Halloween is coming up. I discuss some of the tricks and tips that I use when going trick-or-treating

Halloween is a wonderful time of the year where kids (and adults alike) dress up and go out throughout the neighborhood getting treats.  Being a parent I care about the trick-or-treating habits that my kids learn. I’ve compiled what I do every year for my child.  Trick-or-treating isn’t just going out, hitting some houses and coming home. There is planning to ensure that your child is safe on this day.

Check for sexual predators online

This is the first thing you should do. (In fact, checking several times a year isn’t a bad idea either). You can start by going to Family Watchdog and checking your local law enforcement website. These place have great search engines where you can put your address in and see who lives near you. The websites give you everything you need to know about the person including their picture and address.

Plan the route you are going to take

Now that you know who lives in your neighborhood you can plan your route accordingly. Make sure that an adult or responsible older sibling goes along. Never let your child go out alone.

Make sure the costume is safe

When buying store bought costumes ensure that they are fire proof or retardant. Avoid putting makeup near the eyes as this can run when they sweat and make it hard to see. Eye holes should be large enough to see through allowing for peripheral vision. Nothing should be lower than the ankle, makes it easier to walk and a less chance of tripping.

Ensure you can been seen

Make sure that your child has reflective gear on. Some sneakers have this on them. Wearing the glow sticks or bracelets also helps out. And ALWAYS carry a flashlight and have it on!

Use a sturdy container

Avoid using plastic bags. They have a good chance of ripping if they are poked or too heavy. Pillow cases make great sturdy candy holders. Also bring an extra bag for the parent incase the kids container gets too full or heavy for them to carry.

Teach your child basic safety

Most kids will rolls their eyes at you, but there is nothing wrong with saying this to them again. Kids do get distracted with all the fun and frivolity of the holiday. Remind them never to get into the car of a stranger and to look both ways before crossing the street.

Explain the difference between tricks and vandalism

Kids think that it might be funny to throw eggs at people, but there are consequences that can happen. It’s not funny – it’s wrong.

Manners are still important

Reminding your child to say “thank you” after getting a treat from someone is a good idea too. This can easily be forgotten too.

Set a time your child should be home by

Halloween is an early event in most neighborhoods. Most kids are in their own houses by 9pm due to having to go to school the next day or not to disturb people who want to settle down before going to sleep.

Eat a light meal before treading out

Just like going to the grocery store – don’t go out hungry. The kids already want to eat the candy. Don’t give them another excuse on why they should eat it the moment they get it. A light meal will help them when they are out there. Eating heavy and big meals can make the experience less pleasant for everyone.

One parent should stay home while one goes out

This helps to protect the house from being vandalized and someone can be there to hand out candy to the kids who come to the door. If possible, take shifts, so each parent can enjoy time with their kids.

Be prepared for the weather

Make sure that you have jackets if it’s going to be cold or an umbrella if it’s going to rain. Don’t want to be caught out there without this stuff if something happens.

Stay near your child at all time

It’s dark out there at night even with everyone’s porch lights on. Stay close enough to them so you know where they are. Standing by the road as they head up to a porch that’s 50 feet away isn’t a smart thing.

Always check the candy first

The best thing to do it to take the candy home and spread it across a table. It’s much easier to look at the candy in a brightly light room instead of using a flashlight in the dark. Avoid anything that’s homemade or the wrapper is opens. Inspect wrappers for pin holes or for anything unusual. The best candy bars are the ones where the wrapper is air tight and you can feel the air inside.

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Below is a list of the many groups of treats that kids receive while ‘trick or treating’:

Toothbrush & toothpaste
No matter where in the world you live, there is always that one house that a dentist lives in.  This is the guy that gives away free samples of toothbrushes and toothpaste.  Also, in these “goodie packs” you get those little chewable pills that you’re suppose to eat after you brush your teeth where it will show the color of where you didn’t brush enough.  This is the dullest of all the treats you can get.  Major fail!

