I’ve added a timely article to today’s post as it is something we are trying to figure out here at our house. Now I grew up taking my younger brother out trick-or-treating so I still got to go. But I do think 7th grade was the last year I actually doorbelled. My daughter wanted to go with a group of friends downtown and we just didn’t see any point to that. It’s not like when we grew up. Yikes, did I just say that. lol No, but really. Hubby went out most of the night, but all of the cops knew him and his Dad, so they called his house before he even got home if he was doing anything wrong. So this year we are grabbing some of her friends to go out with us. Then we will tell her it was the last year for it. Looks like the halloween party will have to be on halloween night from now on. That will solve the whole thing. Enjoy the article!

Plan that Halloween party easy with the immediate download of Halloween Tricks-n-Treats.

A Parenting Tip for Halloween; How Old is Too Old?

By: Colleen Langenfeld

Every year the same phenomenon occurs at my front door. Late on Halloween night, usually long after the trail of adorable preschoolers and costumed elementary-age children have come and gone, a group of teens or pre-teens knocks on my door and loudly regales me with “trick-or-treat”.

Sometimes in costumes. Most of the time not.

And I have to ask, from a parenting standpoint…what’s the point?

Over the years of raising four children, I’ve seen a lot of cute kids at my door. But I decided early on that the best parenting tip I could give myself during the annual Halloween craze is to put a limit on how old my kids could be and still go trick-or-treating.

Let me assure you, this was not a popular decision in my home! However, I know that as a parent, it’s not my job to win popularity contests. I am to lead them into responsible adulthood.

For me, letting my teens and preteens roam the streets on Halloween night just never fit into that job description.

In our home, we decided that sixth grade was the limit. Dressing up in costumes and going door-to-door, begging for candy is for little kids. Period. However, dressing up in costumes is fun, no matter what the age, so my kids were encouraged to find safe alternatives to trick-or-treating. Harvest parties at churches became popular and we took advantage of many of them. Over time, parties cropped up at schools, too, as well as individual friends’ homes. We hosted one or two Halloween parties ourselves and they were great fun!

My parenting tip for Halloween has stood the test of time and my kids were never without enjoyable activities. I have taken some slack for this approach, however. Mainly from other parents.

I’ve listened to the “it’s all harmless fun” discussion. “After all” the reasoning goes, “what’s wrong with a group of kids hanging out together on a holiday night? Why do you make the assumption they’ll get into trouble?”

Good questions. I’ve known a lot of kids over the years as my children have progressed from tweens to teens. Great kids, mostly. Kids who came from terrific families whose parents were hanging close, guiding and caring.

And isn’t the point to keep them that way? Why put great kids in the situation where they have to make difficult decisions concerning their behavior when it’s just not necessary? (Don’t get me wrong, I know our kids have to learn how to make difficult decisions. It’s the appropriateness of this particular setting that I’m questioning. For example, we don’t teach our kids to be responsible drinkers by taking them to the local bar and getting them drunk.)

What is there about hanging out in the streets with a group of friends in the dark that is helpful? Or even fun? What behaviors are we edifying in this scenario? Especially when there are excellent alternatives where those same kids can have plenty of fun, hang with their friends and probably still get a ton of candy!

Even setting aside religious and historical issues concerning Halloween, roaming the streets can be dangerous. The smaller children have parents watching over them, but the older kids are relying on themselves. Let’s be frank here. They’re focusing on each other, not the cars (that can’t see them in the dark anyway) or even the other people on the street.

All in all, letting older kids go door-to-door just doesn’t add up for me. I think I’ll stick with the original parenting tip I listened to all those years ago when I was just starting out. And I offer it to you as food for thought this Halloween season.

After all, the main thing is we do what’s right for our kids.

Colleen Langenfeld has been parenting for over 26 years and helps other moms enjoy mothering more at www.paintedgold.com . Visit her website and grab another parenting tip today.

Oh yeah, I’m getting old and a junky for new appliances. I’m not going to be afraid to admit it anymore. lol Now I had hubby vacuum today (nothing sexier than a man cleaning in my book) and the vacuum we just bought in Jan. isn’t working very well. We’ve actually taken it back once already. arghhh, I knew we should have just bought the dyson.

Then Retta sent me to theWin a Dyson “Pink” Vaccuum in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month contest. Oh boy do I want to win this! Like I said, we should have gone the few dollars more and bought the dyson. But to get it in pink would ROCK!!!

Right now you can buy the pink Dyson and they will donate $40 to Breast Cancer Awareness. How cool is that?

So go to win the Dyson vacuum link and sign up for yourself. But I’m gonna win it, so guess you don’t stand much of a chance. LOLOLOLOL

My friends and I have had a secret website that we’ve been working on for a couple of months now and we are finally ready for the grand opening. My WAHM Space is officially open to chat about business. Our big grand opening party at Mom Chat’s is tomorrow (thursday Oct. 18th) from 9am EST to around 8 or 9pm . The end time will just depend on when everyone leaves. lol I know I’ll be on late tomorrow so feel free to jump in there and visit whenever you can.

We have literally tons of prizes to give away with games and just whenever we want to. There are over $1500 in prizes to give away!

My WAHM Space is all about networking with other Mom’s. We have tips for how to start your business and how to keep it going for years to come. Membership is free, but you will really want the added benefits of becoming a VIP member. We have groups, forums and personal pages to talk about yourself and your business. It’s truly about networking and how to grow your business every day!

K, not much was resolved, but it’s all better.  Now we just need a date night so we can hash some of this out while we are both with open minds and not angry.  If I don’t then it will be even worse the next time this all blows up.  We did talk about a few things like him shutting me out of any plans he’s made for his days and a couple of other things.  He says he’s told me some of them and he honestly may have.  But he needs to remember that my mind is not only on him and the kids anymore.  So depending on when he told me, I may not have heard him.  But I know one of the big one’s he did NOT tell me.

