As someone new to parenthood and who has never thought much about Halloween...

[Ben E Lou]

...I got a bit concerned today.

The boogie and I went for a walk this morning. She's too young to understand at this point, but I would be concerned if she were about 4 and we lived near one house I saw. I just thought it was over-the-top. There were several scenes in the yard that had life-sized (maybe bigger...I'll go look again this evening or tomorrow 'cause I'm not sure and I'm curious) figures in various "action poses."

At any rate, two of the scenes seemed way over the line for a front yard in a subdivision with a lot of younger kids:

Scene One: man on ground...."blood" coming out of his neck...man standing over him with psychotic facial expression about to stab him (once again) with large knife

Scene Two: man dragging woman across yard by her hair...clothes disheveled...mouth open in apparent "scream"...crazed look on man's face


Is this sort of thing common? If so, how do kids in the 3ish-7ish range handle it?

[JonInMiddleGA]

I wouldn't call it common, but it doesn't sound 100% beyond the pale either, especially depending upon the homeowner.

I mean, this sounds like someone who may be into the whole modern/professional "haunted house" thing or something. I've got friends in their 40's who still go to those things & this sounds very tame compared to what happens in those today (based on their conversation & descriptions from the past week). It wouldn't be hard to imagine a scenario where someone was a fan of those & was just putting together their idea of modern/fun Halloween imagery.

As to how kids handle it, my experience is that it's harder to predict than you might think. Take my son, who I doubt would have been bothered by this too much (and by 4 or 5 would have thought it looked cool if it were done well) ... but if an adult wearing a Casper the Friendly Ghost mask had popped up from behind a bush it could have been time to change the undies. He's not overly bothered by imagery but being startled scares the crap out of him.
Even at 12 he's not at all a fan of scary movies because of that sort of thing, no indication that it's related to imagery at all.

[Alan T]

I saw this type of thing more often when I grew up in Cobb County than now up int he Northeast. Maybe it is the weather, people don't seem to go as all out decorating for Halloween or Christmas or really anything else as they did in the South.

I remember in Georgia, there was this one house every year that decorated their yard like your description and always played really creepy music on Halloween. It was commonly understood that house was for older trick-or-treaters and younger kids just stayed away from that one.

Occassionally I remember seeing other houses like that as well, but maybe only one out of every 100-200 houses if even that often. So I agree with Jon, not common but not something I've never experienced before either.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Alan T

I saw this type of thing more often when I grew up in Cobb County than now up int he Northeast. Maybe it is the weather, people don't seem to go as all out decorating for Halloween or Christmas or really anything else as they did in the South.

Heh. Could be. I mean, it's in the upper 70s today and likely will be for a few more weeks. Great time to be outside decorating and stuff, I guess.

I remember in Georgia, there was this one house every year that decorated their yard like your description and always played really creepy music on Halloween. It was commonly understood that house was for older trick-or-treaters and younger kids just stayed away from that one.

Yeah, definitely wouldn't go there on 10/31 with a little one. I'm more thinking about whenever they put it up until 10/31, though.

Occassionally I remember seeing other houses like that as well, but maybe only one out of every 100-200 houses if even that often. So I agree with Jon, not common but not something I've never experienced before either.

And it's fully possible that this has been going on a while and I hadn't noticed it. This is the first October in this neighborhood (at least one sidewalk on every street, sometimes on both sides,) where the little one is able to walk or cares about being walked, so I've never really moved about the neighborhood slowly enough to pay attention.

[Ben E Lou]

Heh. The fun part is that I posted about it on Facebook as well, asking essentially the same question I did here. Looks like I created a mini-firestorm among the mommies in my 'hood. One just posted that she may write the HOA. Looks like I've stumbled upon a solid strategy for this sort of stuff in the future: stir the pot a little and let the high-strung do the dirty work. Sweet.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Heh. The fun part is that I posted about it on Facebook as well, asking essentially the same question I did here. Looks like I created a mini-firestorm among the mommies in my 'hood. One just posted that she may write the HOA. Looks like I've stumbled upon a solid strategy for this sort of stuff in the future: stir the pot a little and let the high-strung do the dirty work. Sweet.

Back to your old jedi mind tricks, I see...

Dark Jedi, indeed.

[boberot]

My daughter has never been the same since two pretty bad scares [from her 9-year-old perspective] in one night. Again, it was homeowners who don't seem to have the capacity to dial it up [for the gang of teenage boys who shouldn't be trick-or-treating anyway] or dial it down [for the sheepish young girls walking up to the door alone or with another hesitant friend].

