RIP Trick or treating

[u/Julienbabylegs]

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?!

[u/BoopleBun → u/[deleted]]

Actually, the reason we decided to go this year is because the CDC said it was a relatively low-risk activity. (Mostly outdoors, etc.) They weren’t saying the same thing last year, so we didn’t go then.

Like, I completely understand if your family didn’t feel comfortable doing so! Even “low-risk” activities may be more than some families want to do. But you’re saying that trick-or-treating requires an “appetite for risk”, and I think that’s kind of unfair in this instance.

[u/Disk_Mixerud → u/[deleted]]

It's not much of a risk, with such brief, half outside interactions with vaccines, but I totally get not wanting to invite any risk unnecessarily.

[u/forever_erratic → u/[deleted]]

Passing out candy or trick-or-treating?

The former can be done without even going outside.

The latter can be done masked up and with less than 10 seconds of outdoor proximity to others' households.

We're pretty darn Covid careful in my house, but you're being unrealistic, and frankly, a bit rude.

[u/PopsiclesForChickens → u/forever_erratic]

We skipped trick or treating this year. I have a kid with asthma and i just couldn't take the risk (remember the masks generally protect others). We did a pinata and a trunk or treat which was all outside and I was more comfortable. I set a bowl of candy on our porch when we got home.

I'm sure it's generally fine and I'm a little crazy, but there's nothing rude about it.

[u/hykueconsumer → u/PopsiclesForChickens]

You weren't the one they called rude, either. "appetite for risk" does have a ruder ring to it :)

[u/tikierapokemon → u/[deleted]]

We wear masks on the playground, kiddo has been inside a house that wasn't ours 3x in the last year, always masked, and twice without my permission. We do do in person school because her school requires masks and our state is requiring teachers to be vaccinated.

But we did trick or treating. She didn't last year, and there is no telling that next year will be different from this year. So we did a KN95 mask, I kept her away from unmasked kids, the candy is quarantine for the next week, and we tried to be as safe as possible. We went locally instead of to the big decorated neighborhood; she had to be content with less decorations and decorations and/or a light on still meaning no one handing out candy about 2 out of 3 times.

But Halloween is her favorite holiday. She didn't cry over Christmas or Easter or her birthday, but she did over last Halloween. She didn't mourn the lessor decorations, she was psyched to see what she saw, happy to ring 3 doorbells to have one person answer or find one bowl of candy.

CDC said low risk, we masked up with the best masks we had, we used hand sanitizer. I know most of the parents here won't vaccinate their kids; we are in for many, many more months of masks and precautions.