Awful Halloween costumes

Yet another chapter in the saga of the "typical" 8 YO boy and his PC
mom. He wants to be Freddie. No, he has of course never seen that or
any other similar movie, but he thinks Freddie is "cool". In general,
I have learned to avoid fussing over his interest in violent and scary
imagery, as he has no issues with violence or general (serious)
immorality in his real life, but . . . ugh.

So, do any of you have kids like this? Do you disallow such choices
for Halloween? I tell you what: It would be a LOT easier to buy the
stupid Freddie mask than fight against it and then help him come up
with something creative this week before Halloween.

Thanks.

In article , Nevermind wrote:
So, do any of you have kids like this? Do you disallow such choices
for Halloween? I tell you what: It would be a LOT easier to buy the
stupid Freddie mask than fight against it and then help him come up
with something creative this week before Halloween.

I'm sure some people do have kids who like gory Halloween costumes,
judging by the number who come to our door each year. Our elementary
school has a costume parade on Halloween at school each year, and
explicitly prohibits graphic depiction of violence. The letter to the
parents is carefully worded to make it clear that such costumes may be
appropriate for other Halloween activities, but are NOT acceptable at
school.

Our 7-year-old son has never shown much interest in gore. He prefers
more imaginative costumes. This year, he wants to be a green lizard.
My wife found some reptile-print fabric and is making him some
reptile-print pajamas. We'll add a mask or hat and tail to complete
the costume, and he will have new pajamas to wear after Halloween.
(We did a similar thing using commercial green fleece pajamas when he
needed to be a "Wall of Thorns" for a play---the pajamas became his
favorites.)

The most challenging costume to design was the year he decided to be a
house. (We put shoulder straps into a carboard box which my wife
painted to look like a house---he looked out the window of the house.)


--
Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus
life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels)
Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed)
Professor of Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics
Affiliations for identification only.

In article ,
Nevermind wrote:
Yet another chapter in the saga of the "typical" 8 YO boy and his PC
mom. He wants to be Freddie. No, he has of course never seen that or
any other similar movie, but he thinks Freddie is "cool". In general,
I have learned to avoid fussing over his interest in violent and scary
imagery, as he has no issues with violence or general (serious)
immorality in his real life, but . . . ugh.

So, do any of you have kids like this? Do you disallow such choices
for Halloween? I tell you what: It would be a LOT easier to buy the
stupid Freddie mask than fight against it and then help him come up
with something creative this week before Halloween.

I haven't faced this particular issue, but I think I'd let my kid
do this if he wanted to. After all, they're supposed to be
something "scary" (at least, that's how many kids view Halloween)
and not something they aspire to be IRL. My 7yo is going as "the
devil" -- not any nicer a guy than Freddie... I haven't seen what
a "Freddie mask" looks like (nor have I seen any of the movies),
but maybe you need to clarify for yourself what you think is wrong
with him being Freddie as opposed to a devil, or a monster, or a
skeleton, or a vampire, etc.... (assuming you wouldn't have the
same reaction to those more "traditional" costume ideas).

--Robyn

In article , Nevermind says...

Yet another chapter in the saga of the "typical" 8 YO boy and his PC
mom. He wants to be Freddie. No, he has of course never seen that or
any other similar movie, but he thinks Freddie is "cool". In general,
I have learned to avoid fussing over his interest in violent and scary
imagery, as he has no issues with violence or general (serious)
immorality in his real life, but . . . ugh.

So, do any of you have kids like this? Do you disallow such choices
for Halloween? I tell you what: It would be a LOT easier to buy the
stupid Freddie mask than fight against it and then help him come up
with something creative this week before Halloween.

Let him be Freddie - it's a weird scary mask that's fun for Halloween.

Banty (whose son is 'Kenny' this Halloween)

I have two boys and a girl - trick or treating is past for them now but I
remember the boys went from cutesy to outright gore in one year and it was
usually around their 8th birthday.

I never bought masks for the kids so it wasn't an issue but we got creative.
One of the boys wanted to be "death" so we ripped up a shirt, got lots of
artificial blood and messed up his face and the shirt really well. My
oldest son was a headless man once - that was interesting to make. I made a
head out of paper mache and his face was in the middle of a shirt. Last
year, my youngest went out as the grim reaper (now come to think of it, my
daughter did that once too).

So, I'm in the "let them be what they want to be" camp. It's only one night
and it's for make believe.

Marijke
mom to three (Matthew, april 87; Anne, feb 89 and Kevin, sept 91)


"Nevermind" wrote in message
om...
Yet another chapter in the saga of the "typical" 8 YO boy and his PC
mom. He wants to be Freddie. No, he has of course never seen that or
any other similar movie, but he thinks Freddie is "cool". In general,
I have learned to avoid fussing over his interest in violent and scary
imagery, as he has no issues with violence or general (serious)
immorality in his real life, but . . . ugh.

So, do any of you have kids like this? Do you disallow such choices
for Halloween? I tell you what: It would be a LOT easier to buy the
stupid Freddie mask than fight against it and then help him come up
with something creative this week before Halloween.

Thanks.

On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 21:25:12 EST, "Marijke"
wrote:

I have two boys and a girl - trick or treating is past for them now but I
remember the boys went from cutesy to outright gore in one year and it was
usually around their 8th birthday.

