Halloween is less than a week away, so it’s time to gear up for trick-or-treating! If you have kids who will be making the rounds this year, here are 10 tips to help make the whole trick-or-treating experience safe and successful!
Safety Tips
1 - Think about costumes with bright colors that can easily be seen by drivers. Even in smaller neighborhoods, your kiddos may be out after dark and you want them to be easily seen by any drivers on this busy night.
2 - Get a group of kids/parents together when you go door-to-door. This way, you all get to keep an eye on the kids (even the younger ones) and also have a little fun yourselves with the other parents. You could even dress up yourselves!
3 - Help your kids plan their trick-or-treat route. This way, you can get an idea of the timing and plan to be back home before dark or whenever you determine is the right time for your kiddos to call it a night.
4 - Bring some hand sanitizer. You don’t even need a pandemic to know that kids are touching a lot of stuff when they are out trick-or-treating. Keep the germs to a minimum with some hand sanitizer.
5 - Inspect your kiddos’ treats before they dig in after a hard day/evening of trick-or-treating. You can remove anything that looks questionable… and you might just score a piece or two of your own favorite treats. Just for taste testing purposes, obviously. LOL!
Tips to Get the Most Candy
1 - Learn from Last Year. If this isn’t your first time trick-or-treating a neighborhood, what can you learn from last year? Which houses gave out the best candy? Which ones gave out pencils? Try to remember which houses you definitely want to visit and ones you might just skip.
2 - Think Geographically. Neighborhoods with smaller yards and sidewalks can help you maximize the number of houses you can reach before the end of trick-or-treating.
3 - Think about your Costume. It’s not so much about the amount of money kids (or their parents) spend on a costume. It’s about how creative or cute or scary the costume is. Shoot for unique if you can. You want to stand out from the crowd.
4 - The right Bag. If you go out trick-or-treating with a small plastic grocery bag, you’re asking for trouble. It can only hold so much and what happens if it tears? Think about a backpack or even a pillowcase.
5 - Be nice. Grown-ups like good manners. Be polite, say ‘trick-or-treat!’ and then say ‘thank you!’ It’s the little things sometimes…
