WOW… this Halloween was NOTHING like we had expected. Even my kids were some what disappointed and we all ended up so chilled to the bone that I had to make a round of hot chocolate just to warm us up. Even that wasn’t good enough for my son. He had to take a hot shower just to warm up.
The day started off pretty good. My husband did this week’s food shopping, put all the groceries away and even cleaned out the kitchen cabinets and the medicine cabinet. I joked with him that he must be pregnant. That sounds like something I would have done when I was pregnant with the kids (they call it “nesting” I believe).
From that point on things seemed to go downward.
My daughter had begged us to let two of her friends come over and Trick or Treat with us. We weren’t too keen on the idea but we agreed. Before we knew it two became three.
Our son didn’t want to be left alone to Trick or Treat by himself (knowing that my daughter would be running ahead with her friends) so he asked us if he could invite his cousin (my niece) and one of her friends. We couldn’t tell him “no” because that wouldn’t have been fair. Before we knew it taking our two children Trick or Treating suddenly turned into SEVEN children!
Then came the big time headache with the time frame. We were thinking 8-9 figuring the kids needed to get ready for school tomorrow (9:30 is usually when they go to bed). Between both of my children’s friends the times bounced around considerably. They wanted to go out a 6 PM, then 8-10 PM, then 7:30-9:30… and various combinations. One kid couldn’t make it until 8 PM, another had to be home by 7 PM so had to start out Trick or Treating at 6 PM. UGH! It was crazy! My husband and I were about to pull the plug and tell both kids NO FRIENDS!
My husband and I finally decided on 7 PM – 8:30 PM. If someone couldn’t make it or had to leave early, C’est la vie! (“such is life” in French).
Around 6:30 my niece and her friend showed up at our door, even though they knew we were not going until 7 PM. BOTH sets of parents were not home. The girls literally walked from their homes to our door. Needless to say we couldn’t tell them to go away until 7 PM so we invited them inside.
Our daughter informed us that two of her friends were not going to come tonight. She was VERY upset but at least she had one friend who was suppose to come around 7 PM.
Around 7 PM I sent my husband out with my son, our niece and their friend and I stayed behind to wait with my daughter for her friend. Her friend kept texting that they were on their way. Around 7:15 she texted to say her Mom couldn’t find our condo complex (even though she has GPS and our complex is too huge to miss) so she wasn’t coming. If you have (or had) a teenager daughter you can only imagine how my daughter reacted. She was a combination of being totally ticked off to wanting to cry at the same time. She said she didn’t want to go Trick or Treating tonight. UGH! $40 for a costume down the drain.
I told her we had to go and track down my husband to let him know otherwise he’d be worried about us. Since we were out anyway I told my daughter to knock on a few doors. She told me she was totally mortified to be seen with her parent and refused to knock on any doors.
Part of me was thinking that she was being totally pathetic. The other part of me wanted to cry that my daughter didn’t want me around anymore. Sigh…
We met up with my husband, son and the girls. My husband was trying to give them their space. He was following them but not too closely. My son is 11 and the girls are 12. To them having that bit of space made them feel “grown up”. They were loving it.
Not long after that we heard A LOT of kids. Turns out it was one of my daughter’s friends who lives in our complex, her sister and about 8 kids from school. Reluctantly we told our it was OK to hang out with them, even though two of the girls don’t get along with my daughter.
Honestly we DIDN’T want to watch her walk away with all those kids. She’s only 13 but at the same time we can’t hold them close forever. MOST of the kids were responsible enough and we figured with nearly a dozen kids things should be OK.
While walking around we heard more kids yelling. We looked over in the direction of “The Cliff” to find about a 1/2 dozen children walking along the top of the cliff. Keep in mind it was pitch dark up there and one wrong move would have had one of those children falling AT LEAST 30 feet down on to rocks. WHERE WERE THE PARENTS?
