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 ,
(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.

On Tue, 28 Oct 2003 11:09:10 EST, Elizabeth Gardner
wrote:

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.

Whenever I have to come up with a costume for myself in a hurry, I go
as a spider. I wear a black turtleneck and leggings. I take two
pairs of black kneesocks for the other four spider legs, stuff them
with newspaper, and pin the open ends to my sides.

Then, the fun part is to make the other legs mobile. I use black
thread to connect the "legs" to the arms of my shirt ( if I'm doing it
properly, I attach the threads to rounds of black elastic to wear on
my arms, so I can let them hang down if I have to drive or wear a coat
or something).

I can then move my arms and the other legs move along with them. It
works most effectively if there are two sets of threads, one at my
elbows and the others at my wrists. Then I can gesture dramatically
with 6 legs, hug people, etc.

Additional spooky decoration I've used includes
- spiderweb drawn on my face with facepaint
- black lace veil for a black widow spider
- spiderweb drawn on my back with chalk (hey, I said this was an 'in a
hurry' costume)
- black nailpolish

Have fun!

Louise

In article , Kevin Karplus says...

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.

Uuurgh. I wish the schools, if they can't go in for the whole Halloween
ghosty-ghouly-gory thing (OK, fine, maybe they can't, they have a whole range
of parents and philosophies to consider), they'd just wish the kids Happy
Halloween on October 31 and send them home to the festivities.

Because this idea of having a school Halloween party, which of course all the
kids will have to dress up for, but it can't be what a lot of them *really* want
to dress up like, necessitates having two costumes and more preparation, or the
kid compromising, and it gets the heck in the way of Halloween.

There doesn't have to be a school Halloween party,
especially if the school is queasy about it.



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.)


He's all of seven. That my soon change (or not).

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.)


My son was a car twice. He strapped a cardboard car I made, and wore the
hardtop on his head. I still have it in my attic :-)

Banty

Banty writes:
Our elementary school has a costume parade on Halloween at school
each year, and explicitly prohibits graphic depiction of violence.

Uuurgh. I wish the schools, if they can't go in for the whole
Halloween ghosty-ghouly-gory thing (OK, fine, maybe they can't, they
have a whole range of parents and philosophies to consider), they'd
just wish the kids Happy Halloween on October 31 and send them home to
the festivities.

There's plenty of room for the "whole Halloween ghosty-ghouly-gory
thing", without depictions of simulated violence (graphic or otherwise).

You could fall off a ladder, hit your head, and bleed a lot. That would
be gory. But it wouldn't be violent, unless someone pushed you.

David desJardins

In article , Banty wrote:
Uuurgh. I wish the schools, if they can't go in for the whole Halloween
ghosty-ghouly-gory thing (OK, fine, maybe they can't, they have a
whole range of parents and philosophies to consider), they'd just
wish the kids Happy Halloween on October 31 and send them home to
the festivities.

Because this idea of having a school Halloween party, which of course all the
kids will have to dress up for, but it can't be what a lot of them
*really* want to dress up like, necessitates having two costumes
and more preparation, or the kid compromising, and it gets the heck in
the way of Halloween.

There doesn't have to be a school Halloween party, especially if the
school is queasy about it.

The school costume parade is very popular with the kids, so the school
does it as a treat for them. I think many of the parents appreciate
that the school doesn't allow very gory costumes, since they can then
tell their kids "OK, but if you really want that costume then you
can't wear it in the school parade." I doubt that many of the kids
get 2 costumes (over 40% of the school is in the free or reduced price
lunch program).

Students don't have to participate in the Halloween costume parade, so
if a kid really wants a gory costume, he can choose not to take it to
school and just wear it in the evening. For such a student, this is
almost the same as Banty's proposal, and the vast majority of students
can have a school parade to show off their non-gory costumes.

--
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.

Kevin Karplus wrote:
In article , Banty wrote:

Uuurgh. I wish the schools, if they can't go in for the whole Halloween
ghosty-ghouly-gory thing (OK, fine, maybe they can't, they have a
whole range of parents and philosophies to consider), they'd just
wish the kids Happy Halloween on October 31 and send them home to
the festivities.

Because this idea of having a school Halloween party, which of course all the
kids will have to dress up for, but it can't be what a lot of them
*really* want to dress up like, necessitates having two costumes
and more preparation, or the kid compromising, and it gets the heck in
the way of Halloween.

There doesn't have to be a school Halloween party, especially if the
school is queasy about it.


The school costume parade is very popular with the kids, so the school
does it as a treat for them. I think many of the parents appreciate
that the school doesn't allow very gory costumes, since they can then
tell their kids "OK, but if you really want that costume then you
can't wear it in the school parade." I doubt that many of the kids
get 2 costumes (over 40% of the school is in the free or reduced price
lunch program).


I think if you don't want your kid to do something, you
should prohibit it and not hide behind a school rule.
Yes it's easier to tell your child that Of Course I would
let you wear the Slasher Victim costume, but the mean
old school board won't allow it. But I think it skews
the relationship between child, parent, and school
unhealthily.

I hear similar reasons for parents liking dress codes --
so they don't have to argue with their kids over what
to wear to school. Well, who is buying their kids clothes
that are inappropriate to wear to school in the 1st place?

Oh, sorry, was I ranting?

Scott DD 10 (Queen Elizabeth I) and DS 7.5 (A Bionicle)

I hear similar reasons for parents liking dress codes --
so they don't have to argue with their kids over what
to wear to school. Well, who is buying their kids clothes
that are inappropriate to wear to school in the 1st place?

In my experience, it's not a matter of inappropriateness, it's a matter of
decision making.... my DD is 9yrs old, and I still lay out clothes for her.
Otherwise she takes forever getting dressed in the morning because she feels
the need to try on twelve different things. She also doesn't check the weather
like I do, and she has a habit of pulling out short-sleeved shirts on days
where the high temp is 45F.

Scott Lindstrom wrote in :
[snip]
hear similar reasons for parents liking dress codes --
so they don't have to argue with their kids over what
to wear to school. Well, who is buying their kids clothes
that are inappropriate to wear to school in the 1st place?

I don't think the two situations are quite equivalent.

If the school allows the kids to wear a custume, then you probably
have just two or three occasions to wear them: once at school, and
once (or maybe twice) out of school. So if you get two custumes,
the average number of times you wear each of them is 1.5 wears.

With clothes, you have plenty of chances to wear non-school clothes:
if your kid has a crop top they are not allowed to wear at school, they
can wear it every afternoon after school until they grow out of it,
getting an average number of wears to be about 365.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three