I've given candy out under the guise of a faceless black phantom the past few years. Boys 12-and-up are getting a full-fledged fright. When I see toddlers come, I sit down right on the ground, pull the mask up, wave to them and talk in a very sweet voice. That is clearly not the norm at other houses.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Back to your old jedi mind tricks, I see...

Dark Jedi, indeed.

Hehehe. Well, when I *posted*, it was an honest inquiry. I tagged a few folks I respect who have kids in that age range. I hadn't considered the ones in my neighborhood taking up arms as a possible outcome.

[One True Dark Jedi]But now that I see the reaction, I will most certainly do it again when I want something taken care of without getting my own hands dirty.[/One True Dark Jedi]

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Hehehe. Well, when I *posted*, it was an honest inquiry. I tagged a few folks I respect who have kids in that age range. I hadn't considered the ones in my neighborhood taking up arms as a possible outcome.

[One True Dark Jedi]But now that I see the reaction, I will most certainly do it again when I want something taken care of without getting my own hands dirty.[/One True Dark Jedi]

you really need to create some special board-code for OTDJ powers

[JediKooter]

You just unleashed Kyle Broflovski's mom on the HOA.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

You just unleashed Kyle Broflovski's mom on the HOA.

Jersey-style

[lordscarlet]

It disappoints me that homes like this are frowned upon these days. Do I think these displays should be out for two weeks? No. But as a kid I loved the houses that tried to scare the crap out of you. Perhaps the problem is what Ben noted - the inability to dial it up/down. But the general national commentary that I have heard over the past five years or so is that you shouldn't do anything scary at Halloween. To me that's the whole point.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Jersey-style

YES!

[Uncle Briggs]

Last year I saw a house with quite a few decorations, one of which was a shrunken head. Maybe not a big deal in itself, but these geniuses live across the street from the kindergarten. I found myself having to explain about headhunters and shrunken heads to several five-year-olds because what they saw was to them a baby head. Obviously they were a little freaked out. (As an aside, apparently nobody watches Gilligan anymore; I knew what a shrunken head was at that age.)

I kind of regard these graphic kinds of halloween displays like I regard the confederate flags I see hanging here and there (I live in Illinois; the southern heritage thing doesn't apply, if you buy that in the first place): a useful way of identifying jerks without having to actually talk to them first.

[MacroGuru]

Meh...my kids notice the decorations, see them in daylight and at night...think they are cool...but come Halloween night with my youngest we usually steer clear of the places just because he is scared, it's his choice..my 10 year old will go up...my oldest, this is her last year out and will go with her friends again like she did last year.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

It disappoints me that homes like this are frowned upon these days. Do I think these displays should be out for two weeks? No. But as a kid I loved the houses that tried to scare the crap out of you. Perhaps the problem is what Ben noted - the inability to dial it up/down. But the general national commentary that I have heard over the past five years or so is that you shouldn't do anything scary at Halloween. To me that's the whole point.

IRT Halloween Night, I agree 100%, but putting a realistic mangled corpse in front of your house in a neighborhood with young children weeks prior to Halloween Night is bad form.

[GrantDawg]

My wife and daughter definitely recieved a trama one halloween night in Alabama. They were walking up to a house when a kid came down from a tree limb and seemed to have hung himself from the neck. Of course it was a set-up, but it was very real and very scary (plus one of those "15 year old died today in a halloween pank" kind of event just asking to happen). I'm with the people saying they loved the really scary houses as a kid, but there does need to be some reasonable recognition of the smaaler children. Maybe make sure the more graphic scenes aren't as publicly visible?

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by Dutch

IRT Halloween Night, I agree 100%, but putting a realistic mangled corpse in front of your house in a neighborhood with young children weeks prior to Halloween Night is bad form.

Yeah, I tried to give some caveats in what I said -- doing it for 2 weeks isn't the way you do it. You do it Halloween night and you don't start the scariness until late dusk or dark, when the young ones are done.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

Yeah, I tried to give some caveats in what I said -- doing it for 2 weeks isn't the way you do it. You do it Halloween night and you don't start the scariness until late dusk or dark, when the young ones are done.

Ah, gotcha. Yes, basically what you said.

[Ben E Lou]

Heh. So just a few minutes ago I found out that I work with the wife that lives in this house. (I knew she lived in my neighborhood, but didn't know which house until now.) Young couple, (mid/late 20s) no children, and it was their first Halloween. They got so much backlash about it that they didn't do it again in 2011. Just clueless kids, it turns out.

[RendeR]

See there is just another problem that comes along. Maybe they did overdo it that year, but if they got SO much backlash that they decided not to do anything again then everyone just lost out on some very creative people not adding anything to the community at all in the future.

Let them know it was overboard, sure, but don't do so to the extent that they're not willing to even do a toned down display the next year.