Does it irritate you when teenagers trick or treat?

I have to say it irritates the living shit outta me. Especially if they don't even try to wear a costume.

I am so tempted to put a sign up on my door: "If you are taller than me, go away." Or "If you're not wearing a costume, go away." Or simply "If you are a teenager, go away! 13 and older, this means you!"

This is nothing more than kids dressed in jeans and hoodies carrying around grocery bags begging for candy.

IMO trick or treating is a fun holiday activity to be enjoyed by the young ones. I don't want teenagers at my house begging for candy!

GET OFF MY LAWN!

OTOH, I fear reprisal if I reject them. Maybe I'll just dig through the candy for the really crappy stuff and pop in one per kid.

That's all the teenagers get.

I join you in the bitter GET OFF MY LAWN club. :hi:

If they want the treats, they need to play by the rules.
:D

or they're taking younger kids out.

I happily give candy to kids, teens, parents and anybody else.


I like Halloween

One year I set up the grill and gave out hamburgers and hot dogs parents
every year somebody asks me ... What no grill this year?

They could be doing worse.

The origins were far more hell-raising than the current suger fest.

I don't have any problem with that. My 16 yr. old is going out in costume this year. Last year she stayed home to pass out candy, but she still dressed up. She pulled off a perfect Trinity from The Matrix - and she can do an over the shoulder snap kick like in the beginning of the movie. That freaked out a lot of adults.

Now the ones that just wander around with a pillow case and no costume, mumble "trick or treat", and don't say "thank you" do sort of tick me off. That just isn't right.

Teens are the primary reason I don't hand out candy anymore. That, and minivans full of people arriving from other neighborhoods or even nearby towns.




We're on the same wavelength, Bertha :pals:

but too old for Halloween? Pshaw! I love Halloween. It's my favorite holiday, actually, and always has been. It's an excuse for people to get creative and silly and have fun, and I encourage that in people.

And for those who call me infantile: what about Thanksgiving? You get fed by your mom until you pass out. How is that adult? ;)

However, we get so many young kids that by the time the teenagers come out later, we're out of it... and I usually by 9-10 bags worth of candy.

I like to greet them and laugh with them, check out what they've got and just generally have an excuse to break the ice with kids who really do need an excuse to cross that adult-teen barrier. Teens want to be children and adults simultaneously, which is just what they are. It's often confusing and frightening for them, so any excuse to just have a relaxed, good time with them is, to me, a gift. That teen will grow up into an adult with SOME kind of attitude toward the world and I'd just as soon it was one that included me as a friendly face.

or scary costume. The teenagers will literally run away screaming! It's so much fun to walk towards them in a scary costume and see their reactions!! They have fun being scared, too!

It's a hangover no one ever forgets. :rofl:

only went trick or treating to a couple of places, though. Mostly it was about the party at the school.

the parents who bring their babies and toddlers around in strollers. Little ones have rather limited appeal to me, so I have a hard time pretending to fuss over them. And you just know the parents are going to be the ones to scarf down the candy.

Maybe I should have a box of individually-wrapped teething biscuits on hand, just in case.

Teenagers have enough pressure placed on them to act like adults, why not let them act like a kid once in awhile?

Now the lack of a costume may irritate me a little, but c'est la vie.

In our small town (~3500), I like that the teens still get to have a little child-like fun. There's plenty of time to be a grown-up later. :)

When the boys without costumes come (the teen girls always dress up), I usually look at them, shriek, and tell them they have the scariest mask I've see so far! *snerk - I kill me*

We get over 300 kids at our house during the *one hour* alotted for trick-or-treating. We sit on the porch and hand out candy like an assembly line. It's great fun!

Your halloween sounds like fun! Why is only one hour allotted? Is that your household rule? A neighborhood rule?

The hour is designated by the city - and believe me, it's long enough, when the kids literally line up non-stop for the hour.

Actually, we sometimes run out of candy in 45 minutes - and I buy over 300 pieces. Then we have to turn off the light and late-comers are out of luck. :(

One other thing - a couple days after Halloween, our local dentist hosts a buy-back day when she pays kids $1 per pound (up to $5) to turn in their candy and save their teeth. :)

d'oh!

They're too old to be trick or treating. They should be at Halloween parties specific for teens, and their parents should be making sure they have something like that (i.e., a party) to go to for entertainment.

Sorry, but in my neighborhood, Halloween is not necessarily the safest night for young teens to be out on the streets unchaperoned.

when guys are wear pants down their butt and hoodies and a foot taller than me,
no way do I think it's cute.

who arent even aware what is going on. The candy usually winds up in the parents belly. I just want to clairfy I have nothing against dressing up young babies and have them go out with their older siblings/cousins etc .

