And I wonder why my kids aren't mature enough to shop for candy... that is, until I realize that I am not yet mature enough to accompany them trick or treating. We went to a trick-or-treating event at a local school this weekend. Liam scoped out every possible hallway where candy was being passed out. He steered us into classrooms, down side hallways and off the beaten path. As I tagged along behind him, I couldn't help but eye the stashes of candy myself. Something about Halloween makes me want all of the candy. I can't seem to put an end to it, but I just start to feel like a full candy bowl is... an accomplishment. Like if we don't get enough variety, we've failed the task of Halloween. Or maybe that's not it at all. Maybe I feel entitled to the candy. Like this is the chance for the world to give back (which is completely true if you take into account that we live on a dead end street and no one ever stops by our house; but yet we still put out candy each year). Sometimes I can feel myself turn green with greed (I know, it's supposed to be green with envy, but whatever). I just want more candy, MORE, MORE!!! That might be the truth of it right there.
Really, I feel that I've always been quite immature when it comes to Halloween. My last time out trick or treating, I accidentally let it slip to a home-owner that I could see their house from my classroom window each day... and since it was a high school across the street, I think they were a bit offended (and maybe concerned about a high school stalker who might skip classes just to stop by, expecting candy). So clearly I clung on to my favorite parts of Halloween for far too long. It wasn't until the following year that I spent Halloween doing what every self-respecting teenager should be doing, running through ditches full of leaves and behind houses playing a game of "night tag" with toilet paper and silly string... and, of course, trick or treating at our teacher's houses.
Now that I'm a grown up, I see Halloween entirely differently. I kind of feel like a mooch. I'd probably feel better if more kids came to our house. But as it is,. here we are going to other peoples' houses one-by-one, expecting them to serve us (while their kids are skipping by our street despite bowls of untouched, unwatched candy on all of our sidewalks). One year I had Liam do UNICEF, which you would think would make me feel far less like a mooch, but actually it felt even worse! Even though obviously UNICEF $ doesn't go to me (or in this case Liam) and it was going to be sent away to some deserving cause, I still felt that the home-owners were a bit put off so we haven't done it again since... plus, as greedy as I am, Liam is far worse and not good at hiding it. He would gladly let other children starve so that he could get a bite sized Snickers bar.
I may not be mature enough to chaperone Halloween... each year rather than making a simple sweep of the neighborhood and heading home, we always find ourselves staying out past dark going to "just one more house". The streets clear out and I insist on stopping at a couple more on the way home. It's probably why I we stayed out a few years back, despite heavy rainfall later in the evening... because we had just gotten to the nice neighborhood.
IRONY ALERT: I don't really like candy and we always have plenty of leftovers which we end up getting rid of before the Christmas candy influx. By the time Valentine's Day rolls around, I'm so sick of candy, I wouldn't think of stealing any of those little bite sized bars taped to the back of my kids' paper valentines. And really, also, we don't end up with that much candy at Halloween. I'm sure if I left Liam to his own devices, and didn't insist on him taking the extra 10 seconds to say "Thank you", I'm sure he'd come home with a full bag of loot. But for now, we just stand in the back, eyeing the candy that gets dropped into the bucket. Nicely suggesting, "We'll take the Twix bars" to the homeowner who smiles and politely says, "Those are my favorite too, how about taking a nice Butterfinger instead."
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| Hmm... choices, choices. Joshy at age 1 1/2 |
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| Why choose when you can take three at once? Liam at age 2 1/2 |
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