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Schnauzermom- what a great memory- O, where are all those volunteers and safe cities/towns... BTW-I would not be able to afford $200 for treats...I bet you can't either...what would happen if you turned your light off and went inside after an appropriate amount was given...or not at all? In our town if the porch light is off the children are not allowed to come to the door. There is also a time limit on how long they can trick or treat... o well, call me an old grouch guess I get the tricks c.Carolyn Dickman
Carolyn,
Thanks! Those were GREAT memories! It was nice too because the parents HAD to stay and were held responsible for teir kids, it was not a built in sitter for the evening. They had things for the moms to do, card games, help with serving food, pitch in with helping the volunteers on the floor, have coffee in the corner of the gym or they could just read a magazine and watch the kids have fun. Those were much different times in the mid to late 1970's!
NO we really cannot afford $200.00 worth of candy, but my husband parks his car on the driveway, so we did not want a trick (There have been issues with egging, toilet paper, spray paint, cutting bushes, etc in out town last year, year before, etc.) We just got hubby's car fixed this spring after one of the kids a few doors down was driving his bicycle all over OUR lawn and driveway and handle barred the backside of hubby's car. (the parents are never outside to see what a muck their kids are up to!) I did not see it happen, but saw the kid driving his bicycle on our lawn and driveway; he is the only kid that has a bicycle with handle bars that high. Hubby said he went into the trunk to get his briefcase out of the trunk when he came home from work and it was not there. The next morning the dent was there when he put his briefcase in the trunk! 2 + 2 = 4!)
It matters not if the lights are on or off, kids still go to the door.
My one neighbors with no kids, no Halloween decor have their lights out (they work mostly nights) and the past 3 years, a large majority of kids STILL go to the door in hopes of getting more sugary treats! The house across the street is unoccupied and for sale, no lights on, but the kids (and parents) were up there at a pitch black door stoop with NO lights on inside. They are determined to leave no doorbell unrung for candy! We had kids trampling all over not only our lawn, but others too, the landscaping, leaping off our porch and over the bushes EVEN with the parents RIGHT there, the parents said NOTHING! Their kids could have cracked their head open on the side of the porch pillar or in the driveway!(if we did something like that as a kid, butts would have been on fire and we would have went straight home!) Some children are obviously not taught to respect other peoples personal property and belongings. Many these kids were out of control like a National Geographic special on wild, crazed baboons jumping and leaping from the porch, curbs, etc! Maybe it was too much sugar?
. If the parents themselves see nothing wrong with jumping off porches, dropping candy wrappers all over the place, leaping over shrubs, walking over flower beds THERE is where the problem lies! The parents seem NOT to know better! (maybe I need to walk my dogs on the 20ft leads on their lawn and leave a "present" for them to pick up?
) Next year, I am turning ALL the interior and exterior lights out, taking the dogs and meeting up with hubby for an eat in dinner in the car!
I do not need to freeze my rear, spend money on candy to clean up wrappers, fix my landscaping and risk a lawsuit over something stupid a kid did.
AS far as the park districts, we know several people that are employed by different towns park districts in northwest Illinois. Most park districts stopped the parties because of lawsuits, the damage/misuse of park district equipment, people going where they should not be (stealing equipment too) and the volunteers honestly get sick of babysitting someone elses children that run a muck when a parent is SUPPOSED to STAY with their kid and NOT use this as a babysitting service!(ie:lawsuit because it was according to the parents, the volunteers responsibility to ensure little Johnny did not get hurt, but all the while Mom was at the mall having a Starbucks with the other moms!)
. So much for watching your own child or taking the responsibility if choosing to leave your child when the RULES said a parent needed to stay and supervise their own child! What should the park district do, handcuff the parent and child together to ensure a parent stays?! There is no accoutability to who's kids is who's either! The doors are not locked down, anyone including the children can walk in or out. Maybe the parents ought to be held accountable for child endangerment as they were supposed to STAY and SUPERVISE their child(ren)! Things like that blew it for everyone. Glad at least some churches here sponsor something similar (Fall or Harvest Festival) for the kids. I think I just may volunteer there next year.
