Taking away Halloween...

[Koala]

After 8 years of Trick or Treating, it looks like Kendal is considering taking Halloween away from her girls. :(

It's one thing for a child that has grown up without Halloween, but I can't imagine taking it away from a child that has had years of celebrating. I know my kids would be devastated. They are already planning out what they want to be this year.

http://www.thefatherknowsbest.com/

"Am I trying to please my children or am I trying to please my Heavenly Father?"

[debrand]

After 8 years of Trick or Treating, it looks like Kendal is considering taking Halloween away from her girls. :(

It's one thing for a child that has grown up without Halloween, but I can't imagine taking it away from a child that has had years of celebrating. I know my kids would be devastated. They are already planning out what they want to be this year.

http://www.thefatherknowsbest.com/

I admit to a bias toward Halloween. Not only was I born on Halloween but I got married on the day.

My brother recently told me that he wasn't celebrating Halloween because it is pagan. Really? The names of the days of the week are pagan. Jesus wore robes. Maybe my brother should stop wearing pants.

Oh well, back to Kendall. Why can't her Heavenly Father want her kids to have fun just for the sake of having fun? Why does there have to be any bigger reason then just enjoying oneself?

I got into a Halloween debate with a fundie who pointed out that Christians have to follow the bible verse about concentrating on only good things. However, I couldn't get him to give me any reason why kids dressing up and having fun-beyond getting cavities- is bad.

[contrary]

Good Lord, Kendal really has the jump on Halloween-Trashing this year. By early October, she should totes scoop all the Christmas Tree naysayers.

[maybeizfundie]

My family went back and forth on Halloween. It wasn't particularly devastating. However, my parents did find alternative "fun stuff" for us to do, and certainly took advantage of the candy sales, so we really didn't miss out on much.

Dh and I don't celebrate for personal reasons but we do look for alternatives for the kids.

[Dixiebelle]

I took Halloween away from my kids. Two of them were old enough to remember it. It didn't seem to bother them, but we did go to the "Halloween alternatives.

We changed our mind on Trick or Treating, though. Our younger kids have gone out with friends for the past couple of years. The older ones tease us that they were cheated. I am sure they are joking, but I feel bad about it. All I can say is, we do the best we can at the time.

I would hope that she would let them do something fun on that day, or at least near that day, I know that some fundies won't even do Fall Festivals even if they are specifically not on Halloween. Weren't there Harvest festivals in the Bible?

[Buggaboo]

Like Debrand, my son was also born on Halloween so it is special to me. I love telling people he was born on Halloween and I love to do it full of pride. It's a special time that has been marked as such for centuries and I'm proud to have a child that was born on it FOR THAT REASON. Furthermore, I absolutely agree with everything single thing Debrand said, and couldn't have said it better.

Samhein, which most of you know very loosely translates into the Halloween most non pagans celebrate today, has been around longer than Christianity. Do extreme fundies realize how many, many of their holidays are based on old pagan holidays??? Sheesh. These are people who consistently can not see the bigger picture. Ever.

As far as I'm concerned, I know there is something out there, I know it because I've felt and experienced it. I get that, to some eyes, this is not a being outside ourselves as much as a chemical or internal human mechanism. I'm good with that. But for me, I like to think it is outside of us. That is the end of what I know, and I refuse to pretend I know more. Furthermore, it infuriates me when someone, anyone, thinks they have the ONLY one true answer to something to utterly unknowable.

As far as I'm concerned, every religion man has ever made since the beginning of our existence, has been created to connect with that feeling or being. They are all the same in that they serve that one purpose, and every person needs to follow the path that works best for them to that end. THAT I can respect. But all this "my way's better than your way" or "your way is evil" or "my way is the only way" or, as we deal with on the fundie level "I feel so strongly that my way is the only way that I am going to psychologically, mentally, socially stunt myself and my family so that they are not exposed to any other options"......that is just such a foreign, ugly concept to me.

Believe what works for you and let me believe what works for me, and leave my damn Halloween alone!

OK Going to climb off my soap box now and go to work. ;)

[snarkbillie]

I didn't get a "proper" Halloween until I was an adult. We always either ignored it and stayed home and "prayed" or we did the whole "totally not scary fall festival" BS. I could dress up sometimes but I had to be an angel or a princess or something like that. I couldn't be like a fairy though because those were "fantasy".

