A sign that allegedly appeared in a neighborhood in Somewhere, USA (probably) is wrong on so many levels.
A picture of the sign was posted to the Adventures of a Couponista Facebook page with the caption, “I came across this picture (source unknown) today. Which raises an interesting question: Do you think it’s okay for parents to bring their kids to other neighborhoods to go trick-or-treating? Or should they stick to their own neighborhood?!”
The sign reads:
Due to the fact that people from other neighborhoods truck their children into this neighborhood by the dozens, this house will no longer be handing out candy.
Thank you for ruining Halloween for us and the children who actually LIVE HERE.
Thx for your understanding, NOW GO AWAY!
OK, so first of all, because we don’t know where this sign originated, we can’t verify whether it’s legitimate or not. We also can’t verify when it was written. Could have been this year or a decade ago. But what we can verify is that there are plenty of people out there with attitudes like this, so even if the sign is a hoax, the sentiment certainly is not.
As someone who grew up in the boondocks, I was one of those kids whose parents hauled them off to another neighborhood because, aside from my grandmother and the family of kids we usually played with, there was no one else from whom we could score some Halloween loot. So my mother would load us all up (often including the 3 other neighborhood kids) and drive us over to my other grandmother’s neighborhood, and we would go door-to-door, pillow cases in hand, until every last porch light went out.
And it was fun. So much fun. Just as Halloween should be for any kid.
Now that I’m older with kids of my own, we live in a neighborhood with plenty of people handing out candy, so my kids have no need to go elsewhere. And honestly? I have no idea if the kids who come trick-or-treating at my door actually live in my neighborhood or not. What’s more? I DON’T CARE. They’re just kids out having some harmless Halloween fun, and I’m going to make it as special as I can for them, regardless of whether they live down the road or in the next city over.
But the problem with a sign and an attitude like this one is that the sentiment is often rooted in racism and classism. Yes, I said it.
In my own relative’s neighborhood, for example, loads of kids from the inner city show up to trick or treat, mostly because their neighborhoods are not safe or conducive to Halloween fun. And you know what’s sad? More than a few neighbors have had a problem with this. And while I’m no detective, it doesn’t take a badge or a magnifying glass for me to discern that it’s not the kids in general that these people have a problem with. It’s the fact that the kids are not white or come from poverty-stricken areas.
Sure, the complainers keep their racism and classism polite, even going so far as to say they would never, but the fact of the matter remains, if all the kids coming into the neighborhood were white, and if their parents were well-dressed and driving high-end vehicles, I’m pretty sure nobody would utter a peep.
I certainly can’t say for certain what the circumstances surrounding or motivations for creating this particular sign are, but I’m willing to bet my guesses aren’t far from the mark.
Of course, there’s also the possibility that the people responsible for this sign are just crotchety and cheap AF and/or have no real-world insight outside of their own neighborhood-association-sanctioned bubble.
Several commenters on the Facebook thread seem to agree:
What a grump!! We always had kids from other neighborhoods. Our neighborhood was safe and kids could easily move from one house to another with virtually no traffic. We loved seeing all the excited kids in costumes.
Some of us don’t live in a neighborhood. So my grandbabies can’t trick or treat??? How stupid
In Richmond, we have some pretty poor neighborhoods. Neighborhoods that can’t afford the candy to give out and that aren’t safe for children to walk around in. Is it really to much to let these children come into our neighborhoods for one evening and experience generosity? I am happy to have them.
If you don’t want to give out candy, then just turn your light off. No need to make a mean sign!
At the end of the day, I think the number of people who welcome kids from all over into their neighborhoods for some innocent fun one night per year far outweighs the number of Scrooge McBoobs out there.
And if it doesn’t? Everybody just head on over to my ‘hood. I’m more than happy to provide your kids with some Halloween treats.