Feeling bad for not taking my toddler trick or treating :(

[babytobe]

Hey ladies. I think I've developed FOMO on behalf of my toddler 😣....

I DID at least get costumes for my kids (2.5 year old and baby), we carved a pumpkin, and we visited my Grandparents to show off their costumes (at which time the toddler did receive some candy). I thought it was a great plan, but now that I've been on facebook and seen pictures of toddlers trick or treating, I feel like I robbed my toddler of something special . I have major FOMO for myself, amd now I feel like I'm putting it on my poor kid. Like, he was SUPER excited to go to his great grandparents all dressed up in his costume and have some treats. I reasoned that he's still young and there's lots of years for him to actually trick or treat....

He's fine, right? I tend to over think these things, I know. I just needed to share my misgivings somewhere!

 

[lau86]

Of course he's fine he enjoyed himself! We didn't do trick or treating either. In fact i didn't celebrate Halloween full stop.
Eta I do open the door to trick or treaters and give sweets out I just don't want to celebrate it myself! Maybe when the kids ask I'll sort something out

 

[catty]

We didnt go either and i wont until probably aged 4/5, I dont think i got anyone below that age at my door either. I let the kids answer the door with me to the trick or treaters and they dressed up etc i think its totally fine for that age dont worry they definately havnt missed out.
If it helps it was really cold and raining here last night amd most of them looked fairly miserable im sure they would rather have been inside

 

[broodymrs]

He's fine! It was the first year we went (ds just turned 3). We did 20 mins then he'd had enough and wanted to go home (I was loving it and didn't want to!). He was getting a bit freaked out by the costumes and when we got home he enjoyed opening the door to a few but then even went off that idea. So I really don't think your lo missed out. You did the costume, pumpkin and trick or treated grandparents so he's done the main fun stuff

 

[Eleanor ace]

What's FOMO?
I never went trick or treating as a kid, I didn't feel like I missed out on anything. I took my 3 year old but only because we were taking our 5 year old, she wouldn't have been bothered otherwise.

 

[Zinky]

Honestly don't feel bad. I have a 3 year old and 5 year old and we have never been trick or treating.
I win bad Halloween parent of the year though - I bought 2 pumpkins to carve with them but left them in my car and couldn't be bothered to do it. The kids had forgotten about them and I didn't remind them! There's more important stuff to sweat over.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Oh gosh dont feel bad. Some years Ive barely done christmas let alone halloween. I cant remember much before age 5 even then I dont remember christmas or halloween and we did lots..apparently. dont ever feel bad...and dont believe all you see online about peoples efforts x

 

[Scout]

Don't feel bad! I've taken dd every year but until this year (she's 3.5 now) she really didn't care or understand. It was more for me than her LOL This is the first year she got excited and wanted to go and trick or treat. Even so, we only went to 5 houses and she was over the moon. And really, even if you never go trick or treating your kid will be just fine Mine was excited bc I talked it up so much. If I hadn't mentioned it, she wouldn't have missed it!

 

[AngelUK]

Oh don't feel too bad, I didn't take mine either and they are 4 1/2 years old. I am not feeling bad as I didn't want them to overdose in sugar. I will take them next year, probably.

 

[babytobe]

Thank you so much, ladies. I feel way better knowing I'm not the only one who didn't take my LO trick or treating! I was definitely getting suckered by all the pictures on Facebook. My LO had a fun night and that's good enough for me 😊. THANK you for the reassurance!
Elanor Ace, FOMO is "fear of missing out". It's a term that has become popular with social media, because you see someone doing something on facebook and then you feel like you're missing out on everything. It's silly, really. Hard not to get ducked in though.

 

[SarahBear]

I have no idea what "FOMO" means, but it sounds like he had a good time. Not having your child go door to door to collect candy isn't robbing him of anything, especially if he's not old enough to know the difference. As he gets older, you won't be able to avoid him knowing about trick-or-treating and at that point, you can join the sugar craze. We did a tiny bit of trick-or-treating at some local shops, but kept it to a minimum because my husband and I feel like that type of trick-or-treating ruins Halloween. But when my daughter had the opportunity to trick-or-treat in the neighborhood, she actually chose not to! So there ya go. My son will be 2.5 next year and I plan to take him to a few houses for trick-or-treating.

 

[staralfur]

We took my LO for the first time at 2.5 and tbh she couldn't have cared less. We did like 5 houses on our street and then went back home because she didn't want to walk up to the houses or say 'trick or treat'. I think she was just a bit too young to have really enjoyed it. She did okay last year but still took some time to get into it. I'd say this year at 4.5 she was finally actually excited to go out, the last couple of years were more us trying to convince her that it might be fun.

So no, I don't think you need to feel bad or that he missed out on anything! There's always next year if you want to give it a shot and he'll probably be more receptive to it when he's a bit older anyway.

 

[Bevziibubble]

Don't feel bad. He's so young he won't have missed out on anything at all

 

[JumpingIn]

Our plan was to take our tiny one to knock on the neighbours doors and give them the candy because he can't eat any. Turned out he'd much rather leg it down the street going 'yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh' while we chased him. We had fun all the same!

 

[minties]

Of course he's fine. We don't do that here at all and kids are perfectly happy! It's a bunch of consumeristic bullcrap and greed for junk food anyway.

 

[Zephram]

Of course he's fine! Let's be realistic, he's 2.5, he hasn't got a clue what Halloween is or that he may want to go trick or treating one day! He hasn't missed out on a thing.

Like Minties said, we don't really do trick or treating in NZ, my kids have never been and whether they ever do or not is not really an issue, they aren't missing out on anything!

 

[AnneD]

Agree with minties. I wish they didn't push it so much here.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Its a uk originated festival x

 

[JumpingIn]

The knocking on doors bit is just one aspect of the festival, and it was actually intended as a sharing exercise, as in swapping cakes and baked goods with neighbours ready for winter. Of course it's morphed into sweets in buckets for the most part, but there's still something magical about going out in the dark and checking out all the costumes. We still plan to bake cakes to swap with people for the sweets because I don't like the one-sidedness.

It's actually one of my favourite festivals just because of how nature-based it feels to me. We avoid all the crappy products and spend it going to pumpkin patches, digging in leaves etc instead. And who doesn't love dress up!?

Still, not taking your 2 year old trick or treating is nothing to be upset about! Especially when you did other things instead

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

I agree. Go easier on yourself. Like I said a few times I hardly did xmas. My kids have no memory of it and are not damaged xx