For years now, I’ve been watching most of the trick-or-treaters go to the house on one side of me, take one look at my house and walk right past it, and then go to the house on the other side.
I had no clue why. Maybe they were scared of my house or thought I’d give cheap candy (my house is a bit of a fixer-upper)? I completed my “curb appeal” projects; didn’t help.
Maybe they thought nobody was home? I not only have the porch light on, but also have the living room TV on, clearly visible through the (open!) front window, and it makes no difference.
Maybe they think I’m not participating (despite the clear signal of the porch light and jack-o’-lantern)? I put up a bunch of Halloween decorations this year, and it still didn’t help!
Well, I finally found out the reason, after hearing one kid scouting ahead yelling to tell his friends to skip my house: “there’s no bowl on the porch!”
…You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
Yep, unlike my neighbors, who had apparently just left unattended bowls of candy on their porches, I was actually sitting there inside the house, with the bowl of candy, waiting for kids to knock or ring the doorbell before I opened the door and handed it out. You know, like how trick-or-treating is supposed to work.
This is ridiculous. Kids these days are skipping viable houses with candy because they can’t be bothered to actually knock on the damn door and say “trick or treat” to the person who answers? Residents are expected to be too lazy to answer the door, and just put out the candy without even receiving the traditional threat first? With no actual interaction with the neighbors for the kids to show off their costumes, what’s even the point‽
I finally stuck a sign on the door saying “yes, you have to knock or ring for candy!” and that helped, but even then, some kids are still skipping my house because they apparently can’t be bothered to read the sign.
LOL put a ginormous bowl on your porch with a sign in it that says RING BELL FOR CANDY
Candy inside. Ring at your own risk. Muah ha. Ha. Ha.
Is it only me who is surprised that they have a scout to optimise the process?
Candy is serious business
Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply it was an organized operation. I think it was more just one kid who was faster/more eager than his buddies. Or maybe just standing next to them but loud, for all I know!
I think you’re looking at it wrong. It’s likely not that kids are too lazy to knock but that your neighbors are too lazy to answer the door. The kids see everyone on the street leaving bowls out and assume that if someone on the street doesn’t have a bowl, then they’re not doing Halloween like everyone else is.
That’s not it at all. Literally, my children told me, “I don’t want to go up, I just want to go to the houses with bowls”. But it’s not a lazy thing, it’s a social anxiety thing. We don’t chat with strangers, we don’t make small talk with people we don’t know, we don’t ask people things we can find out without asking people things. We’re socially awkward parents and we have socially awkward children.
Millennials, the ones who would much rather text than call on the phone their dearest friends and closest relatives, are 35-40 years old. They’re the ones with halloweening children and those kids are just ask averse to face to face interactions with neighborhood residents as we are.
We must be the good kind of awkward. My kid got an unreasonable amount of candy knocking on doors.
It is because all you had was those weird black and orange taffies. No-one can eat those.
I live at the end of a cul de sac with a bunch of killjoys who never give out candy, so kids wouldn’t visit my house.
So I take my bucket of candy and go walking around and deliver it to the kids. Plus this means everybody sees my costume.
You gotta be outside chilling shooting the shit with neighbors at the end of your driveway these days. My door would fall off the hinges if I had to open it for every kid
When people have moved to leaving candy out, perhaps kids thought that not having them out means you’re not participating. Also, when many houses have left them out, for efficiency, it makes sense to only go to those houses.
I’m glad to hear that the sign helped. Shows that some kids aren’t just about getting as much candy as possible but also having a bit of fun.
even trick or treating isnt the same anymore with these gen alphas
I live in an apartment building on the ground floor, I always tape a sign to my decorated window to inform people where to ring for trick or treating. It works quite well for me, and groups know immediately who is willing to give out candy
I took my kids last night and every house had people sitting on the porch with a bowl. None of the houses they knocked on opened the door. There were hundreds of kids around us and I didn’t hear anyone say trick or treat.
Where is the home owner hiding in the bush with a garden hose?
There used to be more trickery. Or Boomers are twisted.
Ours were both types, but people in lawn chairs with a bowl got more attention for sure
I saw quite a few people sitting outside their houses with their candy ready for the kids. Some even organized them on tables so the kids could come up, pick one, be handed it and go.
Has it always been like this or is this a result of the pandemic?
Going out this year I saw lots of folks just outside their house during the start of trick or treating. It was actually really neat. And I just… didn’t expect it
Out of curosity, how was the weather in your end of the world? We had the same thing happen this year, but mostly because it was unseasonably warm.
Granted, it was also 'cause we had a fog machine this year, but the weather played a big part.
Yeah good point, it was fucked up warm this year
I’ve done Halloween for the first time in the uk with my 2 year old, and we passed a few lightly decorated doors (apartment block). Most other flats had a bowl of candy outside and is this one not having it, we were not sure if we could knock or not. I found myself thinking that they were out or didn’t want to be bothered. It has become very unclear. I think next year even if I’m at home (before we go trick or treating) I will put a sign on the door if I want them to knock, so I make it clear to all.
lmao that Skinner reference though 😆👌
put a sign on your door next year, and report back on how well it works lol.
I see you did it this year, but doing it again next year should also increase the amount of visitors. We do a little science.
We don’t get many trick or treaters in my neighborhood so I usually do just a leave a bowl out because I can’t be bothered to wait by the door for a couple of groups.
Never had a problem with it until this year when some little shits clearly took all of the candy for themselves shakes fist at the clear downfall of society
