To Halloween or not to Halloween

Posted by Francie Khalaf on 28th October 2020 Additional Needs, Advice & Support, Disabilities

This has been a question that many communities are grappling with for several months.

For us, we’ve been grappling with it since the pandemic began. On one hand we want our kids to enjoy this holiday and have some normalcy in the midst of this crazy pandemic, on the other hand we want to make sure that our kids and ultimately, we as a family stay safe.

Recently, I asked our neighbors if we could compromise for Halloween. What if we all put buckets of candy at the bottom of our driveways so that our kids could still collect candy but we aren’t walking up to people’s front doors. Our neighborhood quickly agreed. I think in a time like this it takes compromise, understanding and teamwork. It doesn’t pay to have a fight with your neighbor when lives are at risk.

What pays is understanding and love between each other.

My husband and I have taken things a step further. We have decided to have one of us collect the candy for our children and then we will be sanitizing the candy once we get home. It’s crazy that we even have to think about these things but with so much unknown about this virus we would prefer to be better “safe than sorry.”

Our kids are four and have been looking forward to Halloween since last Halloween. Quinn especially is rarely caught without a costume. She often is in a minimum of 3 costumes a day and this year is especially fun because Sawyer has chosen a costume.

Over the past few years he has just matched his sister but this year we were able to give him a couple choices and he picked one. It wasn’t the exciting one that I wanted him to be but the important part is he chose it and it makes him happy. We even chose a costume to match his service dog. I don’t know if we are making the right choice but I know that we are mitigating the circumstances we are in the best way that we can.