For years now, I’ve been watching most of the trick-or-treaters go to the house on one side of me, take one look at my house and walk right past it, and then go to the house on the other side.
I had no clue why. Maybe they were scared of my house or thought I’d give cheap candy (my house is a bit of a fixer-upper)? I completed my “curb appeal” projects; didn’t help.
Maybe they thought nobody was home? I not only have the porch light on, but also have the living room TV on, clearly visible through the (open!) front window, and it makes no difference.
Maybe they think I’m not participating (despite the clear signal of the porch light and jack-o’-lantern)? I put up a bunch of Halloween decorations this year, and it still didn’t help!
Well, I finally found out the reason, after hearing one kid scouting ahead yelling to tell his friends to skip my house: “there’s no bowl on the porch!”
…You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
Yep, unlike my neighbors, who had apparently just left unattended bowls of candy on their porches, I was actually sitting there inside the house, with the bowl of candy, waiting for kids to knock or ring the doorbell before I opened the door and handed it out. You know, like how trick-or-treating is supposed to work.
This is ridiculous. Kids these days are skipping viable houses with candy because they can’t be bothered to actually knock on the damn door and say “trick or treat” to the person who answers? Residents are expected to be too lazy to answer the door, and just put out the candy without even receiving the traditional threat first? With no actual interaction with the neighbors for the kids to show off their costumes, what’s even the point‽
I finally stuck a sign on the door saying “yes, you have to knock or ring for candy!” and that helped, but even then, some kids are still skipping my house because they apparently can’t be bothered to read the sign.
even trick or treating isnt the same anymore with these gen alphas
I live at the end of a cul de sac with a bunch of killjoys who never give out candy, so kids wouldn’t visit my house.
So I take my bucket of candy and go walking around and deliver it to the kids. Plus this means everybody sees my costume.
lmao that Skinner reference though 😆👌
The kids on my street do come and knock, but they don’t know what to do then. The just stand there waiting - I’m like “what do you say???”, and they go “uhh, thank you???”
C’mon kids!
We don’t get many trick or treaters in my neighborhood so I usually do just a leave a bowl out because I can’t be bothered to wait by the door for a couple of groups.
Never had a problem with it until this year when some little shits clearly took all of the candy for themselves shakes fist at the clear downfall of society
Is it only me who is surprised that they have a scout to optimise the process?
Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply it was an organized operation. I think it was more just one kid who was faster/more eager than his buddies. Or maybe just standing next to them but loud, for all I know!
Candy is serious business
LOL put a ginormous bowl on your porch with a sign in it that says RING BELL FOR CANDY
Candy inside. Ring at your own risk. Muah ha. Ha. Ha.
It is because all you had was those weird black and orange taffies. No-one can eat those.
I live in an apartment building on the ground floor, I always tape a sign to my decorated window to inform people where to ring for trick or treating. It works quite well for me, and groups know immediately who is willing to give out candy
I think you’re looking at it wrong. It’s likely not that kids are too lazy to knock but that your neighbors are too lazy to answer the door. The kids see everyone on the street leaving bowls out and assume that if someone on the street doesn’t have a bowl, then they’re not doing Halloween like everyone else is.
That’s not it at all. Literally, my children told me, “I don’t want to go up, I just want to go to the houses with bowls”. But it’s not a lazy thing, it’s a social anxiety thing. We don’t chat with strangers, we don’t make small talk with people we don’t know, we don’t ask people things we can find out without asking people things. We’re socially awkward parents and we have socially awkward children.
Millennials, the ones who would much rather text than call on the phone their dearest friends and closest relatives, are 35-40 years old. They’re the ones with halloweening children and those kids are just ask averse to face to face interactions with neighborhood residents as we are.
We must be the good kind of awkward. My kid got an unreasonable amount of candy knocking on doors.
When people have moved to leaving candy out, perhaps kids thought that not having them out means you’re not participating. Also, when many houses have left them out, for efficiency, it makes sense to only go to those houses.
I’m glad to hear that the sign helped. Shows that some kids aren’t just about getting as much candy as possible but also having a bit of fun.
Leave a bowl out with a sign that says “if the bowl is empty, please knock.” You don’t even have to fill the bowl with anything.
Classic “bait and switch” tactic. Guess OP isn’t an used car’s seller.
hey look buddy I’ve got some amazing advice for OP over here but I had another OP call me 10 minutes ago asking for the exact same advice so I’m gonna need you to make a decision right away.
ONE bag of sprite per child
I’ve done Halloween for the first time in the uk with my 2 year old, and we passed a few lightly decorated doors (apartment block). Most other flats had a bowl of candy outside and is this one not having it, we were not sure if we could knock or not. I found myself thinking that they were out or didn’t want to be bothered. It has become very unclear. I think next year even if I’m at home (before we go trick or treating) I will put a sign on the door if I want them to knock, so I make it clear to all.
In our neighborhood a lot of families set up a fire pit in the driveway and hang out passing out candy. It’s something we hadn’t seen before moving into our neighborhood and we love it.
Yep! One house in our neighborhood always has their grill going in the driveway, giving out hotdogs, another has cider and mini bottles. Firepits and lounge chairs, it’s so nice.
I’m glad it is this obvious from the outside. I’ve felt gaslit ny entire life living here. We’re sold this bill of goods, The American Dream, but we have to buy it on credit and it never really meets expectations.
The sad fact is its taken the general population around 50 years to wake up to the klepto-kakistocracy being forged and the only hope I have is that they’re overplaying their hands too soon while the general population still has a hope of reversing course peacefully.
The last time I left a bowl on my porch, literally the first group that came took all the candy and threw the bowl into my lawn. It disincentivized from doing so again.
I did this and they stole the bowl too.
Same, bowl was stolen :( at least they didn’t take the table it was on
