How old is too old to be trick or treating? (babysitter, teens)
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Just wondering how old the Trick or Treating crowd is where you live.
Here, there are kids who-- to me-- are way too old for Trick or Treating. Last year my mother had dozens of older teens ringing her doorbell, some ringing after 8 p.m. She stopped answering the bell at 7.
I remember that we stopped doing this at about age 12. Not sure if things have changed since then but the bulk of the kids ringing bells after 5 p.m. are a good bit older than that.
Is Trick or Treating mainly an activity for small kids where you live?
Just wondering how old the Trick or Treating crowd is where you live.
Here, there are kids who-- to me-- are way too old for Trick or Treating. Last year my mother had dozens of older teens ringing her doorbell, some ringing after 8 p.m. She stopped answering the bell at 7.
I remember that we stopped doing this at about age 12. Not sure if things have changed since then but the bulk of the kids ringing bells after 5 p.m. are a good bit older than that.
Is Trick or Treating mainly an activity for small kids where you live?
They're too old for trick or treating when they're old enough to ask you not to go with them.
Most of the kids who come around our neighborhood are under 12, but I don't mind the older kids. As long as they make an effort to dress up (beyond smearing some charcoal on their faces), and say thank you, it's all good. We are in GA now, but when we lived in NJ there were just as many high school kids out as younger ones. The older kids treated it more like a social thing though, walking around in groups and rarely approaching any houses.
IMO - kids are too old when they are too embarrassed to do it. It usually peters off around middle school. I don't mind older kids if they are polite and dressed up. I turn my light off around 9.
To the OP - does your mom leave her porchlight on? I always thought the universal signal of "no more candy - we're done" on Halloween was no porchlight on.
I went trick-or-treating until I was around 15 (sophomore year, maybe?). I think it's fine, as long as they're wearing costumes. The older kids aren't any weirder than the parents with tiny babies too young to eat candy still collecting it. (I'm guilty of that, too; we couldn't resist going to a few houses to introduce my then-younger son to the wonders of trick-or-treating, even if he was too young to "get" it, or to eat most of it.) It might have been too old, but I liked getting dressed up and getting candy! There's also more of a social neighborhood aspect to going door-to-door that you don't find at formal Halloween parties. A lot of older kids also go with their younger siblings, which seems like a win-win situation; the parents can stay home and do door duty while the older brother or sister serves as babysitter.
I agree that where we've lived the sign for "no more candy" was an extinguished pumpkin and porch light off.
As a general question: what time does trick-or-treating start in other areas? The original poster says "after 5 pm," which suggests people starting before that; I haven't paid too much attention, but I think around here trick-or-treating doesn't even really get started until about that time. It really seems to be from around 5 to 8, with the bulk of the action not getting started until closer to 6. (I'll pay more attention this year, especially since we're in a different neighborhood) Does that vary widely by town or city, too?
I remember trick or treating until I was like 14 or 15! I definitely remember dressing as a baby when I was 14 because I used my baby sister's gear for my costume. I don't see anything wrong with an older kid trick or treating if they are doing it with a good attitude. We get some older kids who don't even appear to be dressed up - they just want candy! That's annoying.
Around my house, the very youngest kids start going around 5-6pm, the main trick or treaters come around 7, and they are done by 8:30 or so. We turn the porch light off when we don't want them coming anymore. Nobody really goes out before 5pm - people aren't even home from work then to answer the door yet!
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