Ok, I’ve had it. Call me uptight. Call me a helicopter mom. Call me an old fart for bringing down everyone’s good time this Halloween. But I don’t care. I’ve had it.
I can’t bring my six year old son into Target, Walgreens or a variety of other stores because he is terrified, utterly frozen with fear, by what he sees in the Halloween section. And my 3 year old, who is strangely curious about all the “scary mans” he sees is now convinced those same “scary mans” are under his bed every night. He cries out at about 3am, I go and calm him, “No scary mans” I promise – and curse my local Walgreens the entire way back to my bed.
They’re just kids, you say. They’re scared of everything. They just need to toughen up that’s all. This is just part of what happens on Halloween. Normal kids get used to this stuff. So relax.
Really. My Target alone has larger-than-life sized decomposing skeleton men towering over its customers, menacing witches that scream and cackle and an entire variety of ghoulish ghosts, sounds and things that jump out at you as you walk by. This is a picture (see at right) of one Halloween prop that I took this morning – quickly – while my son hid in the Christmas section a couple aisles over. It’s not a great picture because I wasn’t going to hang around long enough to perfect it. I wanted him as far from there as possible.
Because as much as he wanted to move far far away from all of it, maybe I don’t want my kid to be “normal” either. Maybe I don’t want him to eventually “get used” to gore like this any more than he does.
And as I mentioned, Target is certainly not the only culprit. These decorations are everywhere. I’ve seen automated butlers who remove their faces to reveal skeletal gore with bulging eyeballs. I’ve seen bloody appendages crawling across the floor. Oh and don’t even get me started on places like Party City. It’s every nightmare come to life in there. Check out some of what they sell.
It’s not just the Halloween props either. Its the costumes too. My kids would FREAK the frock OUT if they saw someone dressed like this walking down the road this October 31st.
What the hell am I supposed to tell them? Monsters aren’t real? Right.
Did you know my six year old refused to shop for a costume this year? He wanted to be Frankenstein but was too scared to even look in the costume section. While cowering in the cart with his face buried in my groceries, I picked up one mask that seemed to work. “Ok, OK! That’s it. Lets go Mama, LET’S GO!!!” And then there were tears, tears, tears. We’ll piece the rest together at home. This is ridiculous.
Here’s the thing. I get the joy of gory fear. I do. I think I owned every “Nightmare on Elm Street” there was growing up. I loved those movies and watching them with the lights off with my friends screaming and laughing and peering out from behind our pillows. I get that people have fun getting scared. And folks who want that kind of fun this Halloween should have it.
But these costumes and Halloween props on sale to terrify are set up out in the open, an aisle away from light bulbs, electronics and athletic gear. These costumes and Halloween props that I wheel my cart past daily without warning, if placed in a movie, have enough gore factor to rate that movie “R”.
They are simply NOT suitable to be seen by small children.
Teens, adults, sure. Knock yourselves out and scare each other silly. Good times.
But little kids, who still aren’t 100% sure what real and pretend is all about. Little kids who could never conceive what horror was, until now. Little kids who actually think monsters are real, no matter what parents tell them. Yeah, those little kids should not see this stuff.
Ok, look. You big corporations probably make a lot of money selling all of this junk. Some whiny mom’s post isn’t going to change your outlook on all those dollar bills rolling in. But how about this. Can we compromise? Can’t we at least put all the scary, gory, decomposing, bloody, skeletal stuff in one separate aisle? And then can we put all the cute pumpkins, whimsical ghosts and fun little kid costumes in another? Can’t we at least do that? Because from where I sit, I sure would be shopping at your store more often if I could actually convince my kid he didn’t have to see any of it if he didn’t want to. If you all care, Target and Walgreens are seeing a lot less of my business this October strictly because I can’t drag my kids in there. Not cool.
Alrighty then. I’ve had my say. And my kids are excited for Halloween. We’re watching a lot of “Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown”, we’re planning a fun driveway party for the night of the 31st and we can’t wait for pumpkin carving time. We’re making this holiday fun, despite all of the unnecessary fear that now seems to go along with it.
And we only have 16 days until it’s Christmas decoration time. Rock on.
Stumble It!
For Local Blog
11 comments ↓
I could not agree more! I’ve been avoiding those areas of the stores for weeks!
Wow, sounds crazy. I was in my Target last night and didn’t see any of this. Of course I wasn’t looking for it, but at least it wasn’t on any of the main aisles. I wonder if different stores have different policies and could you talk to the manager? Just a thought!
Hope your kids aren’t scarred for life!
