Mom Lesson: How Young Is Too Young For Halloween?

Posted by Rachel Engel

Before I was a parent, I was a child expert (weren't we all?!). I swore that unless my child could actually eat the candy, I wouldn't allow them to partake in the Halloween activities. To me, when a young couple rang my doorbell with a sleeping baby wrapped in a ladybug swaddle blanket and said, "Trick or treat," while holding a bag out, it looked absolutely ridiculous. To some extent, I still feel that way, especially if one parent isn't at least taking a ton of photographs, which would be a valid reason for taking a two-week-old trick-or-treating for Milky Ways and Reese's cups.

But now, I'm the proud mother of a vocal, mobile little one, and everything I had decided long before I became pregnant is suddenly called into question. For one thing, I already bought a costume for her. How could I not!? All those precious miniature clothes that were shoved in my face as I went from store to store. The one that eventually won out was a felt strawberry costume, complete with a stemmed hat. Too cute, right?

However, the next question is, am I really going to carry her from house to house, saying the words, "Trick or treat?" for her? She can't walk, she's not really talking yet, and she is certainly no where near the age where I would think about letting her have even one piece of Halloween candy. So, what's the point?

The photo opportunity is the only excuse I can come up with, but if that's the case, I could just dress her up and take pictures of her at our own house, right? It kind of defeats the purpose, though. She's not exactly enjoying the festivities, we're just pretending.

So, I've come to a couple of conclusions. The first being that I was an insatiably judgmental person before I came a mother myself, and the second, is that I will definitely be awkwardly holding my daughter's hands and walking her up the sidewalk of a few houses on Wednesday, while my husband stands back and snaps pictures. I'll don some kind of easy-to-throw-together costume, like a cape with a witch's hat, and we will document our baby's first official Halloween. Then, to compensate for essentially collecting candy for myself, I will go back and hand out big fistfuls of candy to all the kids who come to my door, so their parents can eat some, too.

Happy Halloween, mamas!

3 back to baby

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