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So I know this is weird one coming from a guy who plays with plastic/metal minis, but at what age should folks realize they are too old to trick-or-treat?

Last night I took my three youngest out and after about 10 houses my youngest son decided he was done so we went home. He and I decided to pass out candy instead. So I noticed a few "older" kids while walking around but when we were passing out candy it became pretty apparent that there were some rather large "kids" out and about.

What pissed me off the most though was my 4 year old was so excited to hand out candy. He tends to be a little shy when it comes to speaking, he has a speech problem, but he was all for the gig last night.

So there he is "Happy Halloween!", "Thanks for coming", "Your Welcome"...etc etc. So a group of rather large kids comes into the yard and walk up to him, I was sitting near to him on the porch swing (in the dark). He says "Happy Halloween" all excited and Jerk #1 goes "give me your candy". Jerk #2 responds with "whatever give me candy".

So my son knows that it's only one piece per kid...so he rattles off..."One piece per trick or treater (that is probably the longest sentence I have ever heard him say.)"

Jerk #3 say "that's B$%^&**t give us more"

Now my boy is a little upset but not itimidated...Jerk #1 and #2 reach back into the cauldron (we had witch's cauldron for the candy) to take more and my boy yanks the thing away "No only one piece per kid"

Jerks (collectively all three) bow up...so three older teens and 1 4 year old...fair enough...I stand up from the porch swing off to the side.

Jerk #1 realizes that I'm standing there and the other two realize it when I pipe up with a "Bad idea only one piece of candy per customer so Get the F out of here."

Luckily, my son carried on excited about handing out candy for the rest of the night. But for me that really got me pissed. I think it was avoidable if there had been some sort of age limit put on trick-or-treating or folks having some sort of internal monitor to know when to say when.

AoS

It's meant to be for little children.

When your voice breaks you're too old.

If gangs of big teenagers are doing it, that can look like making demands with menaces.

Of course it's a part of teenagers' job to be annoying and it's part of adults' job to socialise them. Not something that can be controlled by law so much as custom and manners.

There was a town that instituted a law saying only 12 and under can be out in costume, and that trick-or-treating is restricted to the 5pm-8pm timeframe. It was in response to past hooliganry under the cover of night and costume. It seems to be an overall trend, where clever young bastards take advantage of the holiday to amke it hard on everyone else.

Most kids tend to grow out of it around 10-12, i'd imagine. I know it's a fun "ironic" activity for high school kids as well. For the most part, nobody has ever had a problem with a high school age kid trick or treating as long as they have some semblance of a costume on.

On the flip side, there was always the delicate point in the evening where all the kids with parents are gone, and even the 10 year olds are being replaced by teenagers with pillow cases that most people tend to pack it in. The groups of loud, abusive teens tend to get shuffled out by cops pretty quickly, and refused candy by many adults.

Certainly, but the time one reaches 14 or so, there are ways to earn the money to simply buy candy, making the activity somewhat silly. But I figure, if the kids are having fun, why not give them some candy?

i say stop at 12. when you hit puberty, you wouldnt need a costume anyways . and if some teen does come to my door and acts like a brat, i just find the smallest piece of candy in my jar and say have a nice evening.

We adopted a new rule as of last night. When the llittle girls have breasts thats it for them (either that or I get to pass out the candy ). When the boys are sporting goaties its "GET A JOB YA BUM!" time.

Glad you were there and glad the munchkin had a good time.

i'd say it varies from town to town. i've heard people doing it in california well into their 30's and 40's. my sister (lives in ottawa) said she was going to keep doing it until 25. I would say go for as long as you like as long as you aren't a jerk. There will always be people who ruin it, however. pretty much a universal truth, i'm afraid

I think people do it until they realize that Halloween parties are sexier.

It is atrocious, the number of kids that go begging for candy that are too old.
My kids stop Trick-or-Treating at 12. It's still a family event... but only the kiddos get to go get the candy. MY 10 yr old daughter and 1 yr old Granddaughter went ToTing this year, and my wife, myself, my 22 yr old daughter (the baby's Mom), my 20 yr old and his 20 yr old fiance went walking with them.

When I have no more to kids to ToT, I'll start staying home and giving out candy.

Here are my rules for Trick or Treaters:

Kids who appear 12 or less get 1 piece of candy IF you say "Trick or Treat" and are wearing a costume.

If you have a joke, you get 2 pieces. Yes. I'm "Old School." I still ask kids for jokes... and I hate it when they have no idea what the *F* I'm talking about. Come on, adults. Teach your kids about PROPER halloween traditions.

If you look too old, you will get piece of paper folded up that says "You're too old for this. Get a job."

If you are not wearing a costume, you get a piece of paper that says "No costume. No candy."

I'm strict like that.

Eric

Thanks for the responses...glad it wasn't just me who was irritated. Well next year we'll be back home in Texas so maybe the small town life will be a little different. Plus most of the older kids know they'll get ridiculed for ToTing by their peers instead of cow tipping or TPing someone's house.

