It being mid-September, mothers and fathers around the country are starting to look ahead to the fall plans we have in store for our children. Every fall brings a few classic moments: apple-picking, pumpkin foods, and Halloween.
This year, it’s different. In every parenting group I am in, the question being asked is this: “What are you doing for trick-or-treating this year?“ We are asking these questions because we have seen our children face so much disappointment over the last six months and want to set expectations appropriately. We understand that there are annual events that cannot be repeated: Easter and Passover meals gathered with family, going to summer camp, and, this year, we learned that the magic of the first day of school cannot be replicated virtually. Due to the COVID-19 lockdowns, children have faced the sudden cancellation and closure of everything: schools, holidays, sports, play dates, playgrounds, you name it. Countless staples of their childhoods are also facing indefinite closure: dance studios, indoor gyms, play spaces, and restaurants; the toll on small businesses is astronomical and disproportionately affects leisure activities that children partake in.
Which is what brings us to Halloween. Of any other activity, there are few that are so “COVID-19-friendly” as trick-or-treating. Cities and municipalities across the country are making decisions about how to handle the night, and some, such as Los Angeles, have tried calling off all the merriment, though Los Angeles has since walked back its ban, now merely stating that trick-or-treating is “not recommended”).
Not to be outdone, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its own Halloween decree. NPR reported:
The higher-risk category includes both door-to-door trick-or-treating and events where kids get treats from the trunks of cars in a big parking lot.
Parents in their 20s-40s are walking around outside with their young children; almost everyone in these age brackets is inherently low-risk. Social distancing between groups is already standard, and masks can be made into fun parts of every costume. It’s like a Top Chef ingredient but for costume design: “How can you incorporate a proper mask into your Batman or dinosaur costume?”
For those who feel comfortable answering the door, they may do so. If they don’t, a simple bowl of candy at the door is all that’s required. Hopefully, parents were policing hand-washing before eating treats last year, too, but they certainly can this year.
We know a great deal about how this virus spreads, and we know the CDC’s own guidelines about how one risks contracting COVID-19: “[if someone] were within 6 feet of someone who has COVID-19 for a total of 15 minutes or more.” We know that outdoors is safer than indoors and that casual contact (i.e., walking by someone on a sidewalk) is infinitely less dangerous than standing inside a crowded bar talking at close proximity. Groups of families walking by each other in masks outside is about as low-risk as it gets.
Our children have already had so much taken from them, and it is senseless from a scientific perspective to take trick-or-treating away from them, too. In its recommendations against trick-or-treating, Los Angeles explained, “Citing … the potential for gatherings beyond household members, county officials initially nixed trick-or-treating along with other Halloween traditions, including haunted houses and parades.” Let’s be clear about what we’ve been told: Children can’t partake in a safe night walking outside with friends because adults may gather indoors and party?
Once again, despite being the least at-risk population, children are facing the brunt of the impact, and for no good reason. Adults may, and likely will, spend the night doing whatever they’d like, including parties and other ill-advised gatherings. And children will, as they have been for the last six months, spend the night at home, trying to remember a time before the pandemic.
