No tricks, no treats, no way, no how!

What Now?

Kids are funny. Just when you think you have them figured out they hit you with something straight out of left field and send you back to the parenting drawing board. Case in point, my 5 year old and Halloween. For most kids, normal kids, Halloween night is second only to Christmas morning on the kids holiday scale of awesomeness. You get to dress up as whatever you want, you get to stay up way past your normal bedtime and you get more candy than you can possibly eat in one sitting. Does it really get any better than that?

Well, for my youngest child it can. Leading up to the big night she acts like any other normal year old child. She decides to be Strawberry Shortcake, and can it get more adorable than that? Funny side story here, when my wife googled Strawberry Shortcake costumes for our little girl she found this. Not exactly what she had in mind for our child, but I thought it might work for her...she was not amused. Anyway, back to my story. After deciding on a costume our youngest helped decorate, carve pumpkins and participate in just about all other pre-Halloween activities.

The one thing we knew going in was that she is scared of most of the spookier Halloween decorations. Hell, she won't step one foot in the door at Micheal's because of the stuff they have on display there. Even knowing that, we didn't expect the full on boycott of all things trick or treat when the big night came. Our usual plan is to pack the kids in the car and drive to certain houses/neighborhoods so we hit all the really good houses and see friends in the process. The first couple homes we hit were of the scary variety. Our oldest loves going to these homes because they also give out the best candy. It's these trips that I stay in the car with the youngest while my wife takes our oldest door to door. After the first couple we see some friends and some standard, jack-o-lantern only types houses. Nope, not getting out even for those. "What, come on "R", these houses aren't scary." Nope, not getting out of the car, not going to the door and not interested in the candy. Really? This kid is not candy motivated? Shit, what else do we have then? I mean, if we can't even get her out of the car to walk a few feet and say three little words for candy what chance do we have to get her to do anything? Candy is the one motivation most parents keep as plan Z when nothing else works. I could offer my oldest candy as a reward and get the house cleaned, the dog walked and lawn mowed all before 10am if I needed too.

So, there I sat in the car trying to talk our youngest to at least give it a try...nope, not a chance. We got home and my oldest started organizing her candy and getting set up for some late night movie watching. My youngest took off her costume, put on her pj's, and wanted my wife to take her to bed. When my wife came back down I just looked at her with amazement over the nights activities. She smiles and said in a calming voice "at least we won't have to worry about peer pressure with her." Good point!

Peace Out Dads!