Creating a Joyful and Safe Halloween for the Whole Family

Remember those childhood nights filled with excitement and sugar rushes as you roamed the neighborhood in your Halloween costume? Join me, Dr. Beth Trammell, for this cross-posted episode as I reminisce about those nostalgic experiences and share valuable insights on making this spooky season both fun and safe for our children. From setting expectations on candy consumption to having crucial safety discussions about crossing streets after dark, this episode of "Kids These Days" is packed with practical tips to ensure a memorable Halloween. It's all about laying the groundwork for a night where joy trumps stress, and everyone can enjoy the festivities without worry.

Halloween isn't just about rules; it's a celebration of joy and tradition. Discover how small gestures, like reminding our kids to be polite trick-or-treaters or picking up a pizza on the way home, can enhance the night's happiness. As parents, it's important to focus on the fun and be intentional in creating lasting memories for our families. Tune in for heartfelt reminders and insights that will help you embrace the spirit of the season and make this Halloween the best one yet. Stay safe, have fun, and let’s make this holiday a delightful experience for the whole family!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

Hello, dear listener, thanks for joining on the podcast today. This is Kids these Days and I'm your host, dr Beth Trammell, and I'm a licensed psychologist and an associate professor of psychology at Indiana University East, where I'm also the director of the Masters in Mental Health Counseling program. And it's's Halloween, y'all. You know it's funny. Halloween is not necessarily my favorite. It's not necessarily my favorite holiday because I just don't feel like I'm creative enough to have great costumes. But I know our kids love this holiday, and I think some of it's, because it kind of leads into the other holidays that are to come, and so this episode is just a brief couple of reminders around Halloween. So I had a news outlet reach out to me and ask for my thoughts on how do we make Halloween safe for our kiddos, and so I shared a few ideas. First, around creating clear expectations around things that you think are probably going to come up. For example, how much candy can they actually eat? You know, I'm reminded of how, you know, when I was growing up, we used to have to come home from trick-or-treating and dump all of our candy on the floor so that our parents could check the candy you know it was. I always found it strange because I was like what are they going to be able to see where someone injected this candy with some sort of drug through a needle prick in this candy package? I don't know, I always just found it so strange and obviously as a child I probably just found it annoying that I couldn't just eat the candy right away. Anyway, I digress, so here's the first thing to think about. You know what are your kind of rules for tonight in eating candy, right? So maybe you'll say, hey, you can have two or three pieces throughout the night. Maybe you say we don't eat any of it until we get home and check it for drugs. Whatever your rule is, talk to your kids about it before you go tonight. Whatever your rule is, talk to your kids about it before you go tonight. You also might have a conversation around safety and crossing the street right.

Speaker 1: 2:32

As things get, as it gets dark, it's going to become more critical that they know those expectations. Going in, you might tell me, or you might be thinking to yourself well, beth, they already know that We've talked about that a lot. Great, and I'd encourage you to just have the conversation again, just like I would encourage you to have that conversation every time you go into the grocery store, every time you go to church, every time you go to school right Like re-clarifying, to remind them what the expectations are, and they may end up saying like I know, mom, I'm not allowed to blah, blah, blah, but that gentle reminder is what their brain needs to continue to remember what it is that they, that you, expect of them, you know. Another thing that may come up is, you know, reminding them to say trick or treat, reminding them to say please and thank you, reminding them not to step in other people's yards or you can only go in this particular area. How often should you ring the doorbell? How many pieces of candy do you take out of the box? That's just kind of sitting there and it says take one, which means don't take three.

Speaker 1: 3:39

All of these things are issues that you know might come up for your kids, and so my push for us today is to make Halloween best version of what it could be by just clarifying our expectations, and this last reminder is as much for me as it is for anyone else.

Speaker 1: 3:57

Halloween is about fun and joy, and so those moments where you, as a parent, might be getting annoyed at a thing or two, or maybe you're just really stressed from work today or over the weekend or last week. Take a moment to take a breath and say you know what today is about joy. Today is about fun, and so how can you make it more fun, more joyful? Maybe there's something special you can do for your kids today to remind them that today is about fun and joy. Maybe you make a new tradition after trick-or-treating and you stop and pick up a pizza on the way home. Think about how you can be intentional today in making Halloween the best Halloween it can be. Have fun tonight, y'all, be safe and until next time, stay safe and stay well. Thank you you.