Halloween Compromise

When I was a kid, my parents let us go trick or treating. I remember traipsing around the neighborhood collecting candy. The year that stands out in my mind, Loren had a skeleton costume and I was a princess.

Now that I'm grown and have my own kids, my parents turn out all their lights and hide in the back bedroom on Halloween. I don't know when they started this "tradition", I just can't remember a time in recent history that they ever turned on the porch light and handed out candy to neighborhood kids.

In contrast to my upbringing, we have never let our kids go out trick or treating. We just didn't feel comfortable with it for our family. We've always turned on our porch light, and passed out candy and little gospel tracts. We figured it was a good time to talk to our neighbors and spread a little light in the darkness.

I really didn't like the idea of my mom hiding at her home this year, alone in the dark on Halloween. So, we invited her and her friend Jan to go to the movies with us. They said yes! Mom wanted to drive, but we cajoled her into letting us pick her and Jan up instead. We saw Secretariat and it was great. Then we dropped the girls back off at their homes, safe and sound. A good Halloween compromise.

If you have the chance to take some octogenarians to the movies, I highly recommend it. They are a hoot!