what do you think about kids from another neighborhood coming into your neighbohood to trick or treat?
I'n not talking, crossing the next neighborhood close to you. I mean parents driving over from other sides of town unloading their truck of 10+kids, mostly older and barely in a costume.
This was my first time trick or treating with ds and while we started early, boy did it get crowded fast.
The streets were packed with people dropping off truckloads of kids,parents doing drive by trick or treating, and rude kids pushing over my 3 yr old.
It was really annoying!!! WTF.. why do you have to come to my quiet neighborhood and cluster it all up.
Re: Trick or treating- Outsiders in your neighborhood.....
We had a couple of parents following their kiddos around in a golf cart today. I thought that was a great example for the children, seeing that their parents didn't want to do the walking to get treats, that they just drove to each house.
I guess I don't mind as much as I previously thought I would. I kept thinking today, what if those kids come from a neighborhood where no one gives out candy? What if they went trick or treating and either no one answered or cared to have candy there? How sad would that be for those children who really wanted to enjoy the holiday? I gave out candy because I like the idea of halloween, the fun part of it, and I guess to me it doesn't matter where the kids come from that I am giving candy to. Also, I think all kids are kids, even the high schoolers we had come around, it doesn't bother me. They're still young to me and if they get a year or more of their youth to enjoy I say they should enjoy it before all the responsibility kicks in...
(Again though, we didn't GO trick or treating, we just had DS in his costume and handed out candy)
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I guess I just never was a halloween person growing up. We didnt trick or treat often. So I realize I'm a bit of a halloween grinch. But, I just miss the old days. It used to be about dressing up and seeing your neighbors and interacting. Everyone is so busy halloween is a good night to get out and socialize.Now its a contest to who can get the most/best candy. Now laziness has taken over (the drive bys). If you live in a rural area, I get it. But If you just go to another nieghborhood for better candy or any candy, there are plenty of festivals and community trick or treating events.
It just makes it not fun for us anymore when we have to fight other people.
I guess next year I'll stay home or take the kids to a movie or festival.
Sucks everyone else ruins it.
I think your taking this too seriously.
well I guess I just have a chip on my shoulder. When my mom asked a woman if they were new she started barking at us that "we're all one country, I called the police and they said its not illegal to trick or treat in another neighborhood" Um who even told her to call the police? and did you seriously tie up their phone lines to ask them such a stupid question?!
She got all defensive right off the bat. Why not just say "oh I'm from blah, but no one in my neighborhood trick or treats these days" or something. GAH. She was just a royal biznatch. I'm just all kinds of annoyed. sorry to rant here. It was just a reminder of why I'm really not a fan of halloween.
blah...sorry ya'll. Just annoyed. I'm off to bed.
That might annoy me- no candy for her. But people are rude. When I was asked if I was new to the neighborhood by a creepy old guy- I told him no. He then wanted to know where I lived/etc. It was wierd, and the entire time, he stared at C and kept wanting to know her name/age/and everything else about her. Maybe I'm crazy- but when people ask where I live when im trick or treating, I dont tell, just thank them for the candy and go on.
um, wow...so....drama gene is prominent in your area... 10/4 kimosabi
THIS. We always counted/compared at the end of the night. It was fun. As far as older kids coming around asking for candy with just a t-shirt and some blood on it, I totally don't mind. I would rather the teenager still be a little kid at heart and goofy. Than have him think he's too cool for trick or treating and end up smoking a joint at his friends house. So teenagers are always welcome to come get candy on Halloween at my house. Costume or no costume.
I grew up in an ok but very poor area of my city. We had tons of kids everywhere but when I turned 11 a friend of mine invited me to go to the Northside with her and her family to go trick or treating. I thought she was crazy "why not just stay in our neighborhood" till we got there and I got FULL SIZE CANDY and small TOYS... OMG it was awsome. From someone who's father made under 12,000 a year and supported a family of 5 getting tons of "real" candy was amazing.