So I just wanted to send out a quick update that I’m no longer ready to jump ship.  lol

So dont’ take offense if you are one of those relationships.  But I honestly do not have the energy to make you work.  I need to focus on myself and what I need to do to be a better person and a better Mom.  I have no energy to waste on tracking down what you are doing today if you do not want to let me know ahead of time or even pick up your cell phone and tell me.  I do not have energy to figure out what you should make for dinner on the nights you are home.  I do not have energy to nag you about how your day went at work.

If you want to talk to me about work, then cool let’s go.  If you want to ask me about how my day went, cool.  But I’m tire of feeling like I am rambling to someone that doesn’t give a shit what I’m saying.

I’m sure this too shall pass.  But it’s hard to breath in this house with the tension and silence.

Ahh, now I feel a little better.  This isn’t going to be over quickly, so ignore posts about relationships if you don’t want to join my pity party!

I missed them even more than I thought.  The kids went in first and the dogs were excited.  But when I walked in Sugar just about jumped out of my youngest arms.  She wanted to get to me so bad.  Awww, I needed that!  We’ve had them half the day and have been watching movies and doing nothing.  I just came into my bedroom to watch the last half of the Bears game and Sugar tweaked out.  She wanted up on the bed with me as soon as I came by the bed.  lol  I guess she remembers that we let her sleep up here sometimes.

She promptle burrowed under my comforter while Sweat Pea walks on her.  lol  This is the cheap entertainment I’ve missed!

And I’d like to point out that the hubby pretended to not be so happy they were coming back.  But when we dropped off dinner stuff and papers he needed, he sure did grab the dogs quick to show his buddy.  LMAO  WHAT?  Oh, you mean you do like them?  Like that is a surprise!  Come on, man up and admit it!  We like these teeny-tiny rats.

As you can tell by my new theme, it is breast cancer awareness month. Is there an American that hasn’t been affected by breast cancer in some way?

My Aunt battled it at 40 and my uncle had a lump at 35. No cancer with my uncles lump thankfully, but it still is young and spooky. Especially a male. Those are both on my Mom’s side. Then my paternal Grandma battled it twice and had a mastectomy both times. So there is a little bit of family history.

There are so many reasons why I think it is so prevelant. But the biggest I fear is the amount of preservatives we take in and the hormones in our food. Our bodies are not meant to take in these toxins. But alas this makes business more money so it isn’t something I think will change over time. They have even changed the term organic so they can put toxins in it. Now it can fail in up to 5 different areas before it can no longer by considered organic. WTF? Organic is organic. No chemicals any where near it. ARGHHH, if I’m paying more for it then I should be able to know it’s the safe product I ordered.

Donate to your favorite charity this month and help with breast cancer research and education. You can donate to the Susan G. Komen foundation here. The National Breast Cancer Foundation also takes donations and has a great section for those that have just been diagnosed. I encourage you to hit both sites for great education. There are of course other sites, but these are two I am familiar with and have visited.

Monday is opening game for Detroit so my Aunt if off to watch the BBaller play in his first real NBA game! Super exciting. She is going to
grab the NBA package and have some parties so we can all watch together. That will be great times and I’ll look forward to that. I guess they have built up a ton of hype around him and he’s become quite the celebraty over there. That just rocks and it couldn’t happen to a better kid.

But anyway, since she’s gone for the week, we’ll get the dogs back. Yippeee! Hubby wasn’t that excited to hear it, but I don’t care. lol The kids and I can’t wait and we are the one’s that take care of them anyway. He sure doesn’t mind when they are cuddled up with him on the couch. Guess he’s just trying to be a manly-man and pretend he doesn’t like the little rats. I suppose we’ll have to go get halloween costumes while we have them. I already told my Aunt we get them for this first holiday. We can figure out thanksgiving and christmas later.

I don’t know if it’s the weather or what.  But I just feel as though I’m muddling through my days.  I do have great times and lots of laughs, but then the rest can pass in a blur or feels like I’m just getting through it.  I’m beginning to wonder if this is normal?  Does everyone do this?  Or should I go see my doctor about it?  I hate drugs though and I’m horrible at remembering to take them.  So what would a doctor do?  lol

Guess I just need to figure out another way to break the funk.  How about making money!  That would break the funk.  Most of the time it’s the stress of the damn phone ringing when I know it’s someone wanting money.  I swear, I’m paying bills today.  I just have to run to the bank.  Oh and maybe if I ever balanced my 3 checkbooks I’d feel better as well.  So, what do you think?  Possibly causing my own bipolarness by not being financially responsible?

Ok, gotta do what I just said and pay some damn bills!  UGH, I’ll just have to pay them again next month.  I freakin hate it.  I liked it so much better when we were paying cash for everything.  Although tv and phones and such have to be paid anyway.

OMG, did I just say pre-plan? I did and no I don’t usually follow the pre-plan idea. Mostly because I don’t find stuff until the day AFTER the holiday. lol But I hit the jackpot this time! I found an awesome Halloween ebook with recipes, party planning, ghost stories and more.

This year I am having the Halloween party because no one stepped up. I don’t mind having it at all, in fact we will enjoy doing it. But I just figured someone with more room would want to hold it. So I’ve ordered the ultimate Halloween ebook package and I’m going to have the best party ever. My friend’s are already excited to play silly kids games. I mean, when is the last time you bobbed for apples? I believe I was 5 or 6. lol There are other fun games to play as a family and decoration ideas as well.

Order it now and get prepared for the best halloween party ever!