Absolutely agree–I’ve seen axes embedded in bloody skulls and other such ghoulish, graphic, and intense Halloween decorations. My kid’s about to turn six, and I don’t think those are appropriate things for him to look at. (I also think the other extreme, hooker nurses and the like, are a bit much too. Which is why we don’t flip through catalogues or browse online some of the big Halloween party stores either.)
Love your G-rated aisle idea; it’s hard to navigate around those areas in Target when the whole place is a fright palace.
I’m okay with my kid being a kid a little while longer. He’ll be a surly 13 year old before I can blink my eyes–what’s the rush?
So true! We went to the Halloween store last night and they had a full-sized zombie ON THE FLOOR who would reach out towards your feet and move back and forth underneath the rack… by the kids’ costumes!! My 2YO insisted he be held the entire time. Heck, *I* wanted to be held too!
We have the same scary guy at our target. And yes there is a huge display you can’t avoid walking by. I agree they should put in on the back aisle where you have to intentionally go to it. My son is ok w it this year (although I have to be by him) but the past years he has FLIPPED out from all the scary stuff. I hope your poor babies stop having scary thoughts at night. Poor kids!! You should seriously write a letter to those stores about it. Good luck mama!!
Completely agree! My kid is 2 and there is no way he’s ready for that stuff!! Thanks for the heads up about Walgreens. We’ll be sure to stay away. So far, Walmart doesn’t seem too bad, and most of their stuff is in the garden section so we don’t have to see it.
While we’re on the topic of what’s G-rated…
How about the lingerie section? Anyone else bothered that the socks, robes and other ok-stuff is on the inside aisles while the bras, panties, and nighties are out for our sons to see?
I have been going over if I should leave my Halloween rant on here or not, what is the worst that can happen- Just delete it when it starts sounding ridiculous.
I was never big on the scary part of Halloween. My kids start off afraid in the Halloween aisle but I play the whole thing off and try to make them laugh. “Oh look at the silly thing, what a waste of money.” “That is is just a bunch of noise pollution.” “Who’d buy that stupid thing.” ( I don’t usually say stupid to my kids which gets a laugh) Doing this calms their fears and shames anyone in the aisle with us who was planing to buy that horrible stuff. That is how I roll. I use shame to destory corporate greed.
One point for the mom team.
To me that is all it is though, a giant waste of money. And the houses you see it in front of you know their money was probably better spent on a bar of soap or you know a toothbrush…
Okay that was mean but a kind of true.
I would love to see Halloween go back to what it use to be. Jack-o-laterns, homemade tombstones that say “I told you I was sick” and fake spiderwebs.
I hate all the gory stuff. I hate the fake blood. I hate fricken teenagers coming to my door for free candy, “Really dude, get a job and buy yourself some candy.”
Thank you for allowing my rant sorry.
Thank you. I’m glad I’m not the only one.
I hate gory decorations. I much prefer Martha Stewart type fall decor. However, I now have gory decorations all over my house where my 3 yr. old girl turns the buttons on and laughs. My husband started a haunted house in our garage a few years ago and now my older kids look forward to this big scary party every year. Am I desensitizing my fourth child?? I don’t know, but I doubt she’ll be scarred for life. I think/hope she’ll remember how involved her dad was and that her house was full of friends and fun.
That said, I really, really hate the disgusting Busch Gardens Halloween billboards on 275 that we have to drive by every morning in Oct every year. Some people really get into it, though. What’s a mom to do?
honestly i would have to disagree. because horror is horror. and my children aren’t afraid of it. but it’s also cause me and my wife are mass horror addicts and have decorations up year round (lol) I honestly think children and parents are becoming over sensitive about things like this. think back to being a kid. sure it was scary, but hell it’s all funny now. And how many of you are truly “scarred for life” because of some creepy decoration you saw as a kid. i’d say one out of every thousand. but thats my opinion. so eh.
I agree with David. I think some of you are too uptight. I remember, growing up, my parents taking me to the drive in to see Friday the 13th and all the other horror films, starting around the age of 6..It didnt scar me for life..My husband and i are huge horror fans and we think the gorier the better…Maybe you need to learn how to explain to your children so they dont freak out…my 5 yr old was scared of horror films and some decor but i made a joke out of it so she wouldnt be scared…For example i laughed at a part in a movie that was bloody…i told her none of it was real and that the blood was ketchup they used to look like blood..My daughter is no longer scared and recently played a very convincing zombie in a film my husband created…
Im tired of you people that get mad and want to ruin it for everybody else…Maybe you should be a good parent and take the time to really explain it to your children because face it, halloween isnt going anywhere…
Leave a Comment