Two true halloween anecdotes.
A group of kids converged upon my house as I was coming home this afternoon. “We want candy!” they cried. “Well, good thing because I have lots of it. Let me go inside and get it” I said.
From within the crowd of princesses and ninjas emerged a cute little girl who said, “Trick or treat, I have a nut allergy.” And if that was not crazy enough, one of her little friends had one too.
Now, don’t get me wrong here. I understand the danger of nut allergies so don’t be hounding me with all sorts of comments about being insensitive. But SERIOUSLY, if your kid has a nut allergy, take them on the spooky walk and buy them safe treats, but don’t be having them announce this at each house. And honestly, even the candy companies have warnings that the non-nut candies are made in the same factories. I was allergic to chocolate as a kid and my mom did not have me announce it at every house. She just gave to my brother.
Second story:
Adorable little lady bug comes up to the door by herself. Her parents waited at the street. She couldn’t be more than 4. Not a word from her, she just stood there. I brought out my big pot of all sorts of candy and she just looked in it. “Take anything you like” I said. “I WANT CANDY CORN!” she shouted and then stormed away. Parents were aware of the issue and said they would buy it themselves next year. Said she was asking everyone in the neighborhood for candy corn. Um, sorry folks, hop down to the store and get her some damn candy corn and stop having her make the neighbors feel bad.
What happened to simply running from house to house and jamming your bag full of candy?
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i could cry but i don't have time 
I am 100% with you on both counts, Amy. My daughter went trick or treating with a friend who has a severe peanut allergy last year, and they just avoided any candy that looked suspicious. Not a big deal.
Btw, I have one more group to add to your list: The loud, obnoxious teenagers, who often don’t even bother to dress up, who dive into the bowl of candy grabbing as much as they can without asking “How many can we take?”
oh those teens! we did have any of those. our neighborhood has turned over to really little kids for the most part.
Damn, you have some really picky trick or treaters. How completely annoying. If you knock on someone’s door and they give you free stuff, your only response should be “thank you” or maybe “smell my feet, give me something good to eat.”
ah, nothing like a good infantile rhyme to spice up the holiday. go to stimey’s blog and read about the best advise ever for when are not home on halloweenhttp://stimeyland.blogspot.com/2009/10/we-interrupt-this-halloween-to-bring.html
I’ve had too many years of the obnoxious behaviors – those you mentioned and then some!!! We don’t “do” Halloween anymore, and neither do 2 of our neighbors – we are all retirement age, btw, been there, done that for decades. We all went to a matinee and out to dinner. Can’t go back in time to what it used to be – esp. in terms of polite kids apparently – so we just don’t participate.
Aw, I hate to hear the loss of love for Halloween. It is still one of my favorite holidays. And I must clarify, except for those two stories, the kids in my neighborhood were adorable, polite and a joy to watch.
We have a little neighborhood parade that gary and I used to run. We have since passed it on as it was passed to us. This year we missed it to see some of ‘our boys’ in their last varsity football game. I hate missing that little slice of ‘our town’. It is so very sweet and brings back fond memories.
Amy, you will happy to know that none of mine act that way. They just run from house to house trying to get as much as they can get.
I am completely with you, Dear. I had two of the little demon spawn do this to me this year. Begged at my door for free candy and then tell me “I can’t have peanuts.” I told them both (loudly enough for their parents to overhear) “Your parents will just have to sort it out at home, ’cause I’m not doing it here in the dark.” It was the last straw. We live in a very (enormously) large DC suburb on the only long, straight street. We get hundreds of trucked-in kids from all over the place and ran out of $100 worth of candy in a little over an hour. It has been fun for the past five years, but this was just about enough to make me do the dinner and a show thing next year, too.
And here I thought I was the only child in history allergic to chocolate! No one ever knew it though as I did the whole trade-with-my-siblings thing too. 🙂