Last week, the school that my 5 year old daughter goes to had a Halloween night for the kids to go to. It was set up with dinner and a fair so there was a safe place for all the young kids to have some fun. There were games and booths to trick or treat at. Everyone was dressed up including our whole family. It was a fun night out and it was the first time we all did something at night like that as a family.

The kids enjoyed roaming around and seeing all the cool decorations, but even though the school said to limit certain costumes and decorations, there were some not so kid friendly stuff there. Luckily, my kids were too young to understand what it all meant and I nudged some of the scarier stuff out of view when I could. When the night was mostly over and their baskets were full of candy, we decided it was time to leave.

Before we left, we looked out in the dark playground field and a lot of the kids were having a light party out there. Anyone with a glow in the dark costume or a costume with lights went out there to run around and dance like crazy. It was mostly older kids from what I could see and my daughter wanted to get in the mix. I was wondering how far she would actually wander and just observed. My 4 year old son was with her and the farther my daughter got away from me, the more my son was lagging behind her and saying they should go too far. I was actually surprised my son wasn’t the impulsive one since he loves running around. I was proud of that fact and he knew what should be done to stay safe (since he got lost without me one morning at that same playground!).

My daughter walked really far away and was mesmerized by the lights. My son eventually waddled away to keep an eye on his big sister and once they got too far away, I ran over and ushered them back to the path home. I gave a short talk about not wandering off, but inside, I’m glad they don’t need to always be attached to me or my wife. When they are a bit older, they can go out in that field by themselves and burn some of the sugar off. I’ll also make sure to get them a light up costume if they want one as well!