Remember when you’d get in trouble for saying the smell my feet rhyme? Now days it seems like the new rhyme is Trick or Treat, fishnet stocking feet, give me some of that zombie meat.
I am sick and tired of Halloween being turned into a zombie walking, demon dressing, blood dripping, sexy slutty, boobs hanging out, let’s push the limits to the extreme event.
For my kids.
Honestly, if adults want to behave and dress that way and have fun with it – fine. That’s the choice of adulthood. But not for my kids. They just want to be Robin Hood. Or Pooh Bear. Or something innocent.
I don’t want to have to have them turn away when we pass the billboard for the Halloween store on the interstate with the women wearing barely anything (which is another topic entirely), who is giving a look that belongs on a porn movie cover, and then when you pass the sign just right also has several demons behind her ready to bite her, attack her, and suck her neck.
So not cool when you’re four to see that while you’re driving to Target.
(Honestly, it’s not too cool when you’re 39 to have to see that while you’re driving to Target.)
But it’s not just the billboards or the Halloween stores, who by the way, might have the coolest costumes for kids but I refuse to walk into them because of their poor interstate billboard marketing decisions. Now, I no longer can simply type in pirate costume without being shown the world’s biggest collection of raunchy ridiculous outfits on the page or be pre sold on a page of costumes for zombies with blood spewing from their mouths and distorted faces.
I just don’t think it’s necessary for my kids to see that when they’re looking for a pirate costume.
In fact, I don’t want my boys seeing that at all. There is a reason that our movies are rated the way the are – G, PG, PG13, R and so on. Halloween? What’s the rating for that now days? And, beyond that,  I don’t want my boys thinking that’s how women dress to get attention – because Halloween is all about attention and outfits and look at me then give me candy. You see, they’re kids and their brains are still making connections. I don’t want my girls selection of Halloween costumes have to go through the filter of is this provocative? slutty looking? and all of that. Can we just make costumes without making our seven year old look suggestive?
Can’t we just make costumes friendly for kids?
Wait. Can we just not make Halloween a bit more friendly for kids?
Do you know that The Huffington Post will put NSFW on posts that are not suitable for work? I’m thinking that most costume supply companies on the internet need the same kind of warning. For kids.
Again. Us adults can make our own decision on how we want to dress, what we want to portray, and all of that. We are adults and that’s the freedom of being an adult. But kids?  I just want to be able to take my kids into Target and to have them not freaked out by the numerous blood spewing items everywhere next to short skirts and fishnet stockings and women wearing almost nothing. I don’t want to have to have my almost five year old not want to go by the Halloween stuff because it’s so scary. They don’t know the difference honestly. It looks like a man with his face ripped off and eyes hanging and dripping blood and screeches.
Come on. These are our kids.
Part of the fun of Halloween is being able to look through the costumes and to pick out the perfect one for what you wanted to be. Well, really, the big part of it is getting the costume so that you could go get that pile of candy. But, you get the point. I don’t even want to take them shopping for the costumes because we have to wade through large piles of absolute garbage in order to find the several costumes left that are appropriate for children.
I don’t care really what us adults wear. I just want to be able to take my kids into Target and to have them not freaked out by the numerous teeth baring items everywhere next to short skirts and fishnet stockings and women with not much clothing on giving looks that don’t belong on prime time television. We could debate Halloween and whether it’s good or not – but that’s for another conversation. I frankly don’t want to even chat about that.
I just want this to be about the entire retail decision in America and what is placed at the front entrance to their stores and what our kids are exposed to. At Krogers in their costume section is this gigantic scary possessed looking pumpkin face staring down at you. Do our kids need to be freaked out when we’re just trying to get milk?
And do know why retailers put all of that freaky stuff on display and sell it?
Because we buy it.Â
So who will do this? Who will make the website where I bring my kids to so they can find an awesome Pirate hat or cheerleading outfit or Captain America costume? Â Who will decide that they’re not dressing their kids in outfits that don’t They’ll be exposed to the world soon enough. They’ll get to decide that women shouldn’t be defined on looks and that the world sells sex and that violence isn’t something to be glorified.