Frazz - I second your thoughts...there were way to many overly racy/sexy costumes out and about. Most of the older teens and younger adults wore things that you should only see in S&M shows or in a skin flick. It was (ahem) rather revealing. I will definitely be watching my teen to make sure she isn't wearing clothes like that.

Ace_of_Spades wrote:

Frazz - I second your thoughts...there were way to many overly racy/sexy costumes out and about. Most of the older teens and younger adults wore things that you should only see in S&M shows or in a skin flick. It was (ahem) rather revealing. I will definitely be watching my teen to make sure she isn't wearing clothes like that.

Good luck with that!

You will probably find the best way to make her want to wear that kind of costume is to forbid her.

Hopefully you have a few years to go (my daughter only just turned 9) and fashions will change.

I went till I was 16.. hard to pass up free candy. There was one grumpy old guy that told me I should save the candy for the little kids, but he gave it to me anyway.

I'm 36 now, I want kids some day so I can go get free candy again :( My kid will be 6 months old and I'll get him a little winnie the poo costume and push him around his stroller for free candy

When I was your age, I grew my own candy.

I can proudly say i've never been trick or treating!

My family have never liked it and we never will, its just.. too American for us We live in a bit of a rough part of a rough town, so our only visitors were the little girl next door and her friends.

I found it quite amusing when the local shops weren't selling flour or eggs to anyone under the age of 16. Paranoid much?

Kilkrazy wrote:

Ace_of_Spades wrote:

Frazz - I second your thoughts...there were way to many overly racy/sexy costumes out and about. Most of the older teens and younger adults wore things that you should only see in S&M shows or in a skin flick. It was (ahem) rather revealing. I will definitely be watching my teen to make sure she isn't wearing clothes like that.

Good luck with that!

You will probably find the best way to make her want to wear that kind of costume is to forbid her.

Hopefully you have a few years to go (my daughter only just turned 9) and fashions will change.

Well she is an EMO kid so the basic black (I like to think of it as a Nu-Goth/Punk) and associated baubles is what she wears. I don't tell her she can't do something out right but I try to help her make the right decisions. 14 is an awkward age.

MagickalMemories wrote:If you are not wearing a costume, you get a piece of paper that says "No costume. No candy."

I'm strict like that.

That is awesome!
____

Ace_of_Spades wrote:there were way to many overly racy/sexy costumes out and about. Most of the older teens and younger adults wore things that you should only see in S&M shows or in a skin flick. It was (ahem) rather revealing. I will definitely be watching my teen to make sure she isn't wearing clothes like that.

I'll help watch, too. Please post pics of her halloween costumes for the next few years. Sounds like they'll be good ones...

When you have kids to do it for you

I did it 'til I was 16 with my little bro. Then just accompanied him 'til I was ~19. Then it was parties from there on out.

Then it changes from asking for candy to asking for numbers and buying a bag of candy in the 50-off sale the day afterwards.

I'm with Rapidkiller. You never stop, just go on hiatus.

My friends are all sprogging at the moment, so in about 3 years, I get to organise kick ass Halloween Parties for lots of kids.

im 14 i still do it and im doing it to im 18!

In the immortal words of my grandfather.

"GET A JOB YOU BUM! Oh and GET OFF MY LAWN!"

It's interesting how these things vary by region and time.

When I was a kid in Brooklyn, it wasn't cool to go trick or treating past age 10.

Once you passed that threshold, you would be pelted with eggs and covered in shaving cream if you were caught out in costume by your peers. After all, you should be out tossing eggs with them.

You should have seen the huge mobs of youths swarming through the streets loaded up with these items covered in mess. Just looking for another mob to engage in a sloppy battle of chicken embryos and lather...

If you are old enough to question if it's cool to trick or treat, you're too old. High school kids are out, imho. I think that I went until I was 12 or 13.

Xav wrote:im 14 i still do it and im doing it to im 18!

Come to my house.
I'll give you a bag full of capital letters and punctuation marks.

Eric

Xav wrote:im 14 i still do it and im doing it to im 18!

MagickalMemories wrote:
Come to my house.
I'll give you a bag full of capital letters and punctuation marks.

EXALT!

I was thinking on my way home what age people should stop wearing a cute hat that was animal ears on it, and I came to the following conclusions:

Boy -- about 6 years old.
Girl -- about 12 years old.
Japanese girl -- about 24 years old.

IMO, pretty girls can wear animal ears well into their twenties, assuming a sexy enough costume to go with it.

OP: very well handled.

OP: I liked the way you dealt with it.

As for what age, well I stopped trick or treating when I was about 14. Instead my friends and I just went out tricking and skipped the whole treating part. Granted we never did anything like the OP describes but we did manage to get into enough trouble with toilet paper and shaving cream and the subsequent application to various domestic structures.
This make me think that the longer kids are trick or treating the longer they stay away from the stealth external domestic decoration aspect of the holiday.