Help me make up my mind. I don’t know if I should let my kids go trick-or-treating this year.
I’ve read everyone’s comments about only going to people’s houses who you know, inspecting candy and chucking anything suspicious or opened, doing the community party thing, parties at schools or even the malls. This stuff you would do every year anyway. However, the thing I’m most concerned about this year is that all these well-meaning neighbors, friends, teachers, etc. are getting their candy to distribute to the kids from the same local grocery stores, which stores, in turn, have had the candy delivered to them from – where?? I mean, it’s not the local people I’m worried about, it’s the fact that you just don’t know the security of the chain before the grocery store end. I don’t at least.
It just seems like specifically candy could be a prime target right now.
I just bought eight pounds of candy and if no one knocks on my door I am going to cry.
No one is going to adulture the candy. It would be rediculously easy to track them, they’d have to show their face over and over again.
And please…grocery store sabatours? If you are afraid of this you better start freaking out about school lunches, fast food restraunts and really anything that doesn’t come out of your garden (that you keep under constant surveillence). Vigilence can never hurt but paranoia kills.
It’s hard not to be paranoid, with John Ashcroft announcing a suspected threat of [sup]S[/sup]o[sub]M[/sub]e[sup]T[/sup]H[sub]I[/sub]n[sup]G[/sup]… Dunno what, Dunno where, but probably within the week. Jeez, way to wreck Halloween.
I’m all for trick-or-treating. Even we, with baby g (age 15 months) will go around to a few friends’ houses. If you’re going to worry about poisoned candy, then you’d really be better off worrying about poisoned: meat. water. crackers. fast food. etc., which would be easier to poison. There is no sense in poisoning Halloween candy, when that is the one item that parents are most paranoid about, that everyone checks, and that (for pete’s sake) people take to hospitals for free x-raying.
One of the wonderful things about Halloween, IMO, is that it does get you out in the neighborhood, seeing other families, in a friendly community activity. I love having kids come to my door and seeing everyone out, saying hello and being friendly. Come on, 99.99999% of your neighbors are perfectly nice, normal families with nice, normal kids of their own, and it’s terrible that we’re too busy most of the year to say hello and get to know our neighbors. That’s why I don’t like trunk-or-treats or other limited activities much, either. Too much paranoia, not enough willingness to be friends with people we live next door to.
(I would also like to know why people trust the random, totally unknown kid handing out equally anonymous candy at the mall from some business you never frequent more than they do their own neighbors.)
