It’s March. New blossoms are beginning to emerge, the days are getting warmer, and Easter is on the horizon. Your daughter runs in to tell you something exciting: “I know what I want to be for Halloween!” That’s right, she’s already thinking about her Halloween costume. Probably has been since November.
What once was a single night of the year for a costume and a little trick-or-treating has become a whole season. Decorations now begin to pop up in September, bringing a bit of a thrill and a little spookiness to wide-eyed children on an otherwise ordinary carpool ride home.
But with this new, month-long season comes more work for us Mamas.
When I was little, we had a festival at school and went trick-or-treating that night. That was the extent of Halloween. I think I even wore the same costume two years in a row. Now, there’s the pumpkin patch, the church fall festival, the school fall festival (and if you have kids in two different schools, you can double that), the trunk-or-treat at work, the school field trip back to the pumpkin patch, just to name a few. And all of this is right in the middle of football season! There are only four Saturdays in October. When are we supposed to fit this all in?
Don’t get me wrong; I do love seeing how excited they get. And I want to do it all for them so they don’t miss out on a single thing. But man, it is exhausting.
And then of course there are the things you can’t plan for — a diaper blowout in the adorable little lamb costume or the beginning of cold season. And I don’t mean the weather. With all those events you’ve packed into your October, the kids are bound to pick something up. The year my daughter was going to be the cutest little donut you’ve ever seen, with— pink sprinkles and all— we ended up spending the night of October 31st in the Emergency room with a 104-degree fever.
Like everything that comes with being a parent to little ones, life throws you curveballs, and you’ve got to just enjoy the ride, knowing that it doesn’t last long.
When it comes to picking costumes, here’s how it goes in our household. First of all, nothing scary. We don’t want to drift too far into the world of the occult, and we certainly don’t want to give anyone nightmares. Second, you gotta think about the weather and plan accordingly. October 31st in the South can be 85 and humid or 55 and freezing. You must have a backup plan if the weather changes on you. Not to mention, the temperature on the day of the fall festival could be wildly different than actual Halloween trick-or-treating. I recommend two options, or at least something that can be modified by throwing on a pair of tights and a cape. Excessive? Maybe. But a second costume also comes in handy when they spill that chocolate ice cream down the front of an astronaut suit that can’t go in the washing machine.
The final rule is that Mama gets to choose the costume until around age 5 (give or take a few years depending on the child's personality). They are only little for so long and only get to be dressed as a cute strawberry for a few years of their life. At least give me that.
However, once the child is able to articulate and form costume ideas of their own, you must listen and take their opinion into account. After all, this holiday is about the children, not you.
I think my favorite costume to date, was when my daughter was 3 and declared with a fist in the air as if she were flying, “Mama, I want to be a superhero.” She didn’t specify a particular superhero, so what did I do? I took to the internet and found the cutest superhero costume I could find.
When she put that costume on, something changed. She was confident and so, so happy. Seeing my child like that changed me, too. And I realized she was my superhero. That little girl who is funny and smart with a touch of hardheadedness like me — she’s my superhero. To infinity and beyond.