No Trick-or-Treaters. . . Again

[DaveNV]

We are on a horseshoe shaped crescent in a fairly new suburban subdivision in Ontario. We got the usual 100 kids last night on a miserable evening, with high winds and a steady downpour. But I do have a beef. We have a parkette across the street from us with a long curbside to park, and we seem to be a desirable neighbourhood to trick or treat. I watched van after van pull up across the street and kids pile out to ply our crescent.....these were not neighbourhood kids but who knows where from. One van had commercial signage from a town about 15 miles distant. I'd say half of the kids at my door were not from around here. And whats up with teens knocking at the door long after the little ones have gone back inside with no costumes at all, but holding pillow cases. I had stuff left over so they got lucky, but surely they could make some effort to get in the spirit!

Read my reply #6 above. Are we neighbors?

Dave

 

[amycurl]

We actually did have the thunderstorms and tornado warning (not just a watch, and actual warning that came in between 6:30 and 7 pm) that missed Panina. But we got two groups of just the neighborhood kids (maybe a dozen altogether?) before the bottom dropped out of the sky. We normally get between 40-60 (kids from neighboring neighborhoods.) While the city didn't do anything formal (which I appreciate,) neighborhoods and HOAs were good about communicating plans. Some of the "big haul" neighborhoods (also adjacent to downtown, like mine, but on the other side of downtown,)postponed until tonight.

But we have plans tonight (that mostly revolve around my daughter's middle school dance,) so I may just leave a bowl with some candy on the porch and see what happens. We might be home early enough to catch some later trick or treaters. We'll see....

 

[amycurl]

I am a big believer that Halloween is for EVERYONE. Not everyone lives in a neighborhood where folks have the extra money to afford candy to give out to strangers (this is esp. true for some of the neighborhoods adjacent to mine,) so should those kids not be allowed to trick or treat somewhere that does? (In Bar Harbor, ME, they mitigate the cost of "outsider" trick or treaters by having the community subsidize homeowners that live on the main trick or treating drag; folks can donate cash or bags of candy to let them give out.) Also, not every family can afford the time and/or the money to put into a costume; should those kids not get a chance to trick or treat? Should older kids and adults not get to participate in this massive community and social-capital building experience, even if they can't bring themselves to figure out a costume? (Let's face it, it's not my skill set. I tend towards the 'high concept, low effort' costume myself; think "three-hole punch Jim.")

Halloween is for EVERYONE.

But, I agree, Dave, the kid who rang your darkened doorbell after 10 pm was just rude. I'm sorry that one teenager put you off it entirely. Luckily, everyone around here has been very respectful of the "lights out" indicator, and we've never encountered something like that.

 

[Patri]

https://www.treehugger.com/family/w...ZkMmqEum2y15fAhsKyQPjQ5GY2OTu8mrihY9j2OppTT8Y

Lenore is not going to find a lot of fans. For years now, parents have not let their kids go out alone and I don't blame them. They are at the curb or walking farther back, but times are different. Teens, ok. Elementary school, not.
And she disses the idea of churches hosting events. It is an outreach, not to provide a safe environment and take away independence. There are often games inside, story times, food, etc. It is for the family.
Sure, as a kid in a small town, we roamed on our own. But we went maybe three blocks to homes of people we knew. Now the parents more than the kids, are after the candy. Some will go to two or three towns, if they hold T or T on different nights. The kids can't get to those communities unless the parents drive them.
Lenore needs to chill.

 

[clifffaith]

We didn't have anyone knocking after lights out like we usually do. Lights out is hard because we have motion detectors at the driveway and top of our steps. Lights on consists of the living room and bedroom shutters open, porch light on and speakeasys in the door open. Since we are above street level, I think it is pretty obvious when we are "open for business".

Last night I was reminded of a pet peeve -- children that just stand at the door and don't ring or knock. If they talk to each other I'll hear small whispers and costumes rustling, but I'm not getting up during Grey's Anatomy until they announce themselves by knocking, ringing or shouting Trick or Treat! Since we only had half as many kids, no one chastised me for taking too long to get to the door. Usually I get a 9 year old boy telling me I was too slow and I'm holding him up.

