{"id":9966,"date":"2014-10-30T05:26:32","date_gmt":"2014-10-30T10:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/?p=9966"},"modified":"2014-10-29T12:51:48","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T17:51:48","slug":"in-defense-of-tween-trick-or-treaters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/2014\/10\/30\/in-defense-of-tween-trick-or-treaters\/","title":{"rendered":"In defense of t(w)een trick-or-treaters"},"content":{"rendered":"

O<\/span>h hypocrisy, thy name is mother. If parenting has taught me anything, it’s that any righteous judgement I make will promptly or eventually come back to bite me on the ass.<\/p>\n

Once upon a year or two ago, I was firmly of the opinion that trick-or-treating was and should remain the domain of young children. The wee-est Harry Potters and Disney Princesses always got an extra treat on my porch, while roving bands of half-costumed teens got whatever my kids had rejected as unsavoury from their own sacks, and maybe a barely concealed scowl as well. Trick or treaters are supposed to be little kids, right?<\/p>\n

\"In<\/a><\/p>\n

And then two things happened. First, my elementary school aged son started shaving, sprouted past five and a half feet tall and had his voice drop an octave or two. Second, I read this lovely article in the Huff Post (no, that’s not actually an oxymoron) called What You Need to Know About 6-Foot Trick-or-Treaters<\/a>. It’s a sweet and insightful article, and you should read the whole thing now, because I’m about to totally spoil it for you by cutting and pasting my favourite bit, the conclusion:<\/p>\n

That night I was reminded that parents are not the only ones who regret the passing years. A year earlier, for the first time, my son gave out candy instead of trick-or-treating. It was an OK experience, but not worth repeating. It’s much more fun to go trick-or-treating with a bunch of guys and if the neighbors are grumpy, it’s easier to laugh things off when you’re in a crowd.<\/p>\n

So here’s what I can pass on, if you don’t have your own 15-year-old boy.<\/p>\n

When a crowd of under-costumed teens shows up on your doorstep, welcome them. It’s a big group because they find strength in numbers. They’re not wearing costumes because they didn’t realize that they’d want to go — nor how badly.<\/p>\n

Give them big bars. Don’t tell them they’re too old. They already know that.<\/p>\n

Let them pretend it just isn’t so.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think this is both lovely and 100% true. We’ve been having discussions for the last year or two about how old is too old, and even last Halloween I thought maybe twelve years old might be our family threshold. I’m rethinking that now, though. If the boys want to keep trick or treating for a few more years, I’m not going to stop them.<\/p>\n

Not least because then I’d have to buy my own candy stash! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

What do you think, bloggy peeps? Should there be an upper age limit on trick or treating?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh hypocrisy, thy name is mother. If parenting has taught me anything, it’s that any righteous judgement I make will promptly or eventually come back to bite me on the ass. Once upon a year or two ago, I was firmly of the opinion that trick-or-treating was and should remain the domain of young children. … Continue reading “In defense of t(w)een trick-or-treaters”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mothering-without-a-licence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9966"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9969,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9966\/revisions\/9969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}