Sweet M has opted out of Halloween this year.When I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween, she said she didn't want to be anything — that Halloween is icky and creepy and that every year her best cartoon shows are wrecked by becoming icky and creepy.
"Can't we just skip ahead to Christmas?" she implored.
I sort of get that. Halloween is not my favorite holiday either. At her school they have a Halloween Carnival for half the day today, so I'm not quite sure how this is going to play out. I sent an email and asked them to treat her as though she were a Seventh Day Adventist — one of many groups who don't celebrate the holiday.
Actually I think Sweet M is becoming a Seventh Day Adventist.
A few weeks back she told me that she was a vegetarian. And I said yes, you are. Except that since you don't eat any vegetables, maybe you aren't. Do you want to eat vegetables? Eew no, vegetables are gross and despicable, she said. Well, I said, then maybe you're a pastaterian.
So if school goes okay, then we only have tonight's Greenwich Village Halloween Parade to get through. The parade starts just under our windows, so it's a night of thunderous drumming, chanting, and spooky puppets.
The trick will be to find a treat in all of this — other than Sweet M's intrinsic sweetness.
• • •
Later the same day . . .
I was wrong — the Halloween Festivities planned for school were all day long. And it wasn't even 10 a.m. before they'd sent Sweet M home because she didn't want to go into the auditorium with the costumed kids.
She didn't flip out, she didn't scream, she just wanted to do something else.
What is going on here?
I was wrong — the Halloween Festivities planned for school were all day long. And it wasn't even 10 a.m. before they'd sent Sweet M home because she didn't want to go into the auditorium with the costumed kids.
She didn't flip out, she didn't scream, she just wanted to do something else.
What is going on here?
5 comments:
I like Thanksgiving even less!
Oh, my. I'm glad I teach in a school district that discourages Halloween "celebrations". It has no educational value, and has the potential to upset kids and offend families.
Okay, I'm now going to attempt not to tie my stomach in knots thinking about a school that sends a child home because she opts out of an activity, an intrinsically overwhelming one at that. Grrrr.
Hey, I'm a SDA with a child with Autism. That's cute that you know most of us don't like Halloween. We don't in general not celebrate holidays though. You might be thinking of the Jehovah's Witnesses. My mother-in-law was one. Most importantly way to go in supporting your daughter's good choices.
Hi Anonymous, That's so interesting. . . Sweet M's babysitter when she was little was a 7th Day Adventist and she told me that's why she didn't celebrate Halloween . . . Do SDA's have a prohibition on Halloween or was that her personal interpretation?
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