How Not to Scare Your Kids on Halloween

Halloween costumes have become scarier and scarier over the years. Just look at all that dripping blood, peeling skin and hanging out eyeballs. Cemeteries seem to crop up in people’s yards out of nowhere. Ghosts hang from trees swinging to and fro. Gigantic spiders seem to climb up the sides of a house seemingly on their quest for a new victim.

It is understandable that your child might be scared when trick or treating. Some costumes have become so realistic it is sometimes hard to tell which one is fake or real. Is it any wonder that small children are having nightmares and scream when the door is opened by an ax murderer? Small children just do not understand why the whole world has turned into a real live zombie movie. So you as the parent will have to decide if your child is mature enough to treat or treat without having Halloween nightmares for the next few weeks.

I have seen children become so frightened by what type of creature opens the door that they are seen blubbering and frozen in some doorways waiting for their parents to take them away from that frightful sight. After all who wants to take candies from a witch that might just want to fatten you up for her next meal?

Here are some ways you can help prepare your child for the scary night of Halloween

1. Limit scary story time and haunted house type of visits prior to the night.
2. Purchase some kid friendly books that portrays people in monster costumes. Read and discuss the book with them.
3. Help your child pick the costume. If they choose to be a scary monster it will help them understand that scary monsters are only make believe.
4. Walk the child through the neighborhood in daylight hours to the homes that they will be visiting on Halloween. This will give them a view of the scary decorations. Then walk them through the same area in the dark so the child can become familiar with the way the home looks with the lights down.
5. Give your child a flashlight. This will allow them to shine a light on anything that they are seeing and can’t recognize.
6. Make sure that you walk with your child to the door so that they are not scared by monsters that jump out or screaming skulls or bats in the night.
7. If the house looks too scary for your child’s age skip going to that house and go onto the next one. No one says you have to visit every house in the neighborhood.
8. Walk with another parent and their child so they can be a trick or treat team.

And lastly if your child gets too upset or wound up make sure to call it a night. Halloween should not be a trick or treating contest.