Creative ways to stop trick or treaters

  • Thread starter Thread starter Feanaro_s_Wife
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Feanaro_s_Wife

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Well, this year we really need to prevent any trick or treaters from coming to the door (or close enough for the dog to hear and bark his fool head off:rolleyes:) because of our DD’s super early bedtime and trouble staying asleep…

**Other years when we didn’t/couldn’t give out candy we just shut all the lights off and hid out upstairs watching tv in the dark, lol. But this year we will have to be on the main floor while getting Lily to sleep etc so we need some ideas of how to stop them from approaching since they will be able to tell that someone is home…

I already have a sign I put up in the window at night that says “please do not disturb, baby sleeping” that has worked well so far. But some trick or treaters are too little or just too plain old excited to bother with a sign, lol.

Help!!!

malia**
 
Your community doesn’t have the rule of “No porch light, no trick or treating?”

You can buy yellow caution tape at craft/halloween stores. String it accross your driveway so that nobody can get through and tape a huge posterboard to that says:

"If YOU want to be the one who rocks, sings, feeds, burps, and bribes the baby back to sleep then go ahead and ring our doorbell. Otherwise, keep walking! And Happy Halloween! 😃 "
 
All you really want is to keep them from coming close to the house and ringing your doorbell, right? Depending on how cold it gets in your area, how about you or your dh sitting out near the sidewalk to pass out candy to the kids? Or hire a neighbor kid to do it (pay him or her with a nice bucket of candy for him/her). That way the neighbor kids won’t think of you as “mean” and you won’t have any tricks played on you. 😉
 
Rawb said:
Your community doesn’t have the rule of “No porch light, no trick or treating?”

You can buy yellow caution tape at craft/halloween stores. String it accross your driveway so that nobody can get through and tape a huge posterboard to that says:

"If YOU want to be the one who rocks, sings, feeds, burps, and bribes the baby back to sleep then go ahead and ring our doorbell. Otherwise, keep walking! And Happy Halloween! 😃 "
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**Thanks! I was thinking of something along those lines,lol.

And, no, our community doesn’t have any sort of rules that I know of. If it were up to me I would ban all door to door trick or treating and just have a community hall party for kids.

On another note, I’d like to know if any of you parents would be offended to see a sign politely telling you to not trick or treat at my house…

Malia
**
 
Della said:
All you really want is to keep them from coming close to the house and ringing your doorbell, right? Depending on how cold it gets in your area, how about you or your dh sitting out near the sidewalk to pass out candy to the kids? Or hire a neighbor kid to do it (pay him or her with a nice bucket of candy for him/her). That way the neighbor kids won’t think of you as “mean” and you won’t have any tricks played on you. 😉
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**Yeah, I am worried about being egged:rolleyes:. But trick or treating starts early and goes late here depending on the ages of the kids… and it is usually really cold here by then (most years we have snow too).

Malia**
 
Feanaro_s_Wife said:
**

On another note, I’d like to know if any of you parents would be offended to see a sign politely telling you to not trick or treat at my house…

Malia
**
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No, not at all! Just a little sign saying, “Sorry, we are not giving out treats this year!” should be sufficient. If it’s not, YOU aren’t the ones with the problem.
 
As a parent I would definitely not have a problem if you posted a sign saying you weren’t participating in Halloween.

It should be well lit though - do you have a flood light you could shine on it at the edge of your driveway? In the excitement a small sign could easily be missed - so you’d want to make it really visible.

I think I’d make it as nice as possible that way the teens with the eggs won’t be feeling animosity towards you! :tsktsk:

The other option would be to put a big bowl of candy and ask that the kids just take one…of course, there will likely be kids that won’t do that but an empty bowl shows that you at least tried!

CC
 
Where I live, we have trick or treat hours, 4-7:30 PM. We konk out on this much earlier than 7:30 PM, so we turn out the light as you suggested, and the girls get to take their annual “candlelight shower”.

I would not be offended by such a sign. There are some people who just don’t “do” Halloween, and some people who need to only do it for a little while, etc. I would, in fact, appreciate such a sign!

I would get some genuine “Caution” tape at Home Depot or Ace Hardware, whatever you have up there. Make it really big, and really bold.
 
I’ve been thinking about caution tape myself. It won’t stop the dog from barking as our front windows are too close to the sidewalk, but just to keep the kids off the porch. It’s finally been raining and I’m praying it is raining again of Wednesday!

Usually we like halloween and trick or treat ourselves, but this year we are just pooped!
 
I hate to be the voice of gloom, but it may not be the safest thing broadcasting to the world that you have a baby in your house. 😦 You never know who might be walking by, see your sign and make a note that there is a baby living at 123 Your Street. Just with all the publicity lately over the woman whose baby was cut out of her womb, it makes me think of these kinds of things!
 
…not to mention it is frequently a lot noisier with all the kids out running around until all hours even if they’re not ringing your door bell. You may have to prepare for a night of grinning and bearing it…
 
Island_Oak said:
…not to mention it is frequently a lot noisier with all the kids out running around until all hours even if they’re not ringing your door bell. You may have to prepare for a night of grinning and bearing it…
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**Yikes, there would be absolutely NO grinning:eek:. I am just praying that with her white noise going and our precautions to keep the little goblins away from at least our front door (of course her room/window faces the street:rolleyes:) that we will be ok. A night where Lily’s sleep is disturbed is a night full of screaming and crying… it wouldn’t be so bad if all we had to do was be with her and hold her or rock her or sing to her…but she’ll just scream…

Malia**
 
CatholicSam said:
I hate to be the voice of gloom, but it may not be the safest thing broadcasting to the world that you have a baby in your house. 😦 You never know who might be walking by, see your sign and make a note that there is a baby living at 123 Your Street. Just with all the publicity lately over the woman whose baby was cut out of her womb, it makes me think of these kinds of things!
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**
You know, I am usually the one coming up with “worst case scenarios” and “what ifs”…drives hubby NUTS! lol. But I feel safe enough here that I’m willing to take the chance. After all, if anyone wanted to know if there was a baby/small child living here all they’d have to do is peek in the windows at all the clutter and toys, lol.

And having a 130lb ball of teeth and fur helps too (the dog, not the hubby:D)

malia
**
 
Around here, if you just put out a large jar/plastic cauldron of candy on the front porch, kids will come by, take some, and leave without ringing the doorbell.
 
Feanaro_s_Wife said:
**Yikes, there would be absolutely NO grinning:eek:. I am just praying that with her white noise going and our precautions to keep the little goblins away from at least our front door (of course her room/window faces the street:rolleyes:) that we will be ok. A night where Lily’s sleep is disturbed is a night full of screaming and crying… it wouldn’t be so bad if all we had to do was be with her and hold her or rock her or sing to her…but she’ll just scream…

Malia**
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But that will really feel like Halloween, Malia…get it? She will be screaming…ok, not funny. I tried though.😉
 
Feanaro_s_Wife said:
**
You know, I am usually the one coming up with “worst case scenarios” and “what ifs”…drives hubby NUTS! lol. But I feel safe enough here that I’m willing to take the chance. After all, if anyone wanted to know if there was a baby/small child living here all they’d have to do is peek in the windows at all the clutter and toys, lol.

And having a 130lb ball of teeth and fur helps too (the dog, not the hubby:D)

malia
**
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:rotfl: Yeah, I but Hubby is the 200 lb ball of muscles and teeth! 😃

And I guess they could just look inside cars to look for car seats if they were out to kidnap a child. 😦 I’m glad you live in a safe neighborhood, what a blessing! 👍
 
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