When our children were little, Aaron and I made a decision to ignore Halloween. As practicing Christians, we did not like the modern day emphasis on evil, devils and horror stories. For the first few years, we either ignored the holiday or went to our church’s alternative celebration, the annual Harvest Festival. Everything was fine until our daughter, Tara started kindergarten.
As the holiday approached, she came home and told me she “had to dress up” per order of her teacher. When I talked to her teacher, she told me she had just suggested a non-evil costume. The school holds a Storybook Character parade every Halloween to end our Red Week Celebration (Say “Boo” to Drugs). I explained to her that we did not participate in any aspect of Halloween. The teacher accepted our policy but our daughter didn’t. She kept pushing to celebrate in some small way. Tara even roped Kyle into badgering us. Aaron and I stood firm. The day arrived and Tara wore a Winnie the Pooh shirt and Kyle wore a Hulk shirt. We went to the Harvest Festival at church and had a wonderful time. At church I noticed that other parents allowed their children to dress up for the occasion. I thought allowing kids to wear a costume sent a mixed message to the kids. I started thinking about allowing the kids to dress up this year.
Yes, we were standing firm in our policy but fighting our kids the entire month of October. What exactly were we trying to teach them? I talked to a few Christian friends to see what they did. All allowed their children to dress up but in neutral outfits. A friend reminded me that our children are going to stick out since our city is 80% white in addition to Kyle’s autism. Did I really want to make them the strange kids who never celebrated Halloween?
This year I was surprised by the maturity of the kids. Gone was the whining and complaining that they could not wear a costume. When Kyle and Tara were asked what they were going to be for Halloween they simply replied, “Our Mommy does not let us celebrate Halloween.” I mentioned to Aaron that I was proud of their responses. I asked him if we should reconsider. We decided that we would try it this year. When I told the kids, they jumped up and down with excitement.
Kyle decided to be a dragon from “How to Train Your Dragon” and Tara decided to be Tiana (of course).
I still think I am sending a mixed message to them but…my babies are so happy. Hard to keep saying no when everyone else around us is dressing up including our Christian friends. So yes, we will dress up but… no, we will not trick or treat.
No comments:
Post a Comment