If you and your spouse have a child who is young enough to consider Halloween a major holiday – and still young enough to need and want your help celebrating it – you may need to include it along with other holidays in your parenting plan. Whether you’ve done that yet or not, it’s around the corner. Therefore, it’s time to determine how the two of you will both be able to participate in some of the festivities with them.
There’s more to the holiday than trick-or-treating on Halloween night (and some families don’t do that anymore). There will likely be celebrations at school or daycare, in the neighborhood, at your place of worship and at friends’ homes. You and your co-parent should be able to find a way to divide and conquer these events. There are plenty of other ways you can celebrate Halloween with your children, from decorating to costume making to pumpkin shopping and carving.
You may not both be able to participate in trick-or-treating. If you can manage to go together, that’s great. If not, you may need to alternate years. If you live near each other, you could each take your child for a short trick-or-treating excursion. Just don’t wear them out competing to be the better trick-or-treat chaperone. You may make it easier on everyone by letting another parent take them out with their kids.
Don’t forget to ask your child
Before the two of you get too worked up about how you’ll deal with Halloween, ask your child what activities they’re interested in and what they want to do on Halloween night (or the weekend just before). Children’s preferences often get overlooked during the separation and divorce process. While you often can’t give them what they’d prefer, Halloween’s a holiday that should be about them.
You never know which year will be the last one your child wants to do anything with you on Halloween. Why not make this upcoming one fun and stress-free for them? If you think you’ve got a few more years, include the holiday in your parenting plan. Having experienced legal guidance can help.