Let me explain....
As a child my parents would come up with beautiful, elaborate, hand-sewn Halloween costumes. Often times my sister and I would be the talk of the school or on the cover of the local paper. Our costumes were so big that my sister and I couldn't sit down during school or fit in our desk because of the sheer size and elaborateness of our costume.
As a mother of three children now, the pressure is more than I can handle.
I have rebelled and gone the other way.
I cannot bring myself to do anything as far as costumes go for my own children.
Usually what ends up happening is that a week before Halloween the kids start tearing through our tubs of dress-up clothes and they "throw something together."
One year my daughter went in a princess dress wearing a raccoon mask and a tiara.
One year my kids made masks out of paper plates.
Another year my daughter wore a white turtle neck and carried a plastic Fisher Price stethoscope and called herself a doctor.
I know.... it's sad.
I am creative when it comes to many areas of my life.... just not costumes. Something about the gene my parents had did not get passed on to me.
I know, I'm a terrible mother. Please don't judge me.
My poor, poor children. ((Insert the sad sounding violins here.))
But in reality, when they come home at the end of the night with a candy stash like this...
Photo courtesy of My Science Project
...all the failures of their mother have been long forgotten.
I hate this time of year, too, but are too scared to admit it for fear that I will be stoned to death. I just think Halloween is the most absurd ridiculous holiday ever. In the past I have ignored it completely, but now that my daughter is in preschool, I feel compelled to make sure she has some kind of a costume so she's not left out. But we are not doing the trick or treating thing yet. Hopefully I have another couple of years before she begs to do that.
ReplyDeleteLesa, we waited a long time before we'd go do the whole trick or treating scene as well. When my kids were younger we would drive them to my sister's house to trick or treat at her front door. They were trilled with getting a handful of Tootsie Rolls from her. Gradually we went to the neighbors on either side of our house and have slowly grown from there. :)
ReplyDeleteare you kidding me??? you're a wonderful mother - teaching your children to be creative and spontaneous and thrifty and adventuresome! Well done, sister!
ReplyDeleteI know there's pressure in making/buying the perfect costume, but I think the lessons they're learning are invaluable!
I agree with Kristy Lynn. Making them be creative is extremely fun.
ReplyDeleteI especially love to have my kids go as famous people or create costumes using clothes they either are wearing or will wear. One girl will be a WWI nurse, Edith Cavell, who was also a spy helping English and French POWs escape. It involves a cute blue skirt that can be worn after the holidy, a button down blouse and an apron. We are making a nurse's cap out of felt. One boy is Charles Lindbergh and the other is David Livingstone. They involve kahki pants, some sort of shirt and coat. I bought a jungle hat for John, which they can use later for play. My oldest is going to take her black leo and yoga pants, add a temporary red mark and four extra legs out of wrapping paper cardboard and duct tape and go as a black widow spider. All the clothes except for the leo, I bought at a thrift store. Yay! Which means anything we don't want after the holiday, we can return to the thrift store. Double yay!
That's what my kids do for costumes, too! When people ask them what they're going to dress up as, they say they don't know yet. On Monday they'll go pick something right before we go out!
ReplyDelete--Gena