I think that’s it. Â And oh yes, I know I could just choose to not participate in Halloween. But Halloween can be awesome and fun for kids. Walking up to the door and wondering what in the world you’ll get and being thrilled when they let you just grab a handful. (And not being so thrilled when it was the toothbrush or the penny.) Â It’s hanging out with your friends and getting to know your neighbors. It’s talking and laughing and just enjoying each other’s company. It’s saying hello to the neighbor that you never even really new. It’s smiling and telling kids that they look great and shutting the door and yelling have fun! as they walk away.
If you were to take a moment in time on Halloween night on the neighborhood streets you wouldn’t see that evil that’s sold in the store. You’d see good. Neighbors. Togetherness.
Listen. CVS made the decision to get rid of cigarettes in their stores because they are a health company. Â I want to ask retailers to take a stand and to be like CVS and to be kid friendly.
But, we are moms. We don’t need someone else to take the lead and to rely on retailers to make this decision for us. I really need us all to decide together that we love the awesome part of Halloween. Think of the memories – the good stuff – the excitement of trying to scarf down that bit of dinner before you’d walk with your friends. The pretending, the laughter, and all of the awesome.
That’s what it should be.
So the challenge? Think of clever costumes. Celebrate the community. And show retailers what matters most. We can do this. We have this power, friends, for real.
Until we decide to put our dollar on clever and fun retailers will continue to drip blood in aisle thirteen.
And our kids will have to look away when we get the milk.
~Rachel
18 comments
And this is why I make costumes for kids for Halloween. And why I’ll loan to people who might not be able to buy. My kids can dress up all year with what I make and I spare them the trip to the store.
I completely agree. We actually found a local costume maker near us that makes great kid-friendly costumes. Her website is http://www.momapprovedcostumes.com. My niece has one of the Cinderella dresses, and my daughter is getting the Elsa dress for Christmas, but they also have tons of stuff besides princess costumes too. Not to be advertise-y, just wanted to share a great example of someone making an effort to make costumes (and their website) completely PG 🙂
Thank you for bringing attention to this. It is not just the adult costumes on display; now they are making the “slutty” look for toddlers. Walmart has a size 2t cat costume that looks identical to the college girls’ version. Ridiculous that those costumes are produced, but it is even more ridiculous and just plain disgusting that mothers but them for their young children.
I couldn’t agree more! Additionally, my daughter always asks my I don’t dress up with her. I can’t. I don’t have a Barbie figure, and even if I did, I wouldn’t wear most of the sleezy costumes they put out for adults!
A couple of years ago, I was looking for a Mrs. Claus dress for our holiday pictures. My options were to look like a tart or to look like a 70+ year old woman. Really?
Enough is enough!
YES! I agree with you! Enough with the gore and sexy stuff! Halloween is no excuse for stores to go beyond G-rated.
I could go on and on about this subject for HOURS. I live in Salem, MA. The Halloween Capitol of the world. Every year on Halloween our entire city shuts down…except the bars, restaurants and tourist traps…including the 30 or so haunted houses. People flock to our city by the thousands….a few yrs it has been in the millions. I fear for Halloween being on a Friday this year.
It’s a BIG deal here. My boys have always been great about their costumes. I have made them for years and years. It’s my daughter I worry about. We live really close to where all the happenings go on. We have and empty lot across the street where people have parked for FREE for years. We have seen drunk girls with barely any clothes on drop and squat in the middle of the parking lot to pee, we have had people vomiting on our sidewalk…it’s been bad. We have done our best to shelter the kids from this.
My girl is now 13, last year she wanted to be a police woman for Halloween…I could not find one outfit that didn’t come with FISH NET STOCKINGS!!!! Please tell me why a 12 yr old girl needs fish net stockings???? IT’s just crazy!!!! The skirts are all way too short and there is nothing appropriate for a girl her age to wear.
I have begged and even forced her to wear the costumes that I make. So far we have done pretty good but every time at this year I can hear the arguments in the aisle already. I dread Halloween every year. I have a countdown calendar…People think it’s to count down to the “BIG DAY”…it’s a countdown until all the tourists are gone.
My the Lord grant me patience to get through this “holiday” again this year.
Amen!!!
Thank you for this! In addition to the slutty costumes, could we also please get rid of the super-scary, disgustingly gory Hallowe’en decorations? My 3 year old doesn’t need to be afraid of the neighbour’s front lawn, which is always decorated with fake headstones and bloody severed body parts in the weeks leading up to Hallowe’en.
