Halloween

Here it is then, Halloween, the one time of year when all of the rules seem to go out of the window. We spend the other 364 days of the year telling children not to take sweets from strangers, but tonight, so called normal and rational parents take their little people begging.

Don’t get me wrong, I have a tub of sweets ready to hand out to the little blighters and much to my regret some years ago took my youngest son trick or treating, purely because of peer pressure he had at school. I know, I’m weak. I don’t actually blame the children, they have no idea what it’s all about, other than free sweets, but I blame the parents. Do these same parents discuss god and prayers and church with their children? If they do then they should know better than to be out on this most un-religious of occasions, blimey, I actually sound quite religious don’t I? It’s the pagan in me. 

The point I want to make is this, the little children look lovely all dressed up, full of smiles and excited about what they can get in to their little plastic pumpkins. But just like Christmas, if we’re going to let our children celebrate it, teach them what it’s actually all about, not just it’s free goodies.

Oh and by the way, if you’ve left primary school and come knocking at my door, when you ask “trick or treat?” I’m likely to say trick and hope you’re prepared for the trick I inflict on you!

At this point I had finished and was ready to publish, but literally in the last 2 minutes have had the doorbell rung twice. I can’t believe the contrast in the children, the first 2 were amazingly polite and took one sweet each, I actually had to tell them to take more, they said their thank you’s and went on their way. As I came back to write about the smile these little people had put on my face there was a knock on the door, the bell is rather high... Again, 2 small people, this time was completely different, they thrust their hands in, grabbing as much as they could, and when I suggested they might want to leave some for the others that may appear, they actually said “NO!” It took all my willpower, which isn’t strong, to stop myself from snatching the sweets back and chucking my bucket of ice cold water over the pair of them. Maybe a bit much for a pair of 6 year olds...

Next year I might just shut the curtains.