Well, hate is a strong word, but I really don't like it. I think I like it even less than that cat over there does. It's not much more to me than a whole big, huge pain in the rear end. Getting costumes together is stressful. Then the inevitable, "I changed my mind. I don't want to be that; I want to be this" the week before Halloween. I set a deadline for the kids to tell me what they want to be on Halloween and then that's IT. Bub tried pulling this last weekend. When I reminded him that it was past the mind-changing deadline and that he wasn't going to be a skeleton, but Mario like he had told me the week before, my six year old son declared that "Fine! I'll wear it, but this is going to be the WORST HALLOWEEN EVER!!!!" To which I replied if he would truly like it to be the WORST HALLOWEEN EVER, he should mention costumes to me one more time and then he wouldn't be allowed to trick or treat.What bothers me even more than my children's temper tantrums is the decidedly more evil and downright disturbingly scary turn that Halloween decorations have taken in recent years. It's to the point where I avoid the Halloween Aisle at our local Tar-jay. I had to go into a Halloween store last weekend with Curly Sue (looking for Mario and Luigi costume stuff). I should have marched right back out, but I didn't. She's had 2 nightmares since last Saturday and she usually sleeps like a baby. I blame my lousy parenting and the zombies and horror music at the store.
I can't wait till it's over. What are you (or your kids) going to be?
3 comments:
I love Halloween, and not only because I get Milky Ways and Whoppers.
I've been through the "changing minds on costumes" thing--Middle Sister did it TODAY after discovering that a ghost costume made from a sheet kills off your peripheral vision. She didn't like it. She used her own money to buy spray-in hair color and is going to wear mis-matched clothes and that's that. Big Brother is going as Max from "Where the Wild Things Are." I turned a sweatshirt and sweatpants inside out, sewed buttons on the shirt, pinned on a fake-fur tail. Added a posterboard crown spray-painted gold and a scepter made from a tennis ball stuck onto the end of a dowel (also painted gold) and he was good to go--and won his school's costume contest. Little Brother is being a Star Wars character. He got the costume as a birthday gift.
I agree about the evil stuff in terms of costumes. Wait until Curly Sue is older and you also have to wade through the sexy stuff. That'll be another 2 or 3 years away. No, I'm NOT kidding. We don't do evil or sexy costumes in this house. Star Wars "bad guys" are as bad as it gets. Today at the school costume parade, I saw hardly ANY "evil" costumes, which was really refreshing, because 80% of the kids who showed up in costume at Cub Scouts last night were dressed in evil outfits. At school, they were basically in one of 2 camps: cute or clever.
There were a couple of scary looking students at school today, but I had to admire the creativity and they weren't super-evil. Still, I have found myself wondering at the depravity that seems to be celebrated on Halloween nowadays. Really sick movies, especially. That's not what Halloween signifies.
Of course, I also have seen the other extreme where the costume had to be that of a saint. *shrug*
I'm not dressing up, but it will be interesting to see the costumes of the kids in my parents' neighborhood.
JB and I dressed up as Mac & PC (like the guys on the commercials)... I've always been a homemade costume kind of person. Plus it's much easier to make a modest costume than it is to buy one!
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