Halloween is one of those weird holidays that would be very hard to explain to someone who had never experienced it before. It's one of those holidays where we as parents let all those valuable lessons we have been trying to instill into our children throughout the year fall by the wayside. We have less concern for our kid's safety, we don't enforce all of the rules; we're all caught up in the wonderful memories from our childhood. On this night anything goes! Halloween goes against the principles we teach our kids the other 364 days of the year and we love it!

We are always telling our kids "be true to yourself", but on this night we say, "you can dress up and be anything you want to be, you just can't be yourself." 

We tell our kids, "never talk to strangers", but on this night we encourage them to march up and knock on as many stranger's doors as possible. In fact, if they hesitate we say, "come on, you have to go up the door. Okay, I'll go with you this time, but next time you go up alone. Okay?"

We often say,"make sure you come inside before it gets too dark out there." But on Halloween we say, "stop asking if it's time to go yet; we can't go outside until it gets dark, that's when the fun begins." 

We tell them, "don't watch those scary shows on t.v., you'll get nightmares and warp your mind."But on this night we oh and ah, laugh and giggle at all the spooky, scary decorations gracing the lawns of the neighborhood. 

We tell our kids, "sugar is bad for your bodies and it creates cavities; only to be eaten in moderation. But on this night, we hand them a huge empty pail and say, "fill it to the top with sugar. Lots and lots of sugar! We follow that up with, "wow, look at all that candy, that's awesome! Look how full that is sweetheart! Great job honey!!!" 

We tell them to never take candy from strangers, but on this exclusive night we say, "now walk up to this strangers house and take the wonderful treats that they're handing out... hurry...run!"

It might sound strange to an outsider, but to us Americans it's a wonderful exciting night!

Besides being able to re-live our childhood memories through our children, another great benefit for us parents is putting the munchkins to bed and raiding their buckets!






They had a great night with friends and, I have to say, Mom and Dad had just as much fun!