TRICK OR TEETH

Image Source: Microsoft Image.
Getting closer to Halloween is a scary thing for several reasons. In the first place because of the fact that our children are roaming the neighborhoods, in the dark, by themselves. At a certain age they will balk at the parental presence, even if you keep your distance or cloak yourself in Halloween camouflage. One solution for this scare is to operate in troops of at least 4 children and include a mean looking dressed up dog. If that is not enough peace of mind for you, there is this new GPS device you can check out at the electronics stores, that allows you to track your child remotely.

Another approach to this chilling challenge is to find a local Halloween event you can visit with your family. Several shopping centers and churches host such events. Examples range from the Annual Zoo Boo at the Alexandria Mall (from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday), to the National Museum of Crime & Punishment that has a Halloween program set among real historic criminal artifacts, to name a few.

The second horror of this spooky feast is the massive amounts of candies that find their way to your kitchen table. It is hard to think outside the (candy) box, if you really don't want to hand out candy. Dentists advice that chocolates are the least damaging candies because they dissolve quickly and don’t stick to teeth as much as all the other High Fructose Corn Syrup creations do.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is not the only frightening ingredient, as many parents have to worry about peanut butter, lactose and many other allergies as they comb through the sweet harvest of the night. Home made treats are impossible for obvious reasons, and stickers and plastic party store stuff just adds to our already huge Halloween trash pile... Apples? They don't come wrapped, so that's a NO. How about toothbrushes? Now that’s a great treat! Or will the children feel tricked?