Being a Mom: October 2007 Archives

A friend just told me about her brilliant idea for limiting sugar intake on this most auspicious day of kiddie indulgence. At the end of Halloween, she announces that the Switch Witch will come overnight and change candy left on the doorstep into a new toy.

Apparently, works like a charm. Watch, mine will be the one who wails, 'but I don't want a toy. I want my candy.' Maybe try telling her that if she eats all that stuff, she might awake the next morning to find she's morphed into a giant lollipop. Brings new meaning to the phrase trick or treat.

Thankfully, my little ghouls (sorry) are young enough that H'ween dress up means something pretty, fluffy and shiny. But I'm sure the day will come when they will want to set aside the fairy princess costumes and outfit themselves as the wicked witch or a sexy devil instead.

We are members of a Russian Orthodox Church; my kids attend preschool at a Jewish temple. Neither of these groups is thrilled with Halloween and its apparent celebration of gore and the netherworld. And while I do find it a little odd that parents well into their thirties and forties spend hours and hundreds transforming their yards into mini graveyards, I also appreciate the masquerade ball aspects of the tradition.

As I told my husband, for little children, it's about creative play and pretending, not to mention the promise of mountains of candy. Yes, people really do celebrate this stuff seriously (I lived in Brazil. Can you say Santeria?). But we have to be able to differentiate between the two.