Tackle it Tuesday, try it Tuesday
Just a wee little tackle, just in time for the holiday. Which holiday?
Why Halloween of course?
As with most things American, when this first happened to our family, I wondered what on earth was happening? But over the years I have learned not to psycho-analyze these things and instead join in the fun.
What you will need:-
Copy the text and picture from the bottom of the post, and print out two copies
Two little bags
treats that will fit inside the little bags
Embellishments and decorations to meet your little people’s needs
Assemble
Now you and your offspring decide who your victims shall be. Wait until dark. Dash up to the victim’s front door, ring the bell as if the bats are on the way, drop the bag and leg it behind the nearest, largest bush to hide. Spy on your victims through the branches and watch their state of confusion. Leave safely when the coast it clear.
Is that clear?
Need any additional information or do you get it?
I got it, once I ignored the psychobabble.
It should bring a great deal of childish glee to your household and someone else’s.
Here are the sheets to copy:-
They are available from this site “here.”
So any lingering doubts, queries, questions or confusions?
Good, I’m glad it’s all perfectly clear to you.
Enjoy.
Backstory-
First of all I should like to point out that this year, finally, we did manage to complete this activity.
Secondly, I would stress that on balance, I would have to admit that it involved a greater degree of hilarity and a lesser degree of angst and confusion.
How can this be?
Well they’re bigger of course.
Why would such a simple activity be anything less than delightful?
Ah, well, that’s the real question isn’t it.
One of the cardinal rules of child rearing, any child, is consistency.
If we gloss over the standard difficulties of completing anything which vaguely resembles ‘a craft,’ then there are a whole slew of illogical inconsistencies to address. It is a social skills nightmare. For instance, generally speaking, ringing people’s doorbells and running away, is a habit that we would choose to discourage in our children as responsible parents, yet for some reason, the Boo reason, this is suddenly o.k.? How bizarre is that?
Additionally, it is an additional purposeless trip in the car. Ideally we would have walked but time constraints, darkness and walking, are never a good combination mid-school week, so I had to cheat and keep some variables at bay.
Normally I drag my children with me into the store or the post office muttering, “no you can’t stay in the car, it’s illegal to leave you unsupervised.” But for this exercise one child accompanies me to Boo, the other two wait in the car, in the dark, alone and unsupervised so that they can watch the fun. How come the cardinal rule changed?
Fun. Well of course that it something that is almost impossible to explain, because as we watch the parents and children come out of their houses to collect their Boo, they have the nerve to look confused. Confused is an expression that we now recognise. Why would we wish to wantonly cause confusion to complete strangers? Why have the rules changed.
Talking of which, how come it’s suddenly ok. to commune with strangers? Who changed the rules?
If it is ok to commune with strangers, why don’t we have to use our nice words and say hello to them? Who changed the rules?
Fall out
What has been the result of this activity, overall, now that the dust has settled? Any long term effects?
Well the short term effect is that my son is now mesmerized by the ‘confused’ expression. He can mimic it exactly and copies the little boy on the doorstep, chin to chest looking at the floor with the accompaniment of ‘he looked like dis!’
The long term effect?
“Faster dan dah kids in Narnia! My mum is run like lightening!”
Bear in mind that the ‘kids in Narnia’ movie, run in slow motion.
Cut and paste
from this little
boxy thing below
October 21st, 2008 at 2:24 am
Hmmmm… I am confused too! Hahahaha! Good thing we just join Halloween celebrations by companies and schools and not have to worry so much.
LOL! mum runs fater than the kids in Narnia
take that as a compliment 
October 21st, 2008 at 6:19 am
Great tackle:-)
October 21st, 2008 at 8:23 am
Great tackle! I love Halloween & making goodies with the girls! Thanks for the step by step guide too!
October 21st, 2008 at 8:36 am
What a fun idea!
We run into the changing rule thing at Christmas – “let me get this straight, you Want me to walk up to a stranger (a very strange looking stranger) who is, as we speak, tempting me with candy, sit upon his lap and tell him my name and what type of toys I like – and Take Candy From Him while you snap our picture?!?!! Are you Mad, woman?!!!”
October 21st, 2008 at 10:57 am
Sounds fun!
Picture this. Halloween night. We take Patrick up to his first house EVER trick or treating. Ring doorbell…wait. Person opens door….Patrick walks right past her into her very welcoming living room!!!!!! I honestly was speechless. He thought we were going visiting I guess.
October 21st, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I was initially annoyed by this tradition – which is not a tradition in my former, humongous, spread-out Southern state. In our new urban environment? Well, we’ve been here two years, and we’ve been “Boo’d” (ghosted, as we call it) both years. My children adore the surprise, and love doing the “doorbell ditching” involved in spreading the love. I didn’t like the idea of making Halloween into a gift giving occasion, but we’ve ended up enjoying it.
No need to explain to them that doorbell ditching in my neck of the woods usually involved a flaming bag of cow poop, now is there?
October 21st, 2008 at 6:55 pm
I remember when we took DS trick-or-treating the first time, he had to be encouraged to take anything at all from the bowl of candy offered at the first house, and then at the second we had to explain to him that he didn’t have to give them the candy he had just got at the first house . . .
By the fourth house he was pushing his way past the bigger kids in his eagerness to grab handfuls of candy!
October 21st, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Nice bag of goodies. Happy WW!
October 21st, 2008 at 10:42 pm
We’ve done a variation of this off and on over the years. Some years it’s great and spreads throughout the neighborhood until nearly everyone has been ‘boo-ed’.
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:52 am
I still remember my son’s confusion the first time I took him trick or treating (at maybe 2 years old).
Ok, we are going to this house and going up the stairs to the porch. The nice lady sitting on the steps stops me to give me something. Oh, now we are leaving. I guess this isn’t where we were going. Oh, now we are going up the stairs to this other house – maybe that’s where we are going? No, we just went up the stairs and then came back down again.
And so it went.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:32 am
this happened to us last night!!!!! we were ‘booed’ .. my 7 year old was so excited by the whole thing the door bell ringing, the mysterious parcel on the step .. .. but there was a twist to ours . it came with a paper ghost and instructions to post it in our wondow (signifying that we had been ‘hit’) .. then to photocopy it and pass it on with our own treat bags to two more unsuspecting families in the neighborhood. such fun!
October 23rd, 2008 at 5:26 pm
We haven’t attempted anything like this for a while. Years ago we would attempt the 12 days of Christmas…which involved leaving something each night for 12 days. One thing for the first day, two somethings for the second, on up to 12 (cookies or candycanes or whatever) for the 12th. Its a lot harder because they know to expect you and sometimes they will try to catch you in the act…