adults are commuting home from work, road safety is probably one of the biggest dangers in built up areas. Kids need to be drilled in staying together as a group and looking out for one another and taking care on the roads, just as much as they need to be reminded not to get sucked into entering strangers’ houses. I’d personally never allow a child out in totally black or dark clothing but always make sure they have something reflective on to make them visible to drivers/cyclists.
Comment by: Helen
3seekingsomething wrote
Thanks ss - that’s an excellent point. I hadn’t noticed who the advice was coming from - hardly an unbiased source!!
I agree - I thought it was very strange advice to investigate why someone would post “No Candy here!” As you said why not just move on to the next house?
Another good point - I see kids running across the road in the middle of the street, not at a crossing, on Halloween; I already told my son I didn’t think it was a good day to do any practice driving because of that. He’ll probably be busy anyway :)
Comment by: Elaine
4Halloween has evolved so much from how it was when I was a child in the 50s and 60s.
My favorite things was to go trick or treating with my neighborhood friends. And, the houses we stopped at always made a big deal of commenting on your custome - trying to guess if they knew you or not. AND the treats were great…homemade fudge, carmel apples, candied apples, popcorn balls…we always looked forward to going to certain houses. We only trick ‘r treated probably within a 4-6 block radius of our homes.
By the time my children were trick r treating, it was like a marathon - kids from all over the city would come to a different neighborhood - especially it seemed parents drove their kids to the “wealthier” neighborhoods because they thought they would get better candy. NOT.
And then, someone spread a vicious rumor that their kid was given an apple with razors in it…I still cannot even imagine how that is possible. And everyone freaked out.
Everything I have read tells me that this was a myth…perpetuated by the internet and plain old gossiping.
It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take reasonable precautions, but I think we have gone toooo far and taken the fun and the “sense of community” out of the day.
I stopped making popcorn balls and the kids were disappointed - but I didn’t see any point if their parents were going to throw it out…of course, they might have eaten it before they got home :)
Fearmongers do community a terrible dis-service.
It is true the world can be hard and there can be scary people out there - but most people are good.
Comment by: gecko
5I don’t know if this is the right place to ask, but: How do you do popcorn balls? I don’t know it existed. but it sounds very nice… Do you have a recipe? Thanks for posting it!
Comment by: Elaine
6gecko
just noticed your posting. it has been a long time since i made popcorn balls.
here is a link that has a bunch of them
all of them involve adding a syrup or melted carmels to a pot of popcorn - then shaping them into balls.
yummmy.
my favorites were always the carmel and those coated with karo syrup.
Comment by: Helen
7Thanks for posting those links Elaine.
Comment by: gecko
8Thank you very much Elaine. I just couldn’t answer sooner because we had so much to do and on top of it I was ill. I’ll try them as soon as my stomach is able to digest nice things again!