When I was a kid, we didn’t do the whole trick-or-treating thing for two reasons… one, it wasn’t a holiday my parents really wanted us kids to celebrate (based on the history behind it) and two, we didn’t live in a trick-or-treat friendly neighborhood. So, instead, our entire extended family got together to celebrate with each other. And we had a blast! We are a big family with 14 cousins in a 10 year range. We would do fireworks, make candy apples, and my uncle (who is a farmer) would bring over his tractor for hay rides. At the end of the night, all us kids got a big goody bag filled with candy. Even as a child, I didn’t want to trade this evening for trick-or-treating.
When I was a teen, our family quit doing these get-togethers and I was sad about it. I did go out a couple of times trick-or-treating with friends, but it was nothing compared to our family gatherings.
Fast forward to adulthood. My husband and I would hand out candy every year to the neighborhood kids. We would even dress up our two dogs in costumes and have them answer the door with us. Then, we noticed that the children’s costumed were getting more gruesome every year.
After our first was born, we really didn’t want to partake in it anymore. And once she was old enough to start showing how scared she was with the Halloween costumes on display, we decided we definitely didn’t want to be answering our door to that with her at home! So, we started a new tradition that has held to this day.
We go to the grocery store and let our girls pick out their favorite treats… from donuts, to ice cream, to a special candy… whatever they want, then we pick up some pizza! We spend the evening having a pizza picnic upstairs – far enough away from the front door that no one can see the lights on and even if they do knock, we can’t hear them. We spend a wonderful evening together as a family, playing games, being silly, telling stories, and just enjoying having each other around. I’m sure as our kids get older, we may change our evening slightly, but so far, what we do works and the girls would rather have our little pizza party than go trick-or-treating like their peers do.
Read my comments and get a life!
I wholeheartedly agree! In our family, we don’t do scary Halloween or anything for that matter. My mom and sister come over, homemade chi is in the crockpot, and the kids watch It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown as much as they want. My youngest two haven’t left our small cul de sac once for Trick or treat– they were freaked out 2 years ago by some crazy gruesome costumes and that did it for them. I hate the constant stripping of childhood innocence in this country!
Hey guess what? Halloween isnt a fun family friendly occasion it is a satanic holiday which is now becoming more obvious and apparent. If you are a God fearing person you really should not have anything to do with halloween
I couldn’t agree with you more. I hate that Halloween has turned into a sleazy adult holiday, instead of a silly and fun children’s holiday.
Last year I posted about my feelings on costumes and how I was vowing to use this as my criteria for choosing costumes: Dress up as someone you ADMIRE, or Something you want to grow up to be.
http://heatherhalesdesigns.com/blog/clean-halloween/
As a 26 year old woman, I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve done the “sexy slutty” Halloween costumes. College was not all that long ago for me, and I even have the remnants of some of those costumes (“sexy cop”, Catwoman, generic black cat) still lurking somewhere in storage- not that they’d fit anymore! I honestly don’t find college-age females choosing to wear… Really, whatever they want, to be offensive or problematic.
HOWEVER. I have a 21 month old daughter. In looking at various websites for Halloween costumes for her, I’ve been absolutely horrified by the sexualization of outfits for children not much older than her. I can’t think of a single reason (as least, not one that doesn’t turn my stomach) that companies are marketing sexy ANYTHING to elementary school aged kids. Even the poses and facial expressions of some of the models were suggestive enough that I had to scroll up and check that I hadn’t accidentally clicked into the teen section- nope, these were little kids. That, I do find extremely upsetting.
Agreed. 100%
Thank you, Liz. 🙂
I agree completely! Here is another resource for awesome girl costumes that are actually kid friendly…
http://www.amightygirl.com/halloween
I didn’t read your full post, but it makes me upset that kids are used in scary movies.
Hi Rachel, I heard you on Entrepreneur on Fire (great interview!) and decided to stop by your site. This article caught my eye, as I’d just heard a discussion on the origins of Halloween by someone who did the research. Greg Koukl’s Stand to Reason podcast (and radio program) from Oct 21st, starting right near the beginning of the show, “Angie Mosteller – Christian Origins of Halloween.” (I don’t know if you allow links… but if you google what I have in quotes and STR, you’ll find it.)
And, for the bad news on the candy, I’ll unfortunately recommend another podcast, Shawn Stevenson’s “The Model Health Show.” Insanely great health and nutrition information that might have you not only laying off the candy, but adjusting your whole diet and lifestyle.
All the best!