Readers — Spread this video!
http://youtu.be/9OgP1zc5kZI
Here are the facts about strangers poisoning candy. And yet, TRY to find a TV station or newspaper that doesn’t tell parents: “Always check your child’s candy and throw out any unwrapped items.”
Meantime, many, many thanks to Ezra Horne who edited this video for us! Here’s his youtube channel and Twitter acct! – L.
17 Comments
“Always check your child’s candy and throw out any unwrapped items.”
Really? If someone really wanted to poison kids on Halloween, they could poison candy and rewrap it. Why ruin your kid’s Halloween Haul by throwing anything out? Stop the paranoia, please!
Yay for a good old-fashioned Halloween! 😀
I remember trick or treating with my friend, and one big old house down the street had tons of Halloween decorations, ghosts, spiders, webbing, in the front porch. You had to walk through it all to get to the little old lady dressed sitting in the far corner dressed like a witch: SCARY!!! She gave out baggies of homemade caramel popcorn. I didn’t eat mine because I was a picky eater, but my friend took mine, ate both, and surprisingly enough was able to live to tell the tale.
SWEEEEEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So Lenore, that last laugh was on you? 😛
“Always check your child’s candy and throw out any unwrapped items.”
Throw out? With such a good excuse to eat them yourself?
(I guess I should buy me some of those devil horns too…)
The ‘candy lobby’ already got daylight savings push back a week in the US. I wonder if there’s some “helpful tips” document out there sent from some “National Institute for Kids’ Safety” (with close ties the wrapped candy industry) going out to media outlets.
If we can’t give kids home made/wrapped stuff, we have to buy the individually wrapped ‘fun’ sizes.
I encourage everyone reading this to find a copy of Ray Bradbury’s “The Halloween Tree” and read the first couple of chapters, if nothing else.
Most of this story is really a history lesson about Halloween, disguised as an adventure through time. But the first couple of chapters – in particular the description of the character named Pipkin – conjure up a beautiful and poetic and free-range vision of Halloween, and childhood in general.
Might be a good advice if you have a kid with alergies, but other than that it’s just worriyng for no reason.
Better worry about them eating the whole stash in one go.
SPOOK SAFELY THIS HALLOWEEN
Tricks to make the most of 2013’s horrifying holiday!
I can’t link to this newsletter from NH Children’s Trust, but there is no mention of dangers from candy!
I really like the last section that suggests talking to the kids that come by and maintaining community. They even suggest to talk to the kids in the following days, no mention of stranger danger or grooming.
Pedestrian accidents, the true terror
According to State Farm, Halloween is the deadliest day of the year for pedestrian accidents. Here are tips to avoid a tragedy on a fun night.
halloween For trick-or-treaters:
•Add reflectors to costumes
•Bright-colored fabrics
•Bring flashlights or glow sticks
•Keep eye contact with drivers before crossing the road to be sure they see you
•Set clear rules with your little ghosts and gouls about crossing the road only with an adult.
•Stay in well-lit and familiar neighborhoods
For drivers:
•Do not speed over hills
•Drive abnormally slow through neighborhoods
•Never use your cellphone while driving
•Discourage teens from driving on Halloween
Build neighborhood connections!
•Halloween costume If you don’t know the kids who come to your door, ask their names and grades in school.
•Compliment (or get scared by) their costumes.
•Ask the child a question or talk to them briefly before you give a treat.
•Turn on a light so children will be safe.
•Intervene if trick-or-treaters become disrespectful or damage property.
•Offer to take a busy parent’s child or children out along with yours.
•Share treats that reflect your culture or values.
•Get together with neighbors to decorate together. (Make it more fun for kids and get to know neighbors at the same time.)
•Remember to greet kids the next day . . . when they don’t have costumes on!
•Consider making a special treat bag (with extra treats or extra surprises) for the children who live nearest to you. When these children arrive, make a fuss about them coming and say you have something extra special for them.
For drivers:
•Do not speed over hills
•Drive abnormally slow through neighborhoods
•Never use your cellphone while driving
So this is abnormal behavior for drivers the other 264.25 days of the year?
In their attempts to keep their little trick or treat darlings safe this is what has happened.
Afraid that after dark drivers will not be able to see their little one’s parents have started taking them out earlier and earlier, to trick or treat in daylight, as best they can.
The result being…………..there are many more vehicles on the road. They are trick or treating during rush hour, when everyone is coming home.
Common sense alive and well, not.
When I was little I’d take sewing needles and stab them into the snickers bars and then have my mom inspect them. She never found the needle marks :p . I thought it was quite silly.
Yeah, anyone here remember the days of “Razor Blades Placed in Apples”? Back when an apple or orange was an acceptable(and more wholesome) Halloween treat?…nasty rumors back then….we knew our neighbors back then, they knew us, homemade treats and fruit were commonplace…in today’s society, no one knows who lives next door or up the street….paranoia here is from not knowing the folks in your immediate area…an unforeseen product of our high speed society…
Mmmmm. Long live homemade Carmel Apples. My teeth ache just thinking about them!
http://brainerddispatch.com/stories/110300/new_1103000020.shtml I read here once that there were no cases of people trying to hurt kids with candy on Halloween. I was corrected on that just now.
Yes, I just found out recently that in my city, there were genuine cases about 30 years ago where needles were found in candy, and children were actually injured (though not life-threateningly.). Apparently trick or treat was cancelled for a year or two after that. So apparently the correct story is that there have been no “poisonings,” not that there has never been an attempt to harm children. According to an article I read, in 1982, after the Tylenol poisonings, there was an outbreak of non-lethal copycat tampering of this kind.
Still, that doesn’t amount to a reason to fear, much less cancel, trick or treat, unless Sandy Hook means kindergarten is now an unacceptable risk.
Awesome. Straight up awesome. Thanks, Lenore!