Unusual trick or treating observation

[Desert Rat]

While out with the kids last night, we noticed lots of parents in their cars inching forward while the kids ran to and from doors. Yup. Trick or treating from the car. I thought running door to door was half the fun. Also, to clarify, we live in the desert southwest where it was a lovely 70 degrees last night so weather wasn't an issue.

 

So, I'm curious. Is this car treating common where you are?

[Melinda in VT]

Not here. In fact, the police close the roads for two hours in the neighborhoods that are popular for trick or treating.

 

We had heavy rain last night, so it made for very soggy costumes, but I agree that using cars would take away most of the fun.

[TN Mama]

While out with the kids last night, we noticed lots of parents in their cars inching forward while the kids ran to and from doors. Yup. Trick or treating from the car. I thought running door to door was half the fun. Also, to clarify, we live in the desert southwest where it was a lovely 70 degrees last night so weather wasn't an issue.

 

So, I'm curious. Is this car treating common where you are?

 

Nope. It was raining here last night and still most of the parents were out with umbrellas. We only went to six houses though because we always go to my brother-in-law's house for a party and I knew the kids would get more than enough candy there. :)

[AngieW in Texas]

I thought that was really odd too. I only saw two cars doing that. Everybody else was out walking with their kids. We don't get a lot of trick or treaters on our street. We had maybe 10 come to our door the whole night. That's still better than last year, but not by much. The kids on our street (most of whom are in high school and don't go out) put up signs on the other two streets of our neighborhood saying to come down our street, so that did increase our traffic a little. There just weren't many people out. Our neighborhood is growing up, so most of the kids are in middle school and high school now. When my youngest tried out ps last year, there were only 3 other kids at the bus stop for elementary. There were about 30 at the middle school/high school bus stop.

[abbeyej]

Weird! It was alternately drizzling and raining the whole afternoon/evening here, and I've never seen anything like that! (And given the nastiness of the weather, I wouldn't even have faulted anyone for it yesterday!)

[LauraGB]

In the less urban areas where the houses are spaced a little farther apart, a parent will drive. Also, I think when some kids reach a certain age its about doing something fun with thier friends, sans parents, but the parents aren't quite ready for that yet, so they stay behind in the car.

We still walk with them, though, because ours don't seem to care.

[swellmomma]

Not common here but it happens. If you live here in Alberta you know to buy a costume big enough to fit over your snowsuit. Walking door to door is still the norm even on subzero nights. I wish we were out last night, it was so beautiful out.

[JFSinIL]

We had a few vans full of kids stop on our block - our neighbor who wears a creepy costume and carries a (fake, I hope) ax jumped out at them and chased them halfway down the street. I wish he'd only do that to the teens, though. Some little kids end up crying.

 

What I noticed more of were ADULTS trick or treating with their kids - in full costume/make-up, and coming up for the candy, too. I guess since it was a weekend they had the time to do that.

 

I will restrict myself to demanding Butterfingers form teh kid's plunder, myself.

[Valerie in MI]

I did that. My kids are older too. They only returned to the car to dump their stashes when they got full. I just followed them so as not to lose them in the dark. I suppose I could have just sat in one place but I liked looking at all the houses and their spooky decor too. It was cold...I had no desire to be out there walking and standing on the sidewalk like the parents of the little kids.

[KidsHappen]

We have done that before although I can't for the life of me remember why. I have seen many other parents do it as well. Maybe it is a regional thing?

[Kelli in TN]

Well, we did have my husband drop us off in the neighborhood behind our street. And when we were done we called him to come get us. But it was mostly because I live on a fairly dangerous road and did not want to walk the kids up our road in the dark, especially with one of the kids in all black!

 

There were two groups out last night that were pulling wagons; one behind an ATV and one behind a riding lawn mower. Those kids were having a blast. They'd stop, hit a bunch of houses, then move on to another area and do it again.

[Tidbits of Learning]

We did that last year with a group of friends in a van, but this year we walked. I prefer the walking and trick or treating much better.

[hsmom3tn]

Yep, I've noticed that going on for the past couple of years. And there were more doing it this year than ever. The houses in our area are very close together. It wasn't raining. The weather was pleasant. I don't get it. I need to do all that walking to justify eating so much candy!

 

It's very annoying to get stuck behind the parade of cars that are inching along when you're trying to drive down the street. :glare:

[Tess in the Burbs]

we also saw a lot of that last night. or parking at the top of the street and then walking down and back up and getting in the car to the next cul de sac ;)

[peachskittles]

In the city I live in, it seemed that I was the only person walking with my kids...We had trick or treating on Friday here but I didn't make it far with all three kids by myself...We went trick or treating in the city we will be moving to on Halloween and it wasn't as rampant but it just irked me for some reason...I know growing up we had a lot more time for trick or treating (4-6 hours usually compared to 2 hours here) so we'd hit one side of the city, go home and warm up, then out again to the other half of the city...I checked and my hometown still does the 4 hours of trick or treating...Maybe that would discourage people from using vehicles to get the most candy (just my observation btw)...

[Mommyof4ks]

Yes, it happened in our neighborhood too. We live in the old part of what has become a ritzy neighborhood, so families drive over here rather than toting in their own neighborhood. There is no parking, so they just stay in their cars. It is very dangerous with all of the neighborhood families that walk around with their kids. :glare: Hopefully we can finally put up a gate this year to keep this from happening next year. We love to have the community come tot out here (even if it does cost $75 in candy lol), but leave the cars at the entrance and walk to keep everyone safe. It was a beautiful 70ish degree night here with no rain, so no excuse.

