The New Intimacy

Should door to door tricker treating at the homes of "stangers" be a thing of the past?

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Contributor: Bignuf Bignuf
We live in a pretty safe, secluded community and yet I see less and less kids going door to door every year. I cannot imagine how that would be in a less safe neighborhood.

Do you see less children "tricker treating"? Should it become a fond "past memory", left aside in a far more dangerous world?

Even our community is trying to discourage tricker treating publicly now, instead holding a "door to door candy hand out" at the MALL.

What is your thought on this? Are kids still coming to your door in large numbers? Do you think it is a good idea?
10/04/2011
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Contributor: P'Gell P'Gell
I don't see a problem with Trick or Treating. It's a fallacy that kids are poisoned by candy from strangers or that strangers put razor blades in apples ect. (Who the hell gives kids an apple for Halloween Trick or Treating in the last 50 years anyway?)

My kids loved to Trick or Treat. I'm sure my youngest will do it again this year. I have no problem with it. I make sure they don't eat any of the candy until they get it home and I throw out anything not wrapped. But, no, I don't think it's a thing of the past.

There have always been bad people out there. There are no more or no less than there were 50 years ago, we're just more aware of them.

I see no reason to take this amazing and fun thing away from my kids. I think it's a GREAT idea!

We don't get a lot of kids on Halloween because we live in an isolated unincorporated area, and most people in the village don't even know there are houses here. Also, there are few children in our little island. My kids have always gone to friend's neighborhoods, where there are thousands of kids Trick or Treating. Some of my friends in Town have to go out in the evening to get more candy because they run out due to the number of kids. So, I see this as a live and vibrant way to spend the holiday.
10/04/2011
Contributor: Ms. Spice Ms. Spice
well, I know America's crime rate has gotten lower, not higher if we compare today to a few years ago. Worldwide, I'm not entirely sure, however.

I don't see why it should become a thing of the past if kiddies are taught to be safe and cautious. It's a fun tradition and I know my siblings and I have a lot of fond memories from trick or treating. No need to take that from the kids of today
10/04/2011
Contributor: Jul!a Jul!a
Quote:
Originally posted by P'Gell
I don't see a problem with Trick or Treating. It's a fallacy that kids are poisoned by candy from strangers or that strangers put razor blades in apples ect. (Who the hell gives kids an apple for Halloween Trick or Treating in the last 50 ... more
This, only without my own children. Bad people are going to do bad things any time of the year, and I'd be more worried about some other kid stealing my kid's candy like you'd see in the movies than I would that somebody is going to put things in the candy. That doesn't mean I wouldn't check the candy to be safe, just that I wouldn't expect to find anything.

I think maybe part of why you're seeing fewer children trick or treating is tied into it being a secluded community. How many people have moved out for families with small children to move in as compared to how many have kids who are getting too old to want to be trick or treating? We've gotten less trick or treaters on my block over the years as the kids who were younger when we moved here started growing up and stopped trick or treating for the most part.
10/04/2011
Contributor: Ansley Ansley
Quote:
Originally posted by Jul!a
This, only without my own children. Bad people are going to do bad things any time of the year, and I'd be more worried about some other kid stealing my kid's candy like you'd see in the movies than I would that somebody is going to put ... more
This. And the rise of the ever present "Trunk n Treat" events (in my area) have also made going door to door less appealing. I don't want to be critical, but I think those have become more popular because parents don't want to keep tabs on their kids throughout the neighborhoods anymore. It's much easier to drop the kid in a parking lot and tell them to go for it and meet them back at the car when they're done than to follow them house to house. Though, I always went with a large group of friends and my mom stayed home and gave out candy.
10/04/2011
Contributor: Illusional Illusional
Nah, it's a great tradition. It's fun and exciting and even I still think it's awesome. I hope they never truly do away with it completely
10/04/2011
Contributor: Wildchild Wildchild
Quote:
Originally posted by Bignuf
We live in a pretty safe, secluded community and yet I see less and less kids going door to door every year. I cannot imagine how that would be in a less safe neighborhood.

Do you see less children "tricker treating"? Should it ... more
Houses that give out candy are few and far between in my opinion. The mall thing is great. I do worry about whose house my kids knocking at. I always make sure that I go with my kids. i think thats a good parent.

I think that the sheriff's Dept. should post a sticker on houses of sex offenders that warns parents, and continue checking them out all night to keep them in line. When I said sex offenders I mean child molesters.
10/04/2011
Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
Quote:
Originally posted by P'Gell
I don't see a problem with Trick or Treating. It's a fallacy that kids are poisoned by candy from strangers or that strangers put razor blades in apples ect. (Who the hell gives kids an apple for Halloween Trick or Treating in the last 50 ... more
Exactly! Why are we sitting around scaring ourselves imagining that everyone is looking at our children as playthings? Good gracious most people who love handing out candy LOVE handing out candy!
I do love our community though, they organize a city block long sort of parade where candy is passed out and it is completely safe and they enforce the 7-10 pm door to door time limit. That way the younger kids have tons of fun in a huge group and the older kids get to be all adventurous and go door to door. You need these little adventures when you are a kid...
10/04/2011
Contributor: JessCee JessCee
I have to admit that I do get nervous about where the candy comes from... I think this comes from my mom being so anal about it when I was growing up. So I make sure we only trick or treat in areas I know are good areas. I do know that bad people are everywhere, but it makes me feel better so that's what I do. I also carefully inspect the candy once we get home.

