Trick or Treat Stories!

I love Halloween. I love seeing the kids in costumes come running gleefully up to the door... but I do not like the greed that also comes with this holiday.

I do not like the kids who don't even put on a costume. I don't like the parents who do things to encourage greed and laziness. 

I love the parents who also dress up, or who come tagging along and prompting a thank you but the kids already know to say thank you. 

---The Bad---

13 year old trick or treater: "Do you have any Snickers?"
Me: "No, but I have BabyRuth"
13 year old: "But I don't like Baby Ruth"
Me: "Well I don't like Snickers!"
13 Year old: "But I do! You should have some for me"
Me: *thinking - Since when do I shop for some kid I don't even know?*

And the next 13 year old.... Me: *holding out candy bowl* "Take one, pick your favorite!" Him: "How many can I take?" Me: One *thinking - do you even LISTEN? what do you think this is? grab and run?*

The mom DRIVING her kids from house to house. "Hey, you guys go to that one with the light on, then we get in the car and go to the next one." The poor little girl was so big she had rolls of fat  popping out of her costume. She must have been 8, maybe 9.... Sad.... I almost cried on that one.

Little boy, after I said Take One: Can I have two? Or three?  *grabs one* Oh gosh, I wish I had gotten that other one, can I have it too?

Me: Take one! Pick your favorite!
Kid: *Grabs for a handful*
Me: ONE I said! 

Kid: How many is "take one"? 
Me: One.
Kid: oh.....  

Maybe I shouldn't let the kids pick out the candy, but I want them to get the one they want. I always was peeved as a kid when the door person handed me a snickers and I wanted the milky way that was also in the bowl. I never said anything because I was raised better than that, but I would swap it with my friend later on and I would say a more enthusiastic thank you to the ones who let you pick. Even if they said Pick One! Then I knew I would get one that I wanted!!!!! 


Secret: After 8:00 I say Take Two, because I know I will have fewer kiddos coming after that and don't need to make sure I have enough candy!

--- The Good ---

Cute girl all dressed up, her Dad taking her trick or treating, clearly he has a disability and is limping and having some mobility problems with his hands. But he is still out with his daughter. I made sure he got some candy too! That one was awesome!

Zombie Bride 7 year old!

Teenager who win's best in my book: Stay-Puff-Marshmallow Man!!!! 

 

I will always love Halloween. I will always feel happy seeing the little kids come up to the door in their costumes, the masked ones being led by unamused mothers who now see the folly in letting clumsy children wear things that limit their vision to two small pinholes. I will love the babies in fuzzy warm outfits, and yes, even the high schoolers in their make shift last minute "I want free candy" costumes. I will adore the smell of candle burnt pumpkins and the next morning pitching the saggy remains of those pumpkins into the trash. 

But I will always feel a pang of sadness watching the GOOD candy leave my bowl. My stash of treats. No matter that I am an adult and if I want to eat a Milky Way bar I can go get one and eat it. Somehow Halloween candy feels different. You HAVE to have it in your house for the little munchkins who come to the door. You don't normally sit there and have the crisis of "If I eat this, I am undoing three days worth of gym time" It is Fun Size! It is small, and seems like less. It is like the pitfall of the "fat free cookie" you can eat as many as you want, right? It's fat free! Its FUN SIZE! 

But I do really love Halloween!