I don’t do Trick-or-Treating. I did when I was a kid but I remember all to well having to let my mother go through the candy to make sure nobody had done anything particularly nasty that year. We’ve all heard the horror stories and the urban legends and all things awful that could be done to unsuspecting children on All Hallows Eve and, regardless of whether or not they are real, I just can’t seem to let my son do this.
Which is sad, I know. I love Halloween and I love watching my son pick a costume and I make sure he has every opportunity to wear said costume throughout the month of October (and often the rest of the year.)
But as a single parent who lives in an apartment complex full of college students I draw the line at trick-or-treating.
Over the last six years my son and I have made our own traditions for this special night. We both dress up, we make a special dinner, and we try to construct a haunted ginger bread house. Mostly we just eat the pieces but for about 20 seconds the thing manages to stand upright.
We watched Scooby-Doo last year but this year we’ve both decided to watch Doctor Who.
We’ve been catching up on the new season since Monday and the episode called “Listen” scared the skittles out of us both. Totally appropriate for Halloween, wouldn’t you say?
I mean, there was one part where some thing was sitting on this kid’s bed, hiding under a blanket. It was so terribly creepy that my son hid his face. I was little better, clutching him to my side and wondering just how far Moffat was going to take this particular story-line.
In any case, I’m sure there are people out there who will say I’m robbing my son of a grand experience by barring him from trick-or-treating. To you I would say, let’s agree to disagree. There are plenty of other things my son and I can do to celebrate that don’t include driving down unfamiliar streets hunting for the houses with their lights on.
We went to the corn maze twice this month. We have pumpkins to carve. We have cupcakes to bake and a haunted ginger bread house to construct. And we have Doctor Who to watch.
AJMaguire 