[fivetails]

Not common here but it happens. If you live here in Alberta you know to buy a costume big enough to fit over your snowsuit. Walking door to door is still the norm even on subzero nights. I wish we were out last night, it was so beautiful out.

 

Heh, we were in Cold Lake for a while when I was a kid and my stepmother tells a story of one Halloween when it was -32C and we barely made it a block before our plastic costumes started cracking and falling apart. :lol:

 

Last night was very snowy up here, but not really cold...although to our kids, it was because they've never seen such a wintery Halloween. :D

 

As for cars - I saw a few...but the neighbourhood we're in is set up in such a way that the main drag doesn't have houses facing it...so the kids do a court, get in the car and drive down, get out and do another court....not us, we walked.

[MamaT]

There were lots of cars doing that here last night. Also lots of parents out with umbrellas as it was raining (us). To me it seemed a little unsafe on the small residential streets with so many kids crossing the street.

 

I have seen it in past years, but not as much as last night - probably because of the rain.

[Michelle T]

but in my Southern CA suburb, it's not particularly cold, and houses are close together.

 

We had a group of 13 preteen/early teen kids, and six adults walking along to keep an eye on them. We were all in costume, and had lots of fun! Very few other trick-or-treaters out this year though, and at least half the houses were not participating.

Michelle T

[lgm]

We had less of that this year. I think the newer vans have an interlock so they can no longer leave the doors open as they creep along from driveway to driveway. Saw golf carts though for the first time; cracked me up as the driveways are too close for that (3 car lengths at most between driveways) but kids were riding from driveway to driveway rather than walking down the sidewalk.

 

Noticed a substantial increase in young parents collecting candy for themselves as well as infant.

[Excelsior! Academy]

No one in our neighborhood really has candy, so we drive to a friend's neighborhood and trick or treat. We usually just walk, though.

[Dawn in OH]

I haven't seen this before.

 

My husband and I took our kids trick or treating and walked around with them. All the other trick-or-treaters we saw were doing the same thing.

 

It was darn chilly in Northeast Ohio last night. I had us all bundled in 3 layers of clothing and gloves. There were a lot less people out this year than last year, I don't know if it was because it was so cold or if there was some other reason (like Swine Flu paranoia).

[PinkInTheBlue]

I've seen it for years and also think it's a loss of the fun of running from house to house. However, since it was alternating between drizzling and raining, it made total sense. We did it for the majority of our neighborhood. I didn't want wet, cold boys coming home miserable.

 

Another I'm noticing is that participating in trick-or-treating seems to keep going down. The houses that did participate, 50% of those had bowls sitting on their porches to grab out of. I really expected better participation in this new neighborhood. It's a perfect trick-or-treating layout. :) I'm not for the "bussing" to other neighborhoods unless you don't live in a neighborhood.

[Desert Rat]

Thanks for all the responses. I guess it might be a growing trend. We'll have to see next year. I personally like walking with the kids.

[Guest janainaz]

I did not see it where I'm at. Everyone was on foot here.

[*Inna*]

I was wondering about that too.

[babysparkler]

Every year I notice a few cars doing this. I assume it's the parents following their kids around to make sure they are safe.

 

Yes... that is common here for this reason.

[cougarmom4]

I did it two years ago because I had a sleeping baby...dh wasn't home and I didn't want my older kids to miss out on trick or treating. But usually we walk. As long as the cars are moving slowly, I don't see it as a problem.

[hsbaby]

We have done it before. The houses in our subdivision are all on 1 to 2 acre lots so there would be a lot of walking and little "candy getting":) We now just drive to another neighborhood where the houses are closer together so we can get out and walk....much more fun IMO!

[Kari C in SC]

We have done it before. The houses in our subdivision are all on 1 to 2 acre lots so there would be a lot of walking and little "candy getting":) We now just drive to another neighborhood where the houses are closer together so we can get out and walk....much more fun IMO!

 

This is what we have a quite substantial hills to walk up and down. Last year we walked the whole way and that made for some really crabby kids. This year we walked the least hilly way and then drove the rest. I am thinking we may have to ditch our own neighborhood for the less hilly, smaller lot neighborhoods next year. I much prefer walking. We are new to SC and came from FL where we always walked from one nice flat yard to another SMALL and FLAT yard.

[Sasharowan]

We did this when I went with SIL in IL because it was snowing, barely 30 degrees, and her kids were under 5. The heat was full blast, we took turns escorting them to the door and keeping the car running, and the kids were bundled big time.

[gardening momma]

When I was a kid my parents took us in the car. We lived in a very rural area and drove to a slightly more populated area for trick or treating. I assume (can't remember for sure) that when the houses were close enough together to walk from one to another easily we did that. Then when the next house was some distance away we'd get back in the car to drive to it.

[Leighton Academy]

We had some people doing that around here but I think it was because they were coming from other neighborhoods. We had waaay more kids than the number of kids that actually live in our neighborhood.

[MomtoCandJ]

we used our car this year, but our daughter is only 11 months old, it was muggy and rainy and we live in the country and had to drive to "town", I did walk with her in my arms though and dh drove the car. The sidewalks are not fit for a stroller, they are full of cracks and other stuff.