We took my daughter trick or treating when she still had to get on her hands and knees to do stairs. I know - it sounds barbaric even to me right now - but it took her about two houses before she figured out that there was candy behind every door, and she had a great time collecting it. Of course we only did one street, but it was her candy and I doled it out over the next several days and didn't eat any.

The teens I've seen doing this seem kind of wistful and lost. Pretty obvious, too, that there's not much in the way of entertainment for a lot of teens, even on a holiday like Halloween. :(

I'm serious. Man . . . .

Come on admit it, when you were a kid and high as a kite would you be able to resist the temptation to get free candy from the neighbors?

when I lived where I did, I didn't mind. Like someone says, they could be out doing worse things. They really are still kids, after all.

When my dad was young, they had two nights, one night was for candy and the other was penny night. I don't think either involved costumes at all.

:hi:

I don't think it would bother me - I agree with what some others above said, they are in a "between" age and the lack of costume is probably more peer pressure than lack of desire/creativity. I would encourage them to dress up next time or maybe pass out some cheap masks or something. (and hey isn't them being teenagers scary enough for anybody?;-))

And to those who complain about vehicle loads of non-neighborhood kids, consider this: we live on a ranch and the nearest neighbor is two miles away. We used to take the squids to the nearest town for Halloween, so just because they may not be from your block they might still be your "neighbors".

You make a good point about rural areas, but that wasn't the circumstance we were in.

We've had our bowl stolen several times.

But the last time I went trick or treating, I was 14 years old. We dressed up in vintage clothing and I was Rita Hayworth, another friend was Marilyn Monroe, another one Bette Davis...it was fun as a last hurrah of childhood. We did get some statements about "aren't you girls a little old to be trick or treating." but it was still a lucrative night for candy collecting.

Kids gotta have candy Bertha!

As long as they have some sort of costume.

I lived across the alley from Northwestern University for many years, and we always got a lot of college-age trick-or-treaters.

What is bothering me this year is that our village has set trick-or treat hours from 1:00PM to 7:00PM. It used to be just four hours. Six hours is way too long. I haven't decided whether to not answer the door for the first two hours, or to stop answering the door after 5:00.

:spray:

I loved tricker treating as a teen..it was great fun!

I don't care about age...be they 4 or 40

Of course i live a half mile up a dirt road into a mountain and haven't seen a trick or treater in years...but that's beside the point :)

I did it at 15 with a couple of my friends, after not having done it for a couple years. It was a lot of fun, and most of the people we met didn't seem put out at all.

Maybe teenagers just irritate you period.

If they make the effort to come to the door, that's all that matters. Why should I care?

Besides, teens probably need the candy more than the little kids.

pizza, soda, ice cream, and chocolate

If I was forced to like trick or treaters I wouldn't care if they are teenagers.

I keep my lights out. I'm not sharing my candy with anyone...not that I actually have any candy until the DAY AFTER Halloween sales start. :P

12 s/b the cut off date. I've had guys come to the door that were 6 ft tall.
I'm 5 ft and you get too scared say no.

We turn the light off and stop answering the door when it's pretty much all teenagers that don't even try to don a costume. Usually we're out of candy by 7:45 to 8:00, which is when the big kids are out.

I live in an apartment complex, NO ONE ever drops by but it may be different this year because I moved a few months back into this new apartment. So maybe there are trick or treaters around here in this new neighborhood because there was none at my old place.

but to answer your question, no I wouldn't mind it if they came, I'd give them candy. I plan on going trick or treating next year with my younger bro and I'm 20. I would go this year but I don't have a costume and at this point it's too late, plus it snowed like crazy yesterday and it's probably going to be too cold out to be trick or treating.

I mean, WTF

I don't mind them getting some candy if they're stuck herding younger kids. But once they're junior high age or so it's a bit much to be going around by themselves. Luckily I haven't seen much of that. The only time I ever opened the door and it was only teenagers it happened to be my best friend's younger brother and one of his buddies. They were sixteen or seventeen and neither was wearing a costume. Since I know them I just told him he was too old and to get lost. With strange boys I'd probably have given them some candy to avoid a potential problem.

Especially if the boys voices have changed............

and if they want to trick or treat that's fine by me. Obviously they're too cool to wear a costume but not too cool to eat Tootsie Pops. I find it rather endearing. Maybe you have to have or have had teenaged kids to feel this way.