Costume Conundrum

I love Halloween. I turn into a big kid, excited to dress up, go to haunted houses, and carve pumpkins. It's just such a fun tradition. One night that you get to be someone else, to be something scary, or something cute, or funny. My artsy side definitely feeds off of Halloween as well. I love making my own costumes. However, one thing that upsets me about Halloween is the increasing amount of elementary schools which are banning costumes, and even the distribution of candy. The reasons for banning costumes are wide spread, from cultural differences, to it being too much work for teachers, to kids being scared of some costumes. This is an age of overprotective parenting, where parents raise bubble-wrapped kids who will eventually fall apart as soon as they hit the real world. I mean, c'mon, no candy?!

But here’s the thing with banning costumes at school…in Canada it's really freaking cold for Halloween, so kids go out trick-or-treating with full on parkas and hats. Or they don’t wear a coat and develop pneumonia, or they go to the mall to go trick-or-treating, which is lame. So insert costume wearing at school… yay! Way more fun for the kids - they actually get to show off the costumes that their parents spent so long making or paid a ridiculous amount of their hard earned dollars for. It’s about the kids here. I repeat, Halloween is for the kids. Just because you're an adult and no longer have any joy left in your soul, doesn't mean kids should comply to your no-fun joy-sucking ideals. So what if they lose a day of elementary school teaching in order to be able to parade around and eat candy? How much are they learning that is actually fundamental to moving on in life? As for the teachers complaining about how much work it is to attend to costume wearing children all day long? Get over it! That’s the life of a teacher teaching children. Let the kids enjoy their childhood.

This years costume, featuring me as a deer and Blaize as a hunter. :)