Do you leave out candy for trick or treaters if you are not home Halloween night?

JCS2007

We are not going to be home on halloween and are debating which to do. Do you leave out a bowl of candy or just turn off the lights? I tried to do a clicky poll but my phone won't cooperate.

cokt

When we take James TOTing to a few houses, we just leave the bowl out while we are gone. If we were gone all night, I would do the same thing. We only get pretty little kids who all come by with their parents.

lollitots

I usually turn out the lights. I figure that one of the first kids will take the entire bowl, and then the rest will come up to an empty doorway. Better just to let them know not to come up at all.

Mominator

I don't have anyone to hand it out while I take Nate and Alyssa around, so I just leave a bowl out. Then when we get home I'll bring it in so I can hand out some too, I like seeing all the kiddies in their costumes

Hooray2005

We put a bowl out last year before we headed out to TOT and the first kid that came by dumped the ENTIRE bowl into his bag.  We hadn't even made it out of the house yet and all of our candy/treats (including non-food stuff for little children and those with allergies, etc.) was gone for the night. 

It made me both angry, and sad for the little kids who didn't get any.  Unfortunately, this one kid's crappy behavior has lead us to decide to turn out our lights this year

ETA:  This was early in the evening, before it was even remotely dark, and in a "safe" neighborhood where you would think children would be supervised by adults and/or more thoughtful.  Guess not. Gah!

Mominator

Hooray2005:

We put a bowl out last year before we headed out to TOT and the first kid that came by dumped the ENTIRE bowl into his bag.  We hadn't even made it out of the house yet and all of our candy/treats (including non-food stuff for little children and those with allergies, etc.) was gone for the night. 

It made me both angry, and sad for the little kids who didn't get any.  Unfortunately, this one kid's crappy behavior has lead us to decide to turn out our lights this year

ETA:  This was early in the evening, before it was even remotely dark, and in a "safe" neighborhood where you would think children would be supervised by adults and/or more thoughtful.  Guess not. Gah!

That is terrible! Thank goodness I've never had that happen. And I'll say, I'd be mortified if I ever found out that my child did something like that. 

Chapter79

I'd never leave out a bowl of candy and let them choose- not where I live. It would be gone in 1 minute.  If we're not home, we just turn off the lights.

brightning

We don't. We don't want to encourage people to be walking up to my house when they know we're not home (and we're in a nice, suburban neighborhood).

ready2go

We leave a bowl out.  We've done that for the last few years and never had a problem (in 2 different neighborhoods) with kids taking it all. 

MrsCali_Bride

We don't get many (if any) trick or treaters but we leave a bowl of candy by our door while we're out just in case. We always take C to the neighborhood next to our apt complex so we're never home when kids might be coming by anyway. The times I've stayed home we were lucky to get four kids total and I gave them all handfuls of candy. I end up just buying one bag of candy now so we aren't stuck with tons leftover.

JenniC1135

We do, and it's never been an issue.  Last year we ToT'd in a completely different neighborhood and there was still some in the bowl when we got home.  We never get many kids anyway, but the ones that do come must be somewhat well mannered.

Jodi&Joe

I was the kid that would have taken the whole bowl!  Alright, I might have left one or two for the next kid....but not many! 

That said, we don't leave out a bowl because it would drive Cooper NUTS to have people coming up to the door all night long.  He would hear them and want to get out of his crate.  I don't like other people enough to inconvenience my dog!  LOL  In addition to that, we live on a main street and even when we were home a few years, we got maybe 10 ToTers.  Not really necessary, IMO.

jlw2505

We do the lights on, bowl of candy on the front porch thing but we honestly only get a small handful of kids so its not a big deal.  If I lived in a busy area with lots of kids, I would just leave my light off.  I can name the kids that will come to my house since we just are not a high traffic area.