Wild Girl Howling at the Halloween Moon

It is Halloween again soon. Yay! One of my favorite holidays. Getting rather pissed though.

Maybe Halloween wasn't the greatest holiday when I was a kid. I sure thought it was. You went to school in your costume. You came home and trick or treated from the moment your mother would let you out until way after dark. (If you were lucky and the weather wasn't so horrible you couldn't go out at all, or so cold you had to wear your coat over you costume. (How lame can you be, Mom!)

I just received my kid's school newsletter. Luckily, they will still be having a Halloween parade and party. I know quite a few communities have canceled theirs, so I'm glad that still stands. But this year the newsletter came with express requests for no scary masks or costumes. I guess you might need some background to understand how I feel about that request.

My son is in fourth grade. For most of his life he has been afraid to wear a mask or even go down the Halloween aisle with masks. This year (in September, no less) he demanded that I take him to the party store so that he could purchase his costume: a scary, bloody, rotting zombie. I was so proud because he asked for what he wanted and has taken such big steps toward overcoming his fears.

So here I sit, knowing how the karma train runs for me. If I tell the boy that he can't wear his costume, or he can only wear the clothes (which still have rotting flesh visible) 7 other boys will have the same costume and will wear it without any consequences. If I count on that and tell him to wear the costume and damn the Man, he will call me from the principal's office.

My son is still afraid of clowns. Can I demand that all students planning to come to school dressed as clowns be asked to refrain? I know a lot of people are freaked out by clowns so I would be doing everyone a favor, right?

Or I could just learn to deal with myself and let others be and do what they want?

Hmm.

It makes a person almost want to take the school up on their offer to send him to their "awesome library" to read a book or play on the computer during the Halloween festivities. Except then they would mistake me for someone else.

Just getting tired of all the watering down and catering to the timid and the vanilla among us. It strips life of its flavor.

How did I ever survive my childhood?