When I was younger, my mom would make Halloween costumes for my sisters and me. She could create anything we wanted to be. If we needed an idea, she would come up with one. One year she suggested I dress up as a candy store. She tied liquorish in my hair, got two big pieces of poster board and cut them into the shape of a store and attached them together with string that fit over my shoulders. I had so much fun gluing different kinds of candy to my store and ended up winning first place at our school fair.
Because of how much I used to love it, and the memories I made with my mother’s help, I couldn’t wait to have kids and dress them up in their Halloween costumes of choice. There were so many years I’d be sewing up a storm late at night and I could barely wait to get their costumes done so they could see them. Trick-or-treating became an important tradition in our house, with my kids deciding what they were going to be that year starting around July.
I enjoyed it just as much as they did for many years. I never really thought about how it might go away one day and about how lost I would feel when it did. Maybe I’m being a bit melodramatic, but moms are allowed.
My Teens Think They are Too Old for Halloween
So, I’ll indulge and tell you that when my kids got old enough to decide they didn’t want to do a damn thing on Halloween, I came crashing down like a pile of bricks. It’s been about three years of this nonsense, three years of me NOT burning the midnight oil to get ready to celebrate. I’m still not over it. It’s one of the many parenting experiences that was as much for me as it was for them. And the rub is, no one tells you how much it’s going to suck when your kids outgrow certain traditions.
But I’ll tell you-IT SUCKS BIG TIME.
It’s all part of us getting used to our kids growing up before we are ready. There is a process of loss that comes along with raising our teens, and it hits every parent in a different way. This one hit me hard and left me in tears while browsing through Target, as I spotted an employee setting up the Halloween area.
Honestly, it sucks the life out of me a little bit when I see a mom with young kids excited about the upcoming holidays, while my kids have ZERO interest them.
I know it’s inadvisable but I’ve tried to get it back; I’ve tried convincing my teens that they would have a lot more fun if we threw a Halloween party, or got dressed up and went asking the neighbors for candy like we used to. They aren’t buying it though. Sure, they remember all the fun we had but they don’t need me trying to shove those memories down their collective throats.
If they don’t want to dress up, I certainly can’t force them but I am allowed to sulk about it with a bag of candy corn, look at old pictures of them in their costumes, and remind them that we would be having so much more fun if they’d let me have my way with them on Halloween.
Please, just for a few more years.
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