Halloween Preschool-Style (NBPM#4)

Maiya's preschool celebrated Halloween with a practice run. First they had their pictures taken by a professional photographer. Then, they took their homemade grocery bags trick-or-treating at the temple offices upstairs and then went door-to-door at the classrooms, knocking on something like 17 doors, with parents waiting inside to hand out non-candy treats and goodies. Afterwards, they ran around in the gym like crazy for like half an hour.

Maiya had a great time. She was confidently walking up to the doors, knocking and loudly saying "trick-or-treat" which is much different from me as a shy child, hovering in the back of the group. I'm also always a little wary about the number of fairies and princesses among the girls and am always happy to see other costumes for girls that are not too "girlish." I know that many want to be princesses at this age in particular, but I know it is because that's what the corporate media, Disney, stores, commercialism and parents, perpetuating and feeding into that whole thing. We had an all black witch costume, but I felt a little nervous that Maiya would feel left out if she wasn't a princess, but she was totally cool with it, and just so excited that it was Halloween.

The other thing as a parent that bothers me about Halloween is the amount of processed foods that fall under "non-candy" snacks, rice krispy treats, chocolate covered pretzels, cookies, chips, sweetened "fruit" nuggets that advertise as healthy (that one is hard to swallow). Since we don't buy these types of things, I don't like to have them in the house. If I'm going to give her a packet of processed snacks, I try to take it out of the wrapper and divvy it up into 2 or 3 servings, so she doesn't get too attached to the corporate logos and such. The other night she wanted a fruit rollup, so I gave her a plate of real fruit first, before she could eat it, and she did.

Next up: Halloween in the neighborhood.

P.S. I know you voted today, right?