With that being said, I don't see any less children trick or treating, I actually see more older children going from door to door, and I don't think it should be a thing on the past.
10/04/2011
Contributor: P'Gell P'Gell
Quote:
Originally posted by Jul!a
This, only without my own children. Bad people are going to do bad things any time of the year, and I'd be more worried about some other kid stealing my kid's candy like you'd see in the movies than I would that somebody is going to put ... more
Exactly. I've never found anything suspicious in Halloween candy in many years of looking. I do it just to be safe and to remind my kids to be safe. I really don't expect to find anything, nor do I want to scare my children. I've never had anyone steal my children's candy nor even threaten to.

You're right about our community, many people with small children have either moved out, their children have grown old or they've lost their houses. (We've had several neighbors lose their mortgages. It's so sad to see this happening to good, hard working people who couldn't keep their heads above water.)

In other areas of our village and the village next door there are plenty of kids Trick or Treating and our younger girl goes with her friends to those neighborhoods.
10/04/2011
Contributor: Eucaly Eucaly
I actually read an article one time that investigated the folklore of poison or razor blades in the candy, and the researcher (a prestigious folklore researcher) concluded that the only actual case (not just vague warnings or cases that turned out to be untrue) that had ever appeared in the news was a father who had murdered his own son this way, so it wasn't even "stranger candy" involved.

So, if you're going to worry about kids trick-or-treating, the proper things to worry about are molesting, mugging, car accidents, getting lost, being beat up by the other kids, etc., but not candy.
10/04/2011
Contributor: Yaoi Pervette (deleted) Yaoi Pervette (deleted)
Trick or treating must not be completely dead in my community, because my mom actually ran out of candy to hand out the last time. Frankly, this is one tradition I hate to see go by the wayside. When we went trick or treating as kids, we were always with a parent, so no worries about being kidnapped or anything like that. Even with a group of kids, there is safety in numbers.

Eucaly, you're right. The father who poisoned his own kid was Ronald Clark O'Bryan. He tried to kill both his kids to collect insurance money by putting poisoned Pixie Stix in their trick or treat bags. Only his 8-year-old son ate the poisoned candy and died.

There was also a case in 1970 where a young child ate some of his uncle's heroin and died. The family tried to cover for the uncle by claiming that the child had gotten drug laced candy while trick or treating.

In both of these cases, the individuals tried to exploit common urban folklore to cover up their guilt.
10/04/2011
Contributor: Yaoi Pervette (deleted) Yaoi Pervette (deleted)
Quote:
Originally posted by Wildchild
Houses that give out candy are few and far between in my opinion. The mall thing is great. I do worry about whose house my kids knocking at. I always make sure that I go with my kids. i think thats a good parent.

I think that the sheriff's ... more
In our community, sex offenders are under orders to not open their doors to children. If they have a porch light, it is to stay off for night (people in our community put their porch lights on if they are welcoming children). The police department actually sends out decoys to knock on sex offenders' doors. If a sex offender answers, he is immediately arrested.
10/04/2011
Contributor: unfulfilled unfulfilled
I only take my kids to friends and families homes and that's how my mom did it for me as well.
10/04/2011
Contributor: Ms. Spice Ms. Spice
Quote:
Originally posted by Wildchild
Houses that give out candy are few and far between in my opinion. The mall thing is great. I do worry about whose house my kids knocking at. I always make sure that I go with my kids. i think thats a good parent.

I think that the sheriff's ... more
well, I know in a lot of states, they are not permitted to open their doors at all and that some states require all sex offenders put a sign on their door that states that they are not permitted to open their doors at all. and as yaoi said, decoys are sent by the police, so yeah, I'm pretty sure a lot is done.
10/04/2011
Contributor: Princess-Kayla ♥ Princess-Kayla ♥
I think that the parents should always be with their kids while they're trick-or-treating. So there shouldn't really be that much of an issue. I always get so mad when I go out on Halloween and see 7 and 8 year old's running around by themselves.
10/04/2011
Contributor: InNeedOfABuzzzz InNeedOfABuzzzz
I believe it's still safe, in a sense, but then again you never know who's door you're knocking on. We do "trunk or treat" at church, where we block off the entire parking lot, decorate our cars, and let kids go trunk to trunk. We feel it's a safe environment because it's members of the church they know, they have other kids they know, etc. Most of the parents around where we live prefer to bring their kids to the church or other churches doing the same thing because they do feel it's more safe, not just on a "poisoning" level, but knowing who's around your children.
10/04/2011
Contributor: Ryuson Ryuson
(Review Program Mentor)
I think that it's awesome and teaches about the importance of community
10/04/2011
Contributor: Chilipepper Chilipepper
Feh. My ex-step-mother falsely accused my own father of molesting her kids because they were having a nasty divorce, so now we live in mortal fear of people on that night because people will hear 'child molestor' and automatically assume it's true when it never happened. (And, no, my father did not do anything of the sort - that woman figured the only way to hurt my father was to permanently attach that stigma to him. If I ever see her drug-addled ass again, I will maim her.)
10/04/2011
Contributor: Jaimes Jaimes
The only times I've seen a decline is on a weeknight, or if Halloween is on a Sunday and people decide to go out on Saturday. We only celebrate on the night of Halloween.

