Halloween

Many people have asked me if I am planning to do anything special for Halloween and my answer has been no. Sure, I am a rather lazy mother in that I try not to plan things which Winston might be too young to appreciate anyways. But in all honesty, I have always been a bit anti-Halloween.

There are 3 aspects to Halloween that I don’t like:

First, it encourages kids to eat candies. I was unlucky to have been born in the austere Mao-era of China, but I was lucky to have not been exposed to sweets often in my childhood. As a result, to this day, I don’t eat candies or sweet things in general. In a country with abundant access to candies, it will be hard enough for me to keep Winston away from such junk food. And I certainly don’t want Halloween’s help....

Second, I hate horror films, and I genuinely think that it is not a good idea for little kids to be exposed to scary things. And Halloween is all about scary costumes and masks. Americans’ fascination with horror does baffle me. Doesn’t everyone want to sleep soundly without waking up in a nightmare?

Third, I dislike holidays that encourage comparisons. Who has better costumes? What are you going to be this year? How much candy did you get? Etc, etc. There is enough peer pressure already!