It turns out that these kids were from another condo complex up the road from ours. All of the boys are 11 years old (they go to school with my son). What kids of insane parents let 11 year old walk into ANOTHER condo complex, down the street, and not have at least one parent following behind them to make sure they were OK? These boys were AT LEAST 30′ up on top of a cliff! One wrong move and one of the boys could have fallen and got seriously hurt – or worst! Its one thing if they were 16+ years old, but these were 11 year olds, in costumes that they could have easily tripped over.
UGH!!!
Throughout the night we kept crossing paths with our daughter and the kids she was hanging out with, all while following our son and the girls around. It was also FREEZING outside. We had our dog with us and even he was cold.
We met up with one of the Moms whose daughter was with the group of kids that our daughter was with. She walked with us for a bit.
The group of kids made it to our condo building. Prior to that they were in the town home area where there was more people home. Trick or Treating in the condo section is a waste. No one ever comes to the door (we know this from past experiences).
The kids seemed to take FOREVER in our building. My son and my niece (the other girl had gone home at this point) went in our building and left after a couple of minutes and went on to the next building. Meanwhile the older kids were in our building for at least 10 minutes. Finally we saw one of the boys come out the main door. He had candy wrappers in his hands and TOSSED THEM INTO THE BUSHES! Then he went back inside. All three of us saw him do it.
About a minute later all the kids started to filter out of the building. We were asking our daughter what they were doing and the other Mom confronted the boy about the wrappers. She asked him why he did it and he said RIGHT TO HER FACE “I don’t know what you are talking about? What wrappers? I didn’t throw out any candy. I’m not going to be blamed for it…” (the whole time the other kids were laughing). Even when the Mom said to him that we ALL saw him do it he kept declaring his innocence and then walked away from her. When the Mom told him to go back and pick up the wrappers he IGNORED her and continued to walk way.
Meanwhile we asked what they were doing. Supposedly they were inside at the basement level trading candy. One girl admitted to having a candy fight and throwing candy at each other. We asked if they cleaned up and they said RIGHT TO OUR FACE that yes, the place was cleaned up.
I can’t tell you how relieved I was that this night was over. It was frozen to the bone and I was shocked at how bratty these kids were to us.
Later on my husband had gone out to walk the dog. On his way in he went down to the basement level (where two condo units are located) and found candy and wrappers EVERY WHERE! He was down there a good 10 minutes cleaning up. When he came back upstairs he said there was more candy directly in front of one of the unit doors but he was afraid to try and pick it up because he didn’t want the lady who lived there to think he was up to no good.
After my husband went to bed tonight he got back out of bed and went bcak downstairs. He couldn’t sleep knowing that candy was on the floor. That is the basement level and he was worried about the ants. He managed to clean it all up.
Can you believe that? Thirteen year olds LYING to our faces about throwing the candy wrappers in the bushes and about the mess in the basement area. BOLD FACE LIES! Talk about BRATS! Good golly! All I can say is that they are lucky they are not our kids or they would have been grounded until next Halloween.
I’m also totally SHOCKED that parents can have such serious lapse in judgement to allow 11 year old boys to wonder aimlessly by themselves, blissfully unaware that their sons were walking along the edge of a cliff because they saw it as a short cut. What is wrong with these people! I realize I’m a paranoid parent, but if you ask me, that is just seriously POOR parenting on their part.
I’m glad tonight is over. It wasn’t exactly fun. The cold, the bratty kids, my daughter’s friends bailing on her… it was just horrible!
Its also VERY sad to know that our children are growing up and no longer want us around. We are so used to doing everything together as family and it breaks my heart to know that my children want to venture out on their own a bit, spread their wings and do some test flying on their own.
WHY do babies need to grow up? Can’t they stay young forever? Sigh…
I’m sorry to ramble. It was one of THOSE nights, if you know what I mean?
Hopefully YOUR Halloween was a million times better then ours.
Kimberly
*This blog post is sponsored by Giraffe Childcare.