 

[bbodb1]

My house is on a closed loop. One way in and the same way out. More than 30 homes along both sides of the street. It's safe, easy, close in, and has become something of a destination for Trick or Treaters from all over town. Thing is, I've been here long enough that the kids in the neighborhood are grown up, and have moved on. The only Halloween visitors in the neighborhood now are people from elsewhere, who drop their kids off, and tell them they'll wait for them to circle the Loop. I don't know these kids, and kind of feel like they're cheating the system....

A similar experience where we live and really, this killed the Halloween experience for us a few years ago.

 

[bbodb1]

Love the word "parkette" I used to be one of those who got annoyed by lack-of-effort teens but I've kind of changed my tune on that now that I have a teen. She will put on SOME attempt at a costume (headband, drawn on cat face, etc) but I'm the first to admit, it's really lame. I, however, love to see the teens out and about as it's a rare chance for them to still be (somewhat ) innocent, carefree kids out having fun with their friends.

So this made me wonder a couple of things, @Cornell

Is this teen the one who is away for the year? How is she doing by the way?

Also, do they have any Halloween traditions in Germany?

 

[Cornell]

Lenore is not going to find a lot of fans. For years now, parents have not let their kids go out alone and I don't blame them. They are at the curb or walking farther back, but times are different. Teens, ok. Elementary school, not.
And she disses the idea of churches hosting events. It is an outreach, not to provide a safe environment and take away independence. There are often games inside, story times, food, etc. It is for the family.
Sure, as a kid in a small town, we roamed on our own. But we went maybe three blocks to homes of people we knew. Now the parents more than the kids, are after the candy. Some will go to two or three towns, if they hold T or T on different nights. The kids can't get to those communities unless the parents drive them.
Lenore needs to chill.

Lenore has a huge following of fans.

 

[Cornell]

So this made me wonder a couple of things, @Cornell

Is this teen the one who is away for the year? How is she doing by the way?

Also, do they have any Halloween traditions in Germany?

Ah, thank you for asking. Yes -- she's my one and only and she's in Switzerland actually. Halloween is a "nothing" holiday over there. But most of the schools have today off for All Saints Day.

She's doing GREAT! Loves her host family , is traveling a ton. Has developed a big social network. She's been gone 2.5 months now and there are just "little things" I notice when we talk that make me realize how much she has matured in such a short time. Her German is also progressing well. She said she can now sit in most conversations and have an idea of what's being talked about. She can't contribute a lot to the conversations but she's at least understanding and that eases her feelings of being isolated.

 

[JudiZ]

We are living in a rental apartment until we move into our house so I assumed we would have a ton of trick or treaters. The weather was cold and rainy so I bought a ton of candy. Not one kiddo showed up. Not one! The good news is that last week when I was at my doctor's office I noticed that they would take leftover candy and ship it to our armed services personnel. Just seems like a good thing all around.

When our kiddos were young, we lived in one of those "destination" neighborhoods with a hundred and twenty five close houses. Honestly, I loved it! If we ran out of candy, we turned off the lights but it was so much fun. Since then, we had moved into a rural neighborhood. The next house, however, is in a busy neighborhood so I will hope for the best.

Judi

 

[pedro47]

I liked this time of the year because some retail stores will reduce their treat candy 50% off.lol.

 

[VacationForever]

We live behind 2 gates and don't expect kids here for Halloween. All is well.

 

[Dori]

Usually, we have about 100 kids, but last night was so rainy that we only had 50. Our grandkids (10 and 8) come for pizza, and then our niece and nephew bring their 2, and a friend of DD comes with her 2. We take lots of fun photos and off they all go, while I stay home to hand our the treats.

Lots of left-overs this year. Good thing I buy candies DH likes!

