This is bad. It’s the day before Halloween, yet there are no pumpkins on my front porch. The kids don’t know what they want to dress up as, or even if they want to dress up. Heck, I don’t even have a bag of Halloween candy.
Yes, in all our busy-ness, Halloween has snuck up on me. (Really? The 31st of October is here again?) But the truth is that as a mom, I’ve never liked Halloween.
I like to think that my lack of creativity and ability to do crafts has led to this situation. Sure, you can plop down $20 or more for a store bought costume. But even the most expensive ones pale in comparison to the ones some parents whip up on their sewing machine.
With four kids, I’m not spending a lot on costumes for one day. At the same time, my sewing ability is limited to buttons and hems.
So Halloween brings out those feelings of insecurity (along with the annual doubt: did I buy enough candy?)
My kids are at an age where candy doesn’t hold the same mystique it used to. They can walk to the store and buy it on their own. We typically still have Halloween candy around the house a year after it was collected.
Dressing up isn’t as exciting either. Kids this age want so much not to look dorky or stand out that is really limits the costume choices.
Maybe we’re all moving to a new stage where my kids are more the givers of candy and not the takers. And maybe, just maybe, one Halloween my fantasy will come true: we’ll leave candy on the porch and my family will go out to the movies until all the trick or treaters have come and gone.
