It's Halloween, the day that kids await with gleeful anticipation, dreaming of spooky decorations, creative costumes, and bags full of sweet treats. Except if you're my sons...who apparently have gotten over the whole Halloween hype at the tender ages of 10 and 7. I have to admit, I was kind of blindsided by their newfound indifference to this most chocolate-fueled of all holidays. True, Derek is a 5th-grade boy this year, but he's never given any indication that his upper-elementary-school dignity would be compromised by dressing up for a few hours. After all, this is the boy who has always been comfortable donning "special outfits"--one of my very favorite photos of him EVER, happened when he was 3 years old, and proudly wore a gauzy, pastel Fairy Dress to fit in with his little-girl-playgroup-friends (this picture will naturally be forever preserved in a place of honor, to show his future Prom Date). And for quite a while, Riley steadfastly clung to his precious Thomas the Tank Engine costume, happily trotting it out for three Halloweens in a row.
So the fact that neither of them wanted to participate in the Costume Drama came as something of a shock. (EVEN for the school parade, when everyone else was going to be all decked out! Don't get me wrong: I love that they possess the confidence and independent spirit not to follow the crowd...who knew that Halloween would give them a golden opportunity to practice Just Say No!) But then Derek made an offhand comment that triggered a crushing wave of Mom Guilt. He placidly remarked, "People give out junk anyway, and we're not allowed to eat most of it, so it's not really worth going out trick-or-treating." Oh no! He could not have sounded more like me if someone had paid him to imitate his mother. And his parental inspiration? Over the last several years, especially with Derek's braces, I've instituted a policy of: "only good-quality candy, preferably chocolate" when weeding out their Halloween haul (that means the Nerds, the Tootsie Rolls, the Laffy Taffy--anything that's the equivalent of rubbing unadulterated sugar on your teeth--goes straight into the garbage) I had the best of intentions: trying to prevent cavities and sugar comas...but I inadvertently ruined Halloween! Bad Mommy!
Actually, upon calmer reflection, the boys have never been that into the rituals surrounding this particular celebration anyway. They used to enjoy visiting pumpkin patches every Fall, but after going every year since Derek was in preschool, they're waaaay over it. Being on the "easily frightened" end of the scale, they don't particularly care for scary movies or haunted houses. This year, they tell me they'd like to stay home, greet kids at the door, and pass out candy. And I promised that not only would I buy high-end sweets, I'd make sure to stock only our favorites, in greater quantity than we could possibly need to give away...thus we'll end up with our own stash....without needing to put on funny clothes, trudge around in the cold and dark, and beg at peoples' doors! Now that's a new Halloween tradition I can get behind!
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