Dori

 

[WVBaker]

We live behind 2 gates and don't expect kids here for Halloween.

There's not barbed wire on the top is there?

Now remember, you do have the right to remain silent.

 

[PigsDad]

Ok, before you judge, both my wife and I are engineers so this shouldn't be too surprising. We built our current house in 2005 in one of the very popular new growth neighborhoods at the time with lots of new schools in the area, so many families just starting out were moving in. Every year we have kept detailed tallies on the number of trick-or-treaters, time, weather, etc. It has been very interesting seeing the rise and fall of the total numbers as the neighborhood has started to age out now with less young kids around. We even put together a graph, and it shows a pretty decent bell curve!

Kurt

 

[Free2Roam]

Ok, before you judge, both my wife and I are engineers so this shouldn't be too surprising. We built our current house in 2005 in one of the very popular new growth neighborhoods at the time with lots of new schools in the area, so many families just starting out were moving in. Every year we have kept detailed tallies on the number of trick-or-treaters, time, weather, etc. It has been very interesting seeing the rise and fall of the total numbers as the neighborhood has started to age out now with less young kids around. We even put together a graph, and it shows a pretty decent bell curve!

View attachment 14875

Kurt

Impressive... the Geek in me loves this!

 

[bluehende]

Ok, before you judge, both my wife and I are engineers so this shouldn't be too surprising. We built our current house in 2005 in one of the very popular new growth neighborhoods at the time with lots of new schools in the area, so many families just starting out were moving in. Every year we have kept detailed tallies on the number of trick-or-treaters, time, weather, etc. It has been very interesting seeing the rise and fall of the total numbers as the neighborhood has started to age out now with less young kids around. We even put together a graph, and it shows a pretty decent bell curve!

View attachment 14875

Kurt

259 or 38 in 6 yrs that is tough to plan for.

my graph would look the same only over a few cycles. As the kids age it goes down then the next generation comes along.


Curios did you try to fit a function to the numbers? Now a model to predict trick or treaters would be useful.

 

[Cornell]

259 or 38 in 6 yrs that is tough to plan for.

my graph would look the same only over a few cycles. As the kids age it goes down then the next generation comes along.


Curios did you try to fit a function to the numbers? Now a model to predict trick or treaters would be useful.

I’m a statistician. I’ll get right on that!

 

[Patri]

Lenore has a huge following of fans.

I meant for that post. I hope her fans think through her advice, and do what is best for their children.

 

[Panina]

So tonight November 1, I had over 100 kids show up for a belated Halloween. Their bags were filled so lots of us were participating in opening our doors.

 

[klpca]

Thought that you would get a kick out of this. I saw it on my friend's Instagram.

 

[mentalbreak]

It always makes me smile when people are away but leave a bowl out for trick-or-treaters.
One year when we were in the follow-the-kids-on-the-sidewalk phase of Halloween, my son was taking forever at one house. When he returned from the long driveway, we learned there was an unattended bowl of candy and he was busy trading pieces he didn’t want from his bucket with better ones from the bowl.
At least he knew not to take extra!

 

[Passepartout]

Thought that you would get a kick out of this. I saw it on my friend's Instagram. View attachment 14880

Wouldn't 'a mattered at my house, but I love it anyway.

 

[PigsDad]

Curios did you try to fit a function to the numbers? Now a model to predict trick or treaters would be useful.

Nah. We just make sure we have plenty, and if we have some left over, more for us! Like others have mentioned doing, we just bring in most of our left over candy to work (big corporate environment) and it always disappears.

Actually, this year we switched to giving out full-sized candy bars, due to the big decline in the last couple years. The kids were so appreciative, and it was fun to see their reaction when we presented them with a basket of candy bars and they could choose their favorite.

Kurt

 

[PigsDad]

I’m a statistician. I’ll get right on that!

Kind of embarrassing to admit this, but I believe we still have all of our original notes, including a breakdown by 1/2 hour segments of when the little goblins arrived! What could you do with that data?

Kurt