Mommy, why are you ruining Halloween?

I live in a half crunchy/half alpha-mom neighborhood, and I love it. Typical topics on the community listserve are “home birthing options,” playgroups, yoga classes, vaccine debates, and baby clothing swaps. I really don’t pay much attention to most of the discussions, except for maybe the free/heavily discounted stuff. But I have been a bit riled by a recent conversation about Halloween.

It seems that the people in my neighborhood are going to be putting up green ribbons to signify non-candy-giving houses on Halloween. People are talking about giving away non-food items, like notepads, cheap, plastic Made-in-China toys (my embellishment), and the like.

Why are you ruining Halloween for your kids, people?!

When I was a kid, about the worst you could hope for was getting an apple while trick or treating. Or, if you believed the rumors, you’d get an apple with a razor blade in it – sweet! Now people are giving out packs of pretzels or junky little toys just so kids don’t get a sugar high.

Lame.

I’m going trick-or-treating with my 3yo this year. It should be fun, as it should be the first time he “gets” it. And I’ll be marking down the houses that are flying the green ribbon so I’ll know later that those are the moms that probably won’t want to have a martini playdate someday either.