If you asked my kids, the best and brightest days of the year are their birthdays and Christmas. Next up are Halloween and Easter. Because if you aren't getting toys and gifts, the next best thing is candy! Halloween probably edges out Easter just because there is a greater volume of candy, the fun of trick-or-treating and the excitement of dressing up. It is ecstasy for a child. Well, for most children...
One of my kids doesn't really do Halloween. He has always been someone who likes predictability and I can appreciate that, when you are little, everything turns upside down on Halloween. But, he is also a bottomless pit who loves chocolate. When he was small, the glory of people giving us candy for just ringing their doorbell was amazing and so surprising. The odd happenings of the day were worth suffering through for the glorious candy gorging. And, because his siblings were small as well, he didn't have to suffer for long or in the scary darkness. It was a very short period of time for him to deal with the craziness.
Things changed the year after he started Preschool. His older sister was wanting to go when it was beginning to get a tiny bit dusky. (She wanted a teensy bit of spookiness but was still a chicken.) And his little sister was old enough to walk around with her own bag to get goodies. It should've been exciting. Everyone was (sort of) old enough to understand, get excited and participate. There was dressing up for school, parades and parties. Officer T. came to talk about trick-or-treating safety. Everyone got reflectors for their shoes.
How exciting for a little boy- Police officers! Reflectors! Oh joy! #2 was so excited to come home and relay all the safety info he had dutifully listened to and absorbed. That year, he was actually being a police officer for Halloween! Now he was legit; he had been trained! How fortuitous! Lock and load- let's go trick or treating!
My husband came home from work early so we could all go together. The anticipation of all that candy was driving them insane. They were armed with big plastic pumpkins and worried that they weren't large enough to contain their haul. Well, #1 was worried. #3 was slightly confused and #2 was excited but was curiously composed...
We rang our first doorbell. Peppermint Patties! We rang our second and third doorbells. We walked, kicked the fallen leaves and compared the candies. We chatted about neighbors and preferred brands of candy bar. It was fun! We got to our (maybe) fifth house and started walking up the front walk. Well, the girls were going- #2 was just standing there.
Me: "Come on buddy- let's go."
He: "I can't."
Me: "What? Why?"
He: "I can't. I don't know these people."
Me: "It's okay, come on."
He: "No. I don't know these people. Officer T. said I should only go where I know the people and I don't know these people."
Me: "You're right! You were listening so well! But, it's okay, Daddy and I know them! So come on, buddy."
He: "Nope. I don't know them. Officer T. said."
And that was the end of trick-or-treating for him. He went to the few other houses where HE knew the folks. And then he went home with dad to hand out candy at our house while I went on with the girls. So much for trick-or-treating as a family!
Maybe it's just coincidence that he absorbed the Officer T. message the same year that he decided Halloween is just too unpredictable for him. Or maybe, before that point, the lure of the candy was enough incentive for him to suffer through the trick-or-treating ordeal. But once he realized that the candy could be a source of danger all it's own, he was out. (Though it's more fun to say Officer T. ruined Halloween!)
I guess I should be happy that he is strong enough to stick to his guns despite the lure of chocolate pleasure and peer (and parental) pressure to "Just Do It!" Despite his friends loving Halloween, it's been years since he has gone trick-or-treating. Or dressed up. (It was easy to see my kid in the parades at school. Bugged that he still had to march with his class when he was wearing regular clothes. ) Hopefully this trait will carry him through the times people are trying to push him to try more than candy. Please, please, please...
P.S. However, he was more than willing let me go on with the girls. (Even though he doubted my ability to bring him to safe homes.) And he was thrilled to eat anything the girls gave him when they got home- without knowing "the people" who had dispensed it. What does that mean? Was he really serious about what Officer T. said or was it just his ticket out of a holiday he hated? Or maybe he didn't want to put in the time but was thrilled to gobble up the spoils of the girls' labor... Is he lazy? Or a secret delegator?
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