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Did you ever trick-or-treat with your parents as a chaperone?

Southern Pessimist
@SouthernPessimist
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I was the third child in my family, with sisters three and four years older than I. I don't remember Halloween until I was at least 8, but I am pretty sure that before that age I may have been supervised by my older sisters. I seriously doubt if either of my parents ever took me around the neighborhood to collect candy. I have no memory of ever wearing a costume for Halloween. I do know that if I wanted to trick-or-treat, I had to assemble my own costume. So every year I was a pirate. I doubt if my costume was convincing. The only prop I had was a plastic sword. I vaguely remember being asked what kind of monster I was, but I was used to being misunderstood. I politely said I was a pirate, so now give me some candy.

Things seem different today. Costumes are elaborate and children are carefully paraded from house to house to ring the doorbell and then say the magic words when the door opens. The very young children with parents in tow fail that minor task quite spectacularly. Every step in the process is fun to watch as the parental chaperone tries to reinforce the proper behavior. It seems to me that parents chaperone their kids until they are about 10 or 11 years old and then give up trick-or-treating.

I generally turn off the lights by 9 pm to avoid the teenagers who should have better things to do than try to pretend to be a child. What say you?

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Discussion (25)

  • CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill@CarolJoy

    Maybe when I was under 7 years of age, although I don't remember it though.

    Baby Boomers and Gen Xers have in common that we would go out in a pack of friends and ring doorbells and trade the booty for the stuff that we didn't like with someone who wanted it.

    We Boomers weren't affected by the later on urban legends of razor blades in the candy.

  • Southern Pessimist@SouthernPessimist
    ReplyingtoCarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    Maybe when I was under 7 years of age, although I don’t remember it though.

    Baby Boomers and Gen Xers have in common that we would go out in a pack of friends and ring doorbells and trade the booty for the stuff that we didn’t like with someone who wanted it.

    We Boomers weren’t affected by the later on urban legends of razor blades in the candy.

    I think that story of razor blades in the fruit or muffins that might be handed out was probably promulgated by Big Candy. RFK Jr. needs to look into that once Big Pharma is under control.

  • Charlotte@Charlotte

    Did you ever trick-or-treat with your parents as a chaperone?

    Absolutely not (I was born in 1974).

    The fact that every kid up to the mid-teen years is accompanied by a parent is the main reason I'm a Halloween Grinch (ie, turn the porch light off and hide in the basement). It drives me crazy. If kids want free candy, they need to summon up the courage to ring the doorbell on their own.

    Now get off my lawn.

  • Chuck@Chuckles

    Not ever. Do recall one time (the only time) I dressed up as a ghost. The costume didn't last long. When my kids were of an age we went to a movie or out to eat or both rather than indulging in Halloween stuff. (That was in the late 70's.)

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