# People Who Don't Trick or Treat - Bite Me **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 29, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502 "2005-10-29T20:32:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/21 "2005-10-29T22:43:40Z")
> [@fessie](#): > > I am SO SICK of sanctimonious threads by those healthier-than-thou fuckers who don’t take/won’t let their kids go trick-or-treating. Or if they do, they seize the candy and ration it out sloooooowly, one Twizzler at a time. Have there been threads like this? Even one? I haven’t seen any. IOW, link?? ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/22 "2005-10-29T22:47:57Z")
Uh. It wasn’t on the Dope. I was talking about the other parenting messageboards that I frequent. :: looking for ghost costume under which to hide :: ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/23 "2005-10-29T22:51:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Have there been threads like this? Even one? I haven’t seen any. IOW, link?? > [@](#): > > And who on this board has ever said such a thing? Pittings are limited only to things that have happened on this board? Must everything be about you? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/24 "2005-10-29T23:06:39Z")
Well, perhaps if the OP had said “I am sick of threads ON PARENTING BOARDS”, then there wouldn’t be any confusion, now would there? However, she instead chose to say “I am sick of threads that…blah blah blah”, and most of us, for some crazy reason, thought she meant this one. Imagine that! ---
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/25 "2005-10-30T00:29:39Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Pittings are limited only to things that have happened on this board? Must everything be about you? Hey genius…when the OP says > [@](#): > > I am SO SICK of sanctimonious threads… WITHOUT any qualifiers…call us crazy, but most folks would think that the OP is referring to the SDMB. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/26 "2005-10-30T00:51:07Z")
I thought this was going to be about douchebag “adults” (ya’ know- 16 and over) trick or treating. Man, I fucking HATE that. My mom never rationed out candy on Halloween or Easter. Man, I loved me some Halloween and Easter. What I could do was trade my candy up- give her a bag or two of candy and she would give me a toy (usually a cheapie one). ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/27 "2005-10-30T01:57:37Z")
> [@DiosaBellissima](#): > > I thought this was going to be about douchebag “adults” (ya’ know- 16 and over) trick or treating. Man, I fucking HATE that. > … (This is a hijack.) Does it make a difference if I am taking a friend of mine who has never been…? (That was a hijack. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/28 "2005-10-30T02:04:42Z")
I rationed my own candy. I’d divide it into catergories, and eat the least favored things first. So it would go something like this: 1. Yucky hard candies, like rootbeer barrels or horehound drops. 2. Gum, candy corn, those chalky sour tabs 3. Lifesavers, Suckers, licorice 4. Anything part chocolate, like Tootsie Pops 5. And saved until last, mini-chocolate bars, Hershey’s Kisses ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/29 "2005-10-30T02:43:56Z")
> [@ZebraShaSha](#): > > (This is a hijack.) > Does it make a difference if I am taking a friend of mine who has never been…? > (That was a hijack. How old are you? Will you actually have a costume? If yes, then I would say it’s ok. I would probably say something like, “Oh yup, my friend never has been trick-or-treating so I am taking him! How cool, huh?” Something lame like that, to get across that you aren’t an evil, cheap, child’s candy stealer 😉 ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/30 "2005-10-30T02:45:40Z")
> [@fessie](#): > > In particular, it’s the “OMG, Halloween trick-or-treating is so _mainstream_, my children have much better things to do” mentality that is so fucking irksome. As though all activities embraced by the masses are automatically suspect - nay, inferior. Fuck that. > > [snip] > > It’s just all so fucking DULL. This battle, this race to raise “perfect children”, whether through conventional or unconventional means. MY GOD. So what if they do something stupid and consumerist once in a while. Turning up one’s nose at all societal conventions is just as limiting as following them to the letter. “Oh, little Phin can’t have any candy unless it’s organic, vegan and sugar-free.” Fair enough. I agree with you. But in the future, you might want to say what you mean to say, and use a smaller brush. I don’t like being called nasty names for my parenting choices, especially about something as stupid as whether or not I take my kid trick or treating or ration out his candy. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/31 "2005-10-30T03:57:39Z")
Fair back atcha, complaint-wise; it’s all I can do to write a single coherent paragraph these days, between removing foodstuff from my daughter’s right nostril and retrieving parts of the dishwasher (why on earth would they take the rack out and drive it around the kitchen?). You bet your ass I’m taking them out for T or T - time to pimp candy for Mommy, kids! Plus their bumblebee costumes are too cute for words. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Loblaw\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@Bob\_Loblaw\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Loblaw_1)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/32 "2005-10-30T04:08:26Z")
Wow, that’s impressive! A rant that is well worth it. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/33 "2005-10-30T04:20:04Z")