Money
Great!  Money!  Of course, it’s not like they’re going to give you paper bills.  If you’re lucky you might actually get a quarter!  That might be great for a 3-year old, but anyone who actually knows their alphabet it’s just a joke.  When you get to these houses you know that they were too lazy to actually go to the grocery store and get something.  They figured they might give out $5 in change as compared to the $20 they would spend on something that the kids would actually enjoy.  Another fail!

Fruit
Okay, fruit costs more than the quarter was you got at the other house, but who wants it?  I honestly think that the person who gives out the fruit is working in conjunction with the dentist guy down the street.  The fruit will rot before you eat it anyways.  Fail yet again.

Chips
This house is a so-so place to go.  You get a tiny little bag of chips (which, of course, won’t be the kind you like).  When you open the bag up there will be 4 chips in there and three of them will be pulverized into dust from be jostled around your bag.  If your lucky enough you’ll get several other bags from other houses and you might be fortunate enough to actually have enough chips to make a serving.  Not a fail, but not a win either.

Snack bags
You got something, but you won’t know what it is until you get home.  This is a crap shoot, but usually they all consist of the same things – a piece of generic bubble gum, a tiny lollipop where the stick is bigger than the pop itself, and a crappy little candy bar made by some company that only makes stuff for this holiday. Less of a fail, more of a win.

Bite size candy bars
Okay, this is a good house to be going to.  If you’re lucky enough you’ll get 4 or 5 pieces of candy from them.  This is the house where they actually want to spend the money on the kids.  These are the good candy bars.  Just hope that you get the kinds you want.  Win.

Full size candy bars
Here’s the house you definitely want to make sure you have several costumes for so you can get more candy.  These people have money and don’t care how big the candy bars are.  You only get one candy bar, but it’s better than three of the bite size ones anyday.  Remember where this house is and and hope that they don’t move before next year.  Make sure that you go to this house first next year around.  Definite win.

The trust worthy snack
This is the ultimate house to go to.  You know that one magical house where they leave there light on and the bowl full of candy with the “help yourself” sign on it.  Grab everything you can (even the bowl).  If you don’t get to this house early enough you’ll lose out.  JACKPOT WIN!

Of course, with a day like this one there are always so many tips that should be followed:

Go online and check the police department’s website
Before going outdoors, check you city/county/state law enforcement website for sexual predators.  If there are any houses in your area with these type of people avoid those houses.

Start ‘trick or treating’ before it gets dark out
Start going out before the sun starts to go down.  This helps out on visibility and less chances of an incidents occurring.

Wear brightly colored costumes
Brighter colors at dusk and dark helps shows where you are from a distance to cars.

Carry a flashlight, wear reflectors, glow in dark sticks
Along with wearing bright colors, always have some sort of light source with you.  Even if you start getting candy while it’s light out you don’t know if it will be dark before you get home.  Better safe than sorry.

Only visit houses with the lights on
Traditionally only the houses with lights on are the ones that are offering treats to the lil ones.  Avoid houses with no lights on outside.

Never go alone
The little kids should ALWAYS have a parent with them, and the tweens should go in pairs, or even better, groups.

Parents should always check the goodies first
Throw away anything that looks like it’s tampered or is homemade.

These are just a few of the tips to have a safe Halloween.  There are many more out there, but these are the really big ones. 

I hope that everyone has a great holiday and come home with a ton of candy!

(If you have anymore tips, please let me know and I’ll add them to this list!)

With less than a week to go until Halloween, we finally got around to getting CJ to carve his pumpkin.

Times have changed since years ago.  I remember when I was a kid we got a big spoon and a big knife and with a few swipes we would have carved out a basic face.  Not nowadays, they have so many tools to cut up a pumpkin, you don’t know which one to buy.  We’ve had the pumpkin carving kit for several years, so we were well prepared.