When I got married my friend had some friends who were in Church of Christ and we were going to their Halloween party. I have to point out that I knew this was a conservative church, the kind where women wear skirts and submit to their headships. I was utterly shocked that I got into the fellowship hall and was greeted by red blood punch with a skull shaped block of ice floating in it and bats hanging from the ceiling with fake spider webs and coffins everywhere. They even had a haunted house. I did not know how to process this. I asked the wife "why are you doing this?" and she said "Halloween is harmless fun." I'm not going to lie I was a little appalled.

It took me a long time to realize she was right. Too long in fact, my kids missed out on Halloween for the first 4-5 years of their lives because I was doing the proper fundie-lite fall festival crud. :doh:

[Daisy4]

Didn't kendal once list Harry Potter among her favorite books? So she gets to read about wizards but her kids can't trick or treat.

She's a hypocritical selfish bitch.

(i can't believe I'm about to say this) at least the more extreme fundies are consistent and don't just take away the stuff their kids enjoy.

[Arete]

Not only did we do Halloween as kids, as soon as the family started producing the replacements, we hit the pavement again. The replacements were in strollers, but dang they were cute in their pumpkin and ladybug costumes!

Kendall is just going to breed resentment in her kids, which of course they will learn to keep on the down low. No one ever went over to the Dark Side because their parents let them indulge in costumes and candy once a year, but a lot of the children of overly strict parents will rebel for the sheer joy of paying their parents back.

[Buggaboo]

Not only did we do Halloween as kids, as soon as the family started producing the replacements, we hit the pavement again. The replacements were in strollers, but dang they were cute in their pumpkin and ladybug costumes!

Kendall is just going to breed resentment in her kids, which of course they will learn to keep on the down low. No one ever went over to the Dark Side because their parents let them indulge in costumes and candy once a year, but a lot of the children of overly strict parents will rebel for the sheer joy of paying their parents back.

HAH! I love this, and it's so true! :clap:

[MamaJunebug]

....sigh.... I hate to confess this, but it's time.

My folks were great. I have only the greatest respect for them.

That said, occasionally they went nuts. One year my mom took us trick-or-treating on 30 October. She told us to tell the perplexed homeowners, "Trick or treat. We know we are early, but we are Lutherans and will be in church on Reformation Day tomorrow."

I can still see the face of the lady who'd opened her door to us. (Where's my therapist, fer goshsakes?)

It's a 50-plus-year-old memory, but I seem to remember only that one lady, so probably BigMamaJB realized her temporary insanity, drove us back home, and ... did we go out again on The Day? I don't remember.

But I feel for Kendal's kids, I truly do. BMJB never stood in the way of any of us going to college, required dresses for church and school (the school did, it was the '50s!) and only ruined Halloween once, that I recall.

I hope when Kendal's kids rebel, they don't hurt themselves.

[Loveday]

Halloween has always been my very favourite holiday, probably because I grew up in an era when it was pretty safe to let groups of costumed kids wander the neighbourhood at night without parents watching them like a hawk, and because of It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. I would get extremely irritated if someone tried to make me give up my joy of Halloween. :x

[Buggaboo]

....sigh.... I hate to confess this, but it's time.

My folks were great. I have only the greatest respect for them.

That said, occasionally they went nuts. One year my mom took us trick-or-treating on 30 October. She told us to tell the perplexed homeowners, "Trick or treat. We know we are early, but we are Lutherans and will be in church on Reformation Day tomorrow."

I can still see the face of the lady who'd opened her door to us. (Where's my therapist, fer goshsakes?)

It's a 50-plus-year-old memory, but I seem to remember only that one lady, so probably BigMamaJB realized her temporary insanity, drove us back home, and ... did we go out again on The Day? I don't remember.

But I feel for Kendal's kids, I truly do. BMJB never stood in the way of any of us going to college, required dresses for church and school (the school did, it was the '50s!) and only ruined Halloween once, that I recall.

I hope when Kendal's kids rebel, they don't hurt themselves.

Awww, I think that is a beautiful memory in that it shows how much your big mama loved you all and a lovely sentiment about Kendal's kids.

It also serves as a gentle reminder for me, after getting rather fired up over this earlier, that I was not raised full time in a traditionally religious home........so it is hard for me to understand sometimes that matters of religion and religious tradition are not as cut and dry for all as they are for me.

So....thanks! :bow-yellow:

[Talitha Cumi]

My brother recently told me that he wasn't celebrating Halloween because it is pagan. Really? The names of the days of the week are pagan. Jesus wore robes. Maybe my brother should stop wearing pants.