Jeez… Is a happy medium acceptable to the OP? I went trick or treating with my kids. But I also rationed candy. Especially when they were little. And no, not “slooooowly one twizzler at a time”. A reasonable handful, and if they wanted more, a few more then. Moderation in all things, even moderation. It is just common sense to not want your child to be miserably sick all night (and you have to sit up with them), or to wake up at 3am with them puking up 400 “fun sized” snickers. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/34 "2005-10-30T04:49:09Z")
> [@ZebraShaSha](#): > > (This is a hijack.) > Does it make a difference if I am taking a friend of mine who has never been…? > (That was a hijack. No, it doesn’t. Trick or treating is for kids. Leave the candy for them. If your friend wants the experience of trick or treating, why don’t you two take some kids out and let them do the trick-or-treating? ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/35 "2005-10-30T05:57:09Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > Is a happy medium acceptable to the OP? I went trick or treating with my kids. But I also rationed candy. Especially when they were little. And no, not “slooooowly one twizzler at a time”. A reasonable handful, and if they wanted more, a few more then. Now that the OP has clarified her rant, I’ll weigh in against grinchey parents who use their kids as tools against holidays…even the silly ones. Rationing junk food so kids don’t puke their guts out is one thing. Deliberate grandstanding is another, especially when adults use hapless kids to do it. My city–and library–throw a blast for kids at Halloween. Everybody gathers downtown for costume contests, spooky story tellers, free popcorn, candy and generally a lot of ridiculous fun. The place swarms with pint-sized aliens, princesses, horses, ghosts and whatever, carooming into people’s knees because their masks slipped sideways. But all of 'em were thrilled at playing dress-up and pretend with grown-ups actually _getting it_ for once. Trolleys ferried the kids (and parents) to a haunted house and other places, including the library. We decorated the Children’s Room for a widely publicized, two-hour Halloween stop during the festivities. We made a Space theme, complete with a maze of sparkling lights through the book stacks, a space ship control deck and the Story Pit covered in black paper with black-light planets, stars, a cow jumping over the moon and SpongeBob SquarePants inexplicably floating in zero-G. Kids loved it. Except for a few forlorn little souls whose prune-faced parents dragged them in, just to gritch about how they didn’t approve of any of it. Not on religious grounds, mind you; the parents just had to make the point it wasn’t sufficiently _intellectually stimulating_. They dragged their kids in, for a brief, well-publicized event, just to make a point of making their kids reject it all without having the slightest clue why. Nothing will suit everybody and that’s life. But some tactics are just vicious. ---
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/36 "2005-10-30T14:42:56Z")
Related [rant](http://www.qctimes.net/articles/2005/10/25/opinion/columnists/barb_ickes/doc435db8685298a948852822.txt) in our local rag. [Follow up](http://www.qctimes.net/articles/2005/10/30/opinion/columnists/barb_ickes/doc436457dc389c6786806467.txt). ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/37 "2005-10-30T14:56:27Z")
> [@Flutterby](#): > > Because it was his birthday. He had a choice between a party or trick-or-treating. Wow, so that’s why I never had a real birthday party. (Even though my birthday is on the 1st.) I was never even given a choice. But I still always got cake. Woo hoo, sugar overload! And it’s not about the candy. Several times when I was young my parents made us trick or treat for UNICEF. I don’t remember us complaining much about not getting candy. It was about being out after dark and dressing up and seeing all the other kids dressed up and ringing doorbells. Even the night before I turned 5, I felt particularly self-denying and altruistic collecting for charity instead of getting candy. And I’d made a promise to stop sucking my thumb when I turned 5, and I made good on that promise. I feeled so growed up! I felt like I was four feet tall! And now, moments away from turning 44, I wish I could still trick or treat. Once again, not for the candy (OK, a few of those mini Mr. Goodbars would be accepted), I still want to dress up and haunt the neighborhood. In this neighborhood, I can’t even give out candy, because such things are not done around here. ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/38 "2005-10-30T15:00:46Z")
My parents let my brother and I fully enjoy Halloween, and I have great memories for it. It was up to our own discretion what we did with our candy. Once I ate too much and got sick, and when I went crying to my mom she told me I got what I deserved and shouldn’t pig out on it. I was more sensible with it after that. I can kind of understand the heightened paranoia these days about all sorts of evil items shoved into candy, but thoroughly checking a kid’s candy when they get home should alleviate that. Planting frightening ideas in a kid’s head is unnecessary. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/39 "2005-10-30T15:05:47Z")
> [@Amazon Floozy Goddess](#): > > Planting frightening ideas in a kid’s head is unnecessary. No, wouldn’t want to frighten kids on Halloween. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502/40 "2005-10-30T15:10:55Z")
Do you know that the candy paranoia thing is bogus? There’s probably a Snopes on it, but what I read months ago is that in the two (?) documented cases where kids were poisoned via Halloween candy, it was actually their parents’ doing? I think it’s a good idea to stick to friendly neighbors’ homes, anyway, at least with little 'uns. They’re the ones who’re going to enjoy seeing the kids in their costumes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-trick-or-treat-bite-me/328502.md?page=3)