We started this adventure on Sunday with him.  Fortunately, for us, the weather was perfect.  It was a nice and sunny 60+ degree day, so we decided to go outside.  After about 10 minutes of design choices he finally decided on the one that read “trick or treat”.  After getting the lid removed CJ had the opportunity to get dirty by removing the “guts” of his orange creation.  It took him a little getting use to.  (He made several trips into the house to wash his covered hand from the ‘ick’ it had on it.)  After the cleaning, dear old dad had to help out and clean up the rest of the remains.  (I also made a quick trip to wash the ‘ick’ off too.)  Then it was time to mark out the pumpkin.  The way you do that is by putting the pattern on the pumpkin and putting dots over it so when you remove the paper you can see the shapes and “connect the dots” to cut it out.  CJ decided to try and poke dots all over the design.  Essentially, he made a straight line with a row of dots.  He didn’t understand how it was suppose to be, but his mom showed him and he got the idea.  He’s a very patient boy and did the entire pattern on his own with very little assistance.

Then came the best part – the carving!  He took his time and was trying to stay on the dots as he slowly carved out the first “T”.  Now when I say slowly I mean it!  He didn’t want help either and it was getting close to dinner time.  We told him to finish the “T” and we’ll get the rest tomorrow.  He wanted to do the “Trick” part, but everyone was hungry and it was getting dark and cold outside, so we held off until Monday.

Monday rolled around and I got home from work, accosted by my son asking if we were going to carve the pumpkin.  I said after dinner, which didn’t sit well with him, but he complied.  After we ate, we covered the table and he continued on with the “R”.  He was too excited and tried to cut it fast.  I tried to explain it to him, but he was enjoying it too much.  When he needed help I obliged.  It took about an hour, but his creation was complete.

So, then I grab some nutmeg and cinnamon.

You might wonder why I did that.  Many years ago, I saw on TV that if you put nutmeg and cinnamon on the lid of the jack-o-latern and light a candle in it, the candle heats the lid and it smells like pumpkin pie.  (This has been something we’ve been doing for 10 years now!)

We grabbed the pumpkins and put them on the porch.  After a few minutes of whining from CJ he finally helped on lighting his pumpkin.

He was so excited when he saw how it look lit up.  Now he can’t wait until the next night to light it up again.

Did you ever notice that there are all these Halloween costume stores that pop up out of nowhere in these strip plazas?  How did they get there?  Wasn’t there something that was there the other 11 months of the year?

These stores must make money.

Every year there are more and more of these stores popping up. 

So let’s go out there and open one of these stores next year.

Being a beautiful Sunday, I planned on taking my son, CJ out to pick pumpkins in a pumkin patch.  He has never actually picked pumpkins, except for the ones you can ‘pick’ in the grocery store.  This was also my first experience.  There is a nice place not to far from the house that seemed to be the perfect place.  Of course, being only three weeks away from Halloween the place was packed.  The place was amazing they offered everything from ‘pre-picked’ pumpkins, apple picking, a petting zoo to a hayride.  We paid the $1 per person for the hayride to take us to the pumpkin patch.  The place was interesting.  I’ve never been in a pumpkin patch before, but CJ was excited about it. 

Every pumpkin he saw in there he wanted to pick – even the green ones!  Of course, I explained to him that you need to look for one that’s orange and predominately round with no big cuts or gouges in it.  After about 15 minutes he found one that seemed to weigh about the same as he does.  He was happy. 

I didn’t want to be lugging that heavy orb around the place so I decided to go and pay for it.  Of course, since the parking lot was full that also meant that the lines were also long.  It took me 20 minutes just to get to the register to pay for this beast.  That’s longer than it took CJ to pick it out!  The place we went to charges for pumpkins by the pound and I don’t know how much that was, but the grand total for this one pumpkin was $12.84!  I can’t believe that they charge that much for a pumpkin!  This is a place that has them in the field.  I went out to the patch (which I paid a $1 to get there), I picked the pumpkin (they didn’t), and I walked it to the register, stood in line for a third of an hour and they charge me that much!

The moral of this story is:  If you want the experience of picking your pumpkins go to a pumpkin patch, look around, and take all the pictures you want.  But, in the end, you’ll end up at Wal-Mart paying a lot less for the exact same thing!

(Final note: My son doesn’t know why I want to “cut up” the pumpkin.  He knows what a jack-o-latern is.)