I think "dangerous" is a relative word. If parents are going out with their kids, or kids are going out with groups, it's a very safe practice.

When I was in Savannah, we did the hand out candy thing, but after so many "kids" showed up, 16 years-old in a grubby t-shirt with a Kroger bag, we took all the candy we denied those little jerks and went walking around until we found an adorable 5 year-old princess trick or treating with her dad, and put the entire bowl in her bag. That's the only thing that bothers me with trick or treating; kids that are too old, don't dress up, and are rude.
10/04/2011
Contributor: Avant-garde Avant-garde
If tricker treaters no longer came to the door I would not miss it in the least.
10/04/2011
Contributor: Peggi Peggi
I'm all for Trick or Treating. The key is if you have concerns about your children's candy just check it before they eat it because for the most part there is only so much you can do with sealed candy! I live in Baltimore, if that tells you anything about the "safety" level (or lack thereof) but it is still common here to see kids out on Halloween. Here, or in areas that are defined as not safe it's definitely a good idea to go with kids even if they're in groups (not that it isn't a good idea to anyway!) but where I used to live it was not odd at all to see kids around 9 and up going in small groups by themselves. But everyone knew everyone there, and at least one of us was the "cool" kid with that GIGANTIC cell phone (from back in the day!) that was the size of our heads for safety
10/04/2011
Contributor: FaerieLove FaerieLove
Trick or treating is a wonderful childhood activity and I do not believe that it's any dangerous now than it was back in my parents generation. Personally, I just think people need to stop being so paranoid. Come on, there's nothing fun for a child in being dressed up and going to the mall for halloween.
10/04/2011
Contributor: Sex'и'Violence Sex'и'Violence
No this is definitely a tradition I'd like to see carry on for many years to come, and I look forward to taking my own daughter out on Halloween when she gets bigger.
10/04/2011
Contributor: KrazyKandy KrazyKandy
I would be scared of letting my kids trick or treat so i would opt for mall candy.
10/04/2011
Contributor: Rossie Rossie
Our neighborhood is pretty safe, and there's always a parent walking with the kids, so there's no need to worry. As for the candies, local dentists already have ads out, reminding kids to trade-in their candy for actual money at their practices.
10/05/2011
Contributor: Ash1141 Ash1141
I take my kids trick or treating. I would not let them go alone. I keep a good eye on them and then examine the candy at the end of the night. It's a fun tradition.
10/05/2011
Contributor: Shellz31 Shellz31
I think that might be one good reason that halloween hasn't really taken off over here. Kids in school are always told to never take anything (especially lollies) from strangers.
It only takes one messed up freak to poison a bunch of lollies. There's a lot of sick people out there!

I find it very interesting cause going by our news - we are seeing more and more violence happening in the US.

If I lived in the US I think I'd allow my kids (if I had any) to go house to house under supervision but at the end of it, I'd be taking their collection and throwing it out (without them seeing). And would replace it all with stuff I'd bought myself from a store.
10/05/2011
Contributor: Yaoi Pervette (deleted) Yaoi Pervette (deleted)
Quote:
Originally posted by Shellz31
I think that might be one good reason that halloween hasn't really taken off over here. Kids in school are always told to never take anything (especially lollies) from strangers.
It only takes one messed up freak to poison a bunch of lollies. ... more
Don't believe what the new tells you about the US. Violent crime has gone down over the years. The news is slanted in that it only reports the crappy things that happen. That's what gets ratings. The whole poisoned candy thing is an urban myth. Kids are more likely to get harmed by someone they know than a stranger on Halloween.
10/05/2011
Contributor: Chilipepper Chilipepper
One of my classmates at the college today made an interesting observation about Halloween: "Ah, yes, that time of year when you think your good neighbors and friends are child molestors for the night."

Seriously, folks, that's what it sounds like.

Incidentally, the only time I ever got harassed by an adult was the one time I went mall trick or treating when I was ten - some old perv without any kids with him was standing behind me in the line and kept pulling my cat-tail. (Oh, and the 'adult' of this expedition was the ex-step-mother.) Not only was there hardly any candy left and boring as hell, but there was a perv pulling on my tail to try to get my costume off.
10/05/2011