I never bought masks for the kids so it wasn't an issue but we got creative.
One of the boys wanted to be "death" so we ripped up a shirt, got lots of
artificial blood and messed up his face and the shirt really well. My
oldest son was a headless man once - that was interesting to make. I made a
head out of paper mache and his face was in the middle of a shirt.

Our "headless man" wore a men's dress shirt, with a place to look out
between the buttons, and carried a motorcycle helmet.

Louise
Louise

"If zero can be a number, why can't vanilla be a kink?"
-- umar

I have two boys and a girl - trick or treating is past for them now but I
remember the boys went from cutesy to outright gore in one year and it was
usually around their 8th birthday.

I never bought masks for the kids so it wasn't an issue but we got creative.
One of the boys wanted to be "death" so we ripped up a shirt, got lots of
artificial blood and messed up his face and the shirt really well. My
oldest son was a headless man once - that was interesting to make. I made a
head out of paper mache and his face was in the middle of a shirt. Last
year, my youngest went out as the grim reaper (now come to think of it, my
daughter did that once too).

So, I'm in the "let them be what they want to be" camp. It's only one night
and it's for make believe.

Marijke
mom to three (Matthew, april 87; Anne, feb 89 and Kevin, sept 91)


"Nevermind" wrote in message
om...
Yet another chapter in the saga of the "typical" 8 YO boy and his PC
mom. He wants to be Freddie. No, he has of course never seen that or
any other similar movie, but he thinks Freddie is "cool". In general,
I have learned to avoid fussing over his interest in violent and scary
imagery, as he has no issues with violence or general (serious)
immorality in his real life, but . . . ugh.

So, do any of you have kids like this? Do you disallow such choices
for Halloween? I tell you what: It would be a LOT easier to buy the
stupid Freddie mask than fight against it and then help him come up
with something creative this week before Halloween.

Thanks.

x-no-archive:yes
Louise wrote:

On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 21:25:12 EST, "Marijke"
wrote:

snip My
oldest son was a headless man once - that was interesting to make. I made a
head out of paper mache and his face was in the middle of a shirt.

Our "headless man" wore a men's dress shirt, with a place to look out
between the buttons, and carried a motorcycle helmet.

We did it with a cape (looking out between the buttons), and carried a
carved pumpkin head with a flashlight in it. A dark cape, and a black
shirt and hood inside the cape would be best, but I didn't have one,
so I used what I had which was maroon and grey. They also rode their
ponies so they were the headless horseman, but that's probably not an
option for most people. Other than the horse, or the more realistic
head, it's really a pretty easy costume to do.

We also had a guy at school who did it with a flight suit (zippers go
both directions so he could zip is partway up and partway down.

grandma Rosalie

In article ,
(Kevin Karplus) wrote:

In article , Nevermind wrote:
So, do any of you have kids like this? Do you disallow such choices
for Halloween? I tell you what: It would be a LOT easier to buy the
stupid Freddie mask than fight against it and then help him come up
with something creative this week before Halloween.

I'm sure some people do have kids who like gory Halloween costumes,
judging by the number who come to our door each year. Our elementary
school has a costume parade on Halloween at school each year, and
explicitly prohibits graphic depiction of violence. The letter to the
parents is carefully worded to make it clear that such costumes may be
appropriate for other Halloween activities, but are NOT acceptable at
school.

Our school has a policy against fake blood or any sort of weaponry.
Being a monster is OK, though.

Since she was old enough to care about having a costume, our daughter
has been a black cat, a witch, a ghost, a vampire, a princess and a
leopard. (The last was because her grammy sent her a leopard costume,
and it was her last chance to use it before she outgrew it.) This year
she wants to be the "Spider Queen," which is going to entail some
ingenuity but no gore. She does seem to go for spooky, in general.

I say let him be Freddie as long as there's no blood to get him sent
home from school.

(Robyn Kozierok) wrote

I haven't faced this particular issue, but I think I'd let my kid
do this if he wanted to. After all, they're supposed to be
something "scary" (at least, that's how many kids view Halloween)
and not something they aspire to be IRL. My 7yo is going as "the
devil" -- not any nicer a guy than Freddie... I haven't seen what
a "Freddie mask" looks like (nor have I seen any of the movies),
but maybe you need to clarify for yourself what you think is wrong
with him being Freddie as opposed to a devil, or a monster, or a
skeleton, or a vampire, etc.... (assuming you wouldn't have the
same reaction to those more "traditional" costume ideas).

Well, I'm sure that at one time in history, vampires and "the devil"
and the like represented real evil to people, but I don't think they
do for most of us these days. However, the movie serial killers, like
Jason and Freddie, do, AND they're used for entertainment purposes, a
combination I really feel uncomfortable with.

Still, I don't think I would have ended up *forbidding* him from being
Freddie, because I can't find any reason to believe that harm of any
kind would be done, or even bad lessons learned. I can't afford to
forbid things due soley to "principle." But he made the point moot by
suddenly, after weeks of saying he would be Freddie or Jason, deciding
to wear a scary beast mask we already have and putting together a
costume for "rock ‘n roll animal" – which he really is, and I don't
mind him representing.