I still live in a neighborhood similar to the one I grew up in despite that fact that we could live someone much much bigger and nicer. The kids in my neighborhood are very similar to me growing up and I love the expression on their faces when they come to our home and get tons of stuff. This year we not only gave candy but we gave pumpkin erasers for school and braclets to everyone.
Yes the older kids can be annoying but at least they are trick or treating and not doing something worse. (I work in a psychiatric hospital and trust me tonight I have witnessed the much worse things they could have been doing: THC, Spice, Bath Salts, Overdosing on drugs, Alcohol).
My neighborhood sucks for TOT-ing. Loose dogs, homes in disrepair, most people not participating anyway. Yes, we want to move, but with the falling home values we may very well be screwed.
We went to another neighborhood just 2 miles from us, where the streets were well-lit, the (very nice) houses all decorated and participating, and we had a ball pulling DD and another friend's kid in a wagon. There were lots of kids TOT-ing in the nice neighborhood where we went who were without costumes, older, with parents driving them, etc., but honestly it's ONE night, and I totally understand why some of the poor kids "invade" the nicer neighborhoods. Why shouldn't they get to have a fun, safe TOT experience too? Would it be annoying if I were a homeowner in the nice neighborhood? Probably. But I'm not, so oh well.
LOL.
We went to another neighborhood. Not because ours isn't good, but because our childcare holds a big pizza party, then all the kids can go throughout the neighborhood together. My daughter gets to TorT with her best buds this way. Who knew you had to stay within the confines of your own neighborhood.
What?
As for the sense of entitlement...I had to laugh because last night I watch DH fight over a bag of M&M's that this girl was trying to take extra of...there was seriously a power struggle between the two with my husband semi grunting saying
"just...one...candy!"
The girl was like 6.
That reminds me of one ToTer we had last night. He was like 4ish. I gave him something and he was like, I want that one! His mom looked like she wanted to die and quickly apologized. I laughed and gave him the other one too. Then another piece for his brother.
It was just funny. Reminds me that kids have no brain to mouth filter.
As for ToTing out of your neighborhood? Eh. It's one night a year. So I hope that everyone has fun! As to pushing/shoving - that's something else entirely and will get dealt with.
It doesn't bother me because I feel like if they live in an apartment or unsafe neighborhood, the kids should get to enjoy Halloween in a fun environment where every house is lit up and involved. This was our first Halloween in our new neighborhood and it was great. We had kids that didn't live in our neighborhood (I know this because of the amount of kids that we had).
I didn't take DS out trick or treating because he can't eat candy. It would have been uncool for me to take the neighbors candy for myself to eat. We dressed up DS and played in the front yard and passed out candy. I might do this again next year since he had a blast seeing all the kids.
I think it might be different in my region... we don't really have "neighborhoods" like the rest of you guys in other states do. But anyway, I grew up on a very busy street. We never got a single TOTer despite the fact that my dad bought FULL SIZE candy bars every year and went crazy with decorations. No sidewalk on our side either. So needless to say we didn't go TOTing in our own "neighborhood" either.
Then when we bought our house I was super excited bc it's on a dead end street. I thought we would get tons of ToTers, but the only kids that come to the house are the 3 or 4 kids who live on our street. Last night we went to a different neighborhood.
I totally agree with the car thing though. There used to be a family on our street with two sons. The mom would drive her TEENAGE sons down the road for TOTing. They would hop out of the back of her van and come up to the house. Ridiculous.
We live in a nice city neighborhood in a row house so it's prime ToTing territory. And yes, there are parents who bring carloads of kids into our neighborhood to ToT. Who cares? It's not that safe to ToT in their own neighborhood and most of their neighbors probably don't participate.
It's basically a big block party on my street. I do shut down though once the crowd gets older and the costumes get sparser.
It is funny though because there's a wealthy neighborhood a few blocks north of us and yet that remains fairly free of "outsiders" because the houses are too spread out. It cracks me up that the kids realize (or maybe their parents do) that the most efficient way to get good candy is to hit up the townhouses - not the single family homes.