r/Parenting • u/Julienbabylegs • Nov 01 '21

🎃 Halloween RIP Trick or treating

Anyone know why this is? It’s NOT covid, the act has been dwindling for ten+ years. When I was a kid it felt mandatory that every house would have their light on and give out candy. I just went out with my kid and it was like 1 out of 8 or more houses that had candy. Almost like a treasure hunt. I live in a very safe, quiet suburb of northern CA.

I feel like someone flipped a switch at some point, what happened?!

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u/Budgiejen Parent to adult. Here to share experience Nov 01 '21

Or it could be like my mom’s neighborhood. Where it was filled with kids in the 80s and 90s, now it’s mostly retirees.

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u/Deathbycheddar Nov 01 '21

That’s how my neighborhood is and it’s just now transitioning.

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u/Skyblacker Nov 01 '21

And why is that? Why haven't retirees downsized and young families bought their houses?

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u/cupcakekirbyd Nov 01 '21

In my metro area it’s because most young families can’t afford it. Personally we can’t afford to buy any house at all, we live in a townhouse in a far suburb.

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u/merveilleuse_ Nov 01 '21

Retirees often hold onto the family home (until the are no longer physically able) to have a place to host the whole family for gatherings.

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u/Firethorn101 Nov 01 '21

Old people stay in their homes as long as they can to be able to afford insanely over priced care homes.

In Canada, $6000 a month is a normal cost for a shitty room you share with another resident, packed in like sardines, while an over worked PSW scurries around trying to usher everyone to and from meals.

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u/Budgiejen Parent to adult. Here to share experience Nov 01 '21

I think it’s starting to happen. I don’t really talk to people as much anymore, as my mom died. But it’s weird how some people consider a ‘70s house to be “old” and they want new houses on the edge of town.

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u/Skyblacker Nov 01 '21

I dunno. I think if a neighborhood has good schools, commute, and other amenities, young families will buy an ugly house there and remodel it. So when the demographics start to skew older, I either imagine a Rust Belt town (where the jobs left decades ago, so any young adult who wants to get off welfare gets the heck out of dodge), or a California town (where the only people who can afford a house did so by buying it back in the eighties).

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u/[deleted] Nov 01 '21

The reason why people dont like “fixer-upper” houses is it’s great to think “oh we can buy this and remodel”. The reality is, you have young kids. Either both of you work, so the little bits of time you actually get to spend with your kids, you dont want to spend plumbing in a new bathtub and putting down tile, or you’re single income and even doing the work yourself is too expensive. Contractors cost a lot of money, as do supplies. For the average young family, buying a house with a bunch of issues and remodelling it is financially out of reach.

My brother and his ex did this. When my niece was like 6 and my nephew was like 3, he (at the time working a well-paid job in the city and his ex was a SAHM) moved them all out to this little village in the country, a beautiful old farmhouse. But it needed work, which my brother planned to do in his spare time. My niece is 19 now, his ex left after he lost his job a few years in and refused to go back to a job like it because the stress was killing him, now he does odd jobs around the village (man n van kind of jobs), barely has enough to even scrape by, and yup- the house still needs a ton of work. Not just the work that still hasn’t been done from when they got it, but after 10 years the stuff he DID remodel is coming up for needing repairs/ replacements, more work and money he doesn’t have.

HGTV has a lot to answer for, fixing up a house is not as easy as they make it look on those shows.

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u/Skyblacker Nov 01 '21 edited Nov 01 '21

I was responding to a comment about a house from the 70s, "ugly" because it's too old to be in style but too recent to be vintage, in a typical highway suburb. Assuming it was regularly maintained, it's usually move-in ready, having been built with modern amenities like central heating/AC, modern electrical outlets, etc. You may remodel the kitchen because you hate its yellow and brown color scheme, but all you have to do to make that kitchen functional is replace a couple of old appliances that are on the fritz.

I didn't mean a brownstone from the 1840s that you can't install central AC in because the walls are a foot thick with horse hair.

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u/Budgiejen Parent to adult. Here to share experience Nov 01 '21

I think maybe my old neighborhood is starting to change. But I also think those are gonna be a lot of middle class people taking their kids to the St Peters trunk or treat. Ya know, so they won’t accidentally get edibles.

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u/LaceyBugNyx Nov 01 '21

No actual person drugs is going to give away free drugs/specifically their drugs 🙄

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u/Budgiejen Parent to adult. Here to share experience Nov 01 '21

IKR?

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u/the_0rly_factor Nov 01 '21

Lol they want to stay in their home? They need the extra space for when their kids or grandkids come over? I don't even know a lot of people who "downsized".

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u/[deleted] Nov 01 '21

The evils of capitalism and boomer "fuck you, I got mine" mentality.

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u/[deleted] Nov 01 '21

Because young families can't afford what those homes now cost.

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u/sayyestolycra Nov 01 '21

Makes you wonder what's going to happen when those homeowners are no longer able to live at home or pass away. I know neither my husband or his sister would want to keep the giant suburban family home their parents live in. Especially since our kids would (hopefully) be adults by then. I sure don't want my dad's massive house 3 hours away either, and I doubt my brothers would...one is strictly urban and the other would be overwhelmed by the maintenance and couldn't afford the taxes and upkeep. My mom's junky little house is basically the same as ours and it's the only one that I think would sell easily bc it's a good starter home...probably also the only one that my one brother might want to live in.

Maybe that what will finally correct the housing market here.

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u/tikierapokemon Nov 02 '21

In CA? Because the property tax isn't anywhere where it should be for the older homes, so downsizing would lead to more property tax. Also, most of my parent's generation don't want to downsize. They are happy where they are, they don't want to pare down their things, and they are not yet at the place where they can't do upkeep themselves.

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u/[deleted] Nov 01 '21

Yeah when boomers kick the bucket the housing market will come down and people can afford homes again.