I have noticed that many behaviors we would have been grounded for or have our rears glowing over are over looked today. I do not promote or beleive in spanking, but do SOMETHING! Stop disrespecting, damaging or disrupting others as others really do not want to spend money to fix or replace things the kid damages, get sued, venture out of their home for a relaxing evening to hear a kid pitching a fit at the next table for the next hour in a packed resturant when tables cannot be switched, watching them run around knocking into diners chairs, take salt and papper shakers and licking the tops of them
, having them kick the back of my chair for the next hour because they did not get what they wanted, having them constantly talk at the theatre or play that is clearly not geared for children while the production is going on. (why would one bring a 5-6 year old kid to see The Ten Tenors anyway? Kids do not have the attention span to sit for that long watching something that clearly would NOT be entertaining to them. The kid got antsy, upset, threw his drink and flung his opened MEGA bag of M & M's on the floor, which rolled all over, made a sticky mess and the parents did NOT clean up! They actually stayed for the second half!
GET A SITTER, GET TICKETS TO SNOW WHITE or FANTASTIC FOUR, head for CHUCK E. CHEESE or JUNGLE JIMS or similar or STAY AT HOME! Parents of young children ARE entitled a night out to have fun, be entertained or relax. On the other hand, people without children (or that have children that behave) also are entitled to that as well, hopefully without having to endure sitting near an out of control child(ren) with parents that allow it to continue.
You are not an old grouch! I am not an old grouch. I am just tired of having to pay out of my pocket to fix things that get broken or replace MY things that end up missing because others do not respect others belongings. Our car is NOT the first (or last) thing that has been damaged and we have had other items turn up gone.One little PITA even teases my dogs through the fence!
I will never again approach these parents as this will only be trouble as HOW DARE I insult their kid or their "lack of parenting"
, sorry I mean "parenting" skills
if one can call it that, so I do not even go there! One cannot reason with these people, I tried already. They and their kids are "entitled"" to do and go about as they please, there are 4 neighbors like that and they are a pack all sticking together. (the guy 2 door down just had a logging truck, and a wood chipper drive over our lawn without asking! We do not even know them, but only know the kids because the kids are always in OUR yard or driveway! I know I cannot expect any more from his kids! Like father, like son!) The only reasoning they seem to comprehend is calling the police, THAT the parents seem to understand
! (hence why the guy burned all his leaves last night after dark so he would not get fined for it, it has been against the law here for 3 years. Too lazy to bag all those leaves. The smoke was thick for 4 hours last night and it stunk in our house, we left the house for a couple hours with the dogs.) I also am tired of paying good money for a dinner, play or muscial only to have my chair kicked, listening to "I AM BORED" for the next 2-3 hours, having the kid scream endlessly while an entire resturant full of people having dinner have to endure listening to it and if we do not like it we the majority are supposed to leave?, hearing the kid talk through the entire play or musical production, walk in sticky pop and almost falling on round candy treats when one was not supposed to bring food or drink inside in the first place! We do go out, but not as much as before because of this reason. Maybe it is just where we live? We also have friends with and without kids that feel the same as we do. The ones with kids say if they know their kids will not behave they get a sitter or just all stay at home, they try to go to resturants that are family friendly and if their kids do act up, they ask for doggy bags and go home. If they go to a more upscale place, they get a sitter. They do not want to disrupt others OR cause a scene. People go out to enjoy, relax...listening to a kid pitching a fit or kicking chairs with parents not stopping it or leaving is really quiet ignorant or arrogant. The parent probably does not want to deal with it, so why would anyone else? Several years back, we saw one smart parent just get up from the table, heard her tell her husband to finish dinner with their other child, to get a doggy bag for her and the rowdy child. She calmly walked out while her kid was in FULL balistic mode, turing red, screaming as if his mom was whipping him. We were by the window and saw her get into her car with the rowdy kid while her hubby and other kid ate their dinner. She did not return inside. AMAZING!
"Afterall, everybody only hears what he understands." by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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