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Old 11-01-2010, 08:01 AM
 
Location: Tampa
1,317 posts, read 2,294,534 times
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personally if you are that worried, to the point where checking it at home wont suffice, then there were other things to do besides let your children accumulate a bag full of teeth rotting, waist expanding sugar.

I left the hyde park lifstyles around 6 last night and noticed a ton of people parking in the sweet bay on swann to go trick or treating. I find it odd when people think their neighborhood is fine to live in, but not fine to trick or treat in.
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Old 11-01-2010, 08:25 AM
 
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When I was a kid, I recall there being a couple scares caused by people finding things like razor blades in candy. The concern doesn't have to be your neighbors- remember the tylenol murders in the early 80s where the product off the shelf was laced with cyanide. Anyway, back in the 80's, I remember the hospital offering to x-ray candy.

We probably had a few hundred trick or treaters, but the police also close off the roads here and one part of the neighborhood has a pyrotechnics-oriented stage show so a lot of kids get bussed in.

Many of the trick-or-treaters were young adults who weren't even dressed in costumes. Most of the kids didn't say "thanks" and many had special requests on how much candy they wanted, or what kind they wanted, etc. We gave out candy (8 bags or so) between 6PM and 8:30PM. What ever happened to respect? I sensed a lot of entitlement- like it was their right to ride a bus into someone else's neighborhood and receive the candy of their choosing.

Things definitely got worse later in the night. I think next year we'll do more for the younger kids, who typically came between 6 and 7, and then close up shop. For example, someone gave our 2 yr old a small container of play-doh and he loved it (Costco was selling huge multi-packs for Halloween.)

We took our son to a public Halloween event in Largo a couple weekends ago. I heard the parking attendant's radio and one of the other volunteers mentioning the number of adults who were taking candy- apparently they were almost out of candy and the event had just started.

Don't people have adult Halloween parties? Aren't there activities more appropriate for adults than trick-or-treating? I don't get why 18-25 yr olds are out doing something that 5 year olds do. Maybe this is the norm now and I'm just getting old.

edit: the snopes article mentioned by another poster is pretty informative and it debunks most of the concern over laced candy, although there was a case where a needle was found in a candy bar during x-raying. remember, there was no "news on demand", or snopes, etc. back in the early 80's.

Last edited by tjax1000; 11-01-2010 at 08:35 AM.. Reason: adding info from snopes
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Old 11-01-2010, 08:36 AM
 
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Traditionally Halloween was for younger children and has morphed into another excuse for older teens and/or adults to get stupid/drunk and in some cases go out for candy. There is an odd sense of entitlement involved. Is it me or has this happened with Easter as well?
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Old 11-01-2010, 08:40 AM
 
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I feel the same way about teen trick-or-treaters. We actually have a separate bowl for the 'entitled' teens. Last year it was that really bad peanut butter candy that's wrapped in the black and orange paper wrappers? I couldnt find any this year. So instead, we had a bag of Apple-Strawberry Life savers that were really bad (they sounded good in theory, but in actual taste, it was horrible). Since they are individually wrapped, we had those for the teens and the real candy for other kids We had the bowls next to the door so the kids couldnt see what they were getting anyway.
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Old 11-01-2010, 08:45 AM
 
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We had hundreds of trick-or-treaters! My kids came home loaded with candy!

I don't inspect their candy. We live in a very family-friendly, safe neighborhood. Could someone sneak something into their candy? Sure. But they could also get hit by a car walking to school. No way am I going to live in fear of every "what if". And I don't want my kids to live that way either.
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Old 11-01-2010, 10:01 AM
 
Location: Where ever you're at, that's where you are!
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Where I currently live (Va) trick or treating is ONLY for age 12 and under. Sure there are some 12 yr olds who I'm sure look 15, so I wouldn't be one to push the issue unless EVERY child in the group looked like older teenagers. But even then, I probably still wouldnt deny them candy (I wouldn't want a trick after all!). If they were polite about their trick or treating they'd get the same candy item as any other trick or treater. I do have a sign that I found a few years ago that I put out in front of the steps to my porch. It is cutesy and halloweeny, is shaped like a stop sign and says "STOP! ONLY trick or treaters in Costume!" I've gotten alot of comments from parents who have really liked it and want to find or make one for their own homes. So far I haven't had any big kids in street clothes come to my door.
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Old 11-01-2010, 10:07 AM
 
Location: Tampa
2,602 posts, read 8,266,331 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by It's Cin! View Post
Where I currently live (Va) trick or treating is ONLY for age 12 and under. Sure there are some 12 yr olds who I'm sure look 15, so I wouldn't be one to push the issue unless EVERY child in the group looked like older teenagers. But even then, I probably still wouldnt deny them candy (I wouldn't want a trick after all!). If they were polite about their trick or treating they'd get the same candy item as any other trick or treater. I do have a sign that I found a few years ago that I put out in front of the steps to my porch. It is cutesy and halloweeny, is shaped like a stop sign and says "STOP! ONLY trick or treaters in Costume!" I've gotten alot of comments from parents who have really liked it and want to find or make one for their own homes. So far I haven't had any big kids in street clothes come to my door.
So what do you do? Card kids before you give them candy?
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Old 11-01-2010, 12:12 PM
 
817 posts, read 2,241,679 times
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There has never been a documented case of a stranger causing harm to a child by adulterating their halloween candy.

Poisoned Halloween Candy: Trick, Treat or Myth? - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20101029/sc_livescience/poisonedhalloweencandytricktreatormyth - broken link)
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Old 11-01-2010, 12:16 PM
 
Location: Tampa
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ferret111 View Post
So what do you do? Card kids before you give them candy?
obviously homeowners cannot enforce this, but they are encouraged to contact the police and report instances of percieved over-age trick or treating. Many cities in VA are enforcing it by issuing $100 citations per instance. This ordinance also prohibits anyone over the age of 12 to wear a mask in public, at any time of the year including halloween.

There are no cities in Florida prohibiting anyone from trick or treating, although law enforcement encourages anyone over 12 to not trick or treat.

You have people trick or treating on every corner in tampa. They wear construction worker and school crossing guard costumes. nobody is stopping them. Can you imagine if they said 13 year olds couldnt beg (because that is what trick or treating is) but it is okay for 50 yr olds to do it?
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Old 11-01-2010, 12:45 PM
 
Location: Palm Harbor, FL
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We trick or treated our neighborhood like we do every year and this year it seemed like there were more children than normal out and about. We had a blast and just dumped the bag on the table when we got home, threw out anything that was open or had holes in it and that was it. The only issue we ever have is having the majority of it still in the house by December.

So I don't see a decline where I live in Largo but I have heard more people say they have only a few visit their homes than not.

I think parents are now moving to the "event" type Halloween activities, which gives them the illusion of being safer. It would seem to me that someone wanting to be malicious in their attacks would do it in a more crowded arena than banking on the risk of plenty of kids coming to the house.
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