by the UKfamily team
Maya from the UKfamily team on why she thinks trick or treating is a party game too far
Pumpkin – check; scary costume – check; eyeballs and brains (peeled grapes and spaghetti) for tea – check; begging for sweets from strangers with menaces – um... well, maybe not. Sorry, kids.
However you dress trick or treating up (cute kids, sweeties, fun), what it boils down to is telling children it's OK to knock on people's doors and demand treats with a threat to play a trick on them if they don't cough up.
I love Halloween and we celebrate it with friends. We have pumpkin lanterns, costumes, a treasure hunt, lots of sweets for the kids (naturally), apple bobbing, party food etc. All the kids have a great time. A couple of years ago, though, a distraught neighbour interrupted the party. Her pensioner husband had declined to hand over Halloween goodies on demand and had been punched in the face by the father of the little ghouls who had turned up at their door. He spent the evening in A&E having bits of his broken glasses picked out of his face.
Soaping windows, chucking eggs at doors, gangs of marauding teens demanding cash handouts. Trick or treating isn't fun for everyone. My elderly father dreads it. He sits in the dark so nobody knows he's there.
Lots of kids where we live just trick or treat in their own street, only knocking on doors where there's a pumpkin lantern inviting them to knock or ring. Harmless. Or is it? Call me a party pooper but I can't get past the essential concept:
'Hand over some sweets or I'll play a trick on you.'
'Hand over your mobile phone/wallet/car keys or I'll hurt you.'
What are we teaching our children?
Read the other side of the debate now.Solve the trick or treat problem.
