On Mon, 9 Oct 2006 08:34:21 EDT, "beachpeach"
wrote:

I've read the trick or treat thread with interest. I'm curious about
parental attendance while trick or treating. At what age do most of
your folks think is acceptable/appropriate for kids to knock on doors
with mom or dad?

By the time our older child was 10 or so, our kids went out in a clump
in our neighbourhood with another family or two and *someone's*
parent(s) strolling along behind. This was a step beyond just doing
it as a nuclear family. When each reached 12 and grade 7 (middle
school), one went out with a group chaperoned by a friend's older
sister, in the friend's neighbourhood, and the other went with a group
of sensible friends and no parents in our neighbourhood. We always
drove them to and from the rendezvous/departure house, and had some
rules about when they'd be off the streets and when we'd pick them up.
As they got older, we also made our house available for the
scary-movie-watching and sleepovers that their festivities turned
into.

For comparison, at the ages they were going out for Hallowe'en without
a parent, they were starting to go a few blocks to the library or
grocery store after dark with another kid the same age but not alone.
Some of their friends were still chauffeured everywhere, and years
from being allowed/required to walk. Some of their friends' parents
had very gender-based rules, such as "You have to get a boy to walk
you home" which seemed odd to us. We didn't have cell phones, but we
did talk with our kids about where the pay phones were, and they
carried quarters. They didn't carry UNICEF charity boxes except when
they were young enough to have a parent with them.

Louise