Rosalie B. wrote:
"beeswing" wrote:

My daughter will be 12 in December and is in 6th grade, which in her
school is the second year of middle school. I let her trick-or-treat
last year but feel like this year she has crossed into the "too old"
zone. She's accused me of trying to take away her childhood (!), so I
thought I'd raise the question here.

If she's old enough to think of that, then she's probably too old to
go. If one of my kids said something like that it would be instantly
evident to me that they were too old to go.

She's precocious ("gifted," even)...but that doesn't make her old. So
her mental prowess isn't going to be a deciding factor for me. And, for
that matter, she's tall for her age and more developed than some girls
her age.She's gonna *look* older than she is. That confuses the issue
for me, but I don't think I should let it weigh into the issue. It's
not her fault she's big for her age.

But actually trick or treat wasn't that big a deal for us.

For some reason, it's really important to her this year.

What do parents here think? How old is too old to trick-or-treat? When
I was growing up, 6th grade was my last year, but junior high started
in 7th. Am I being reasonable stopping her at this age, do I give her
one last year, or do folks here think trick or treating should continue
into the teens?

My older kids went out with their little brother and sister sometimes.
I don't remember how long, actually. I know my dd#3 went trick or
treating on her pony (so she would have had to be at least 10 or 11
because that's when she got the pony) as the Headless Horseman. But
we only went in the neighborhood where people knew us. Her brother
was 3 years younger, and her older sisters were 5 and 7 years older..

(And she stayed in the street with the pony while someone else got
her treats for her IIRC - she didn't ride across the lawns or the golf
course). The pony had a reflective thing on his tail, and her 'head'
had a flashlight in it (a pumpkin), and I followed in the car..

My kid is an only, so she has no siblings (or even younger children she
can borrow) that she can ferry around. She argues that at 11, she's
still a child and should be allowed to trick-or-treat. But she doesn't
stop there...she tries to tell me that she'll be a child until she's
18. (She should have stopped while she was ahead!) I told her we have
vastly different definitions of what "child" means.

So, barring the fact that she's an advanced thinker...how old *is* too
old, in your opinion?

Love the pony story. And thanks for your comments.

beeswing