What gets me are the churches that sponsor harvest festivals instead. Don't they know that was the original purpose of Halloween? Harvest festivals are even more pagan! (I'm going by what I read somewhere that I can't remember where, so any real pagans please feel free to correct me.)

My parents took away trick-or-treating once. We went to a harvest party instead. We still dressed up, though. (Laura and Mary plastic masks and smocks with their pictures on them. Hee.)

[contrary]

I honestly don't understand taking away one celebration in favor of another.

I mean, how is a child expected to understand that celebrating THIS way is bad, but celebrating THAT way is good? Especially when both observations of the day include costumes and treats?

It makes zero logical sense.

ETA: the only upsetting part of Halloween for me, growing up, was that the dentist down the street handed out toothbrushes.

[lizziesmom]

I honestly don't understand taking away one celebration in favor of another.

I mean, how is a child expected to understand that celebrating THIS way is bad, but celebrating THAT way is good? Especially when both observations of the day include costumes and treats?

It makes zero logical sense.

Logic does not exist in the fundie universe. Anything questioned is answered with "you must take it on faith".

[MonkeyMomma]

After 8 years of Trick or Treating, it looks like Kendal is considering taking Halloween away from her girls. :(

It's one thing for a child that has grown up without Halloween, but I can't imagine taking it away from a child that has had years of celebrating. I know my kids would be devastated. They are already planning out what they want to be this year.

http://www.thefatherknowsbest.com/

So her Heavenly Father not only endorses day-long spanking sessions for children, now he wants to take their candy.

Sounds like a heck of a guy.

[lilwriter85]

I'm not surprised Kendull is taking away Halloween.

[Jana814]

To me I think that it is dipriving her kids of anything fun. It is one thing if they never had but to have it and take away from them that is wrong. The Maxwell family are notorious to taking away things that are fun for kids. B-day parties (with kids their own kids ages) and Hallowween, they practely say that u are a bad parent if u do anyone of these things.

[ExCatholic]

Well she'd better be consistent and take away Easter next. All those pagan fertility symbols! Oh and Christmas, surely she knows Jesus wasn't born that day. Scratch that off the calendar too.

Kids should be allowed to be kids. Drives me nuts when adults use them to further their own religious or political views.

[lilwriter85]

She'll probably take away Easter at some point.

[Maggie Mae]

Sure, the homeschool kids get to play dress-up every day, (according to the comments) but they don't get to show off their costumes to their friends and strangers.

I miss the days of feral children roaming the streets unsupervised. Those were the best. Scary and fun things happened! We filled up pillowcases (decorated with the faces of New Kids on the Block, of course) with crap candy. We dressed up as witches and goblins and ice skaters and hippies and superheros and once Sarah Jessica Parker. We talked about who was going as who/what for a month! Halloween was the best. The air was crisp and chill and you got to see inside of other people's houses. You could hide behind trees and jump out at people. You got to ring doorbells!

Damn fundies and their lack of perspective. And damn helicopter parents for sucking the fun out of being a kid. Last Halloween I didn't see a single child without a parent. There were very few children over the age of 5/6 even trick-or-treating. :(

[SpeshulTaterTot]

We didn't do Halloween in Germany when I was a kid, that only started during the past couple of years. I got into bilingual school when I was 13, lots of Americans there so we did do Halloween, but only at school. I think the first time I had trick or treaters actually ring my door bell was 6 or 7 years ago.

We do dress up for Carnival, though, I LOVED it. One of the kids in my class was a Jehovah's Witness and wasn't allowed to participate, and I know how much he wanted to. I never understood it. It's just fun, I never got what's so evil about it.

[darkplumaged]

I love Halloween, always have. There is absolutely nothing like coming home and dumping your sack of candy on the floor to see what you got! I loved trick-or-treating so much that I had nightmares about missing it.

contrary, we also had a dentist neighbor who handed out toothbrushes! But I didn't really mind; I expected it, and it was at least useful. What was worse was the crummy, unidentifiable candy some people gave out. That stuff would linger in my bag for months until I was so desperate for candy I had to at least try it.

[Buggaboo]

What was worse was the crummy, unidentifiable candy some people gave out. That stuff would linger in my bag for months until I was so desperate for candy I had to at least try it.

HAH! Yep.....you knew you were scraping the bottom of the barrel when you finally ate the hubba bubba, the loose candy corn or the hard candies. At least, those were my last resort, November items. Was probably different for everyone. ;)