Family Talk: Halloween Costumes

When my son was two he wore his Spiderman costume every single day. I would have to put the costume on underneath his regular clothes. It was really quite funny, until washing it daily took its toll on his alter ego.

He's nine now, and while my son still loves to dress up for Halloween, the novelty of really becoming someone else is diluted, somewhat.

Halloween is upon us, and if you haven't already, you're . The outfit that will let your child become whomever they wish for a day, or more (depending on how old your child is and how much they love their costume).

My daughter, five years old, is now at an age where she's really beginning to have what I consider to be true Halloween fun and imagination with her costume.

For the first time she didn't want to be a princess, fairy, or superhero (although superhero isn't all that bad!). Being that I love Halloween just as much as the kids do, I always start asking them what they're thinking of being early on.

To my dismay, and delight, my daughter said she wants to be a vampire. I thought 'this is great, I can paint her face and give her fangs.' I was really excited—until I realized that Halloween falls on a Monday this year.

What's wrong with that, you ask. Well, my daughter will be able to wear a costume to school on Halloween. She'll have a blast during a Halloween party with all of her classmates. The only problem is that her school, which I love dearly, will not allow any vampire costumes, among others that have anything to do with death or demons.

I knew this was going to be an issue, so I asked my daughter if there was anything else she'd want to be. I explained that she won't be able to be a vampire for school, since it's a little too scary. Seeing that she was a little wary of my explanation, I suggested that she speak to her teacher about it, which she did!

She came home, rather unaffected, telling me that I was right; she would not be able to be a vampire, in school. While we were looking for a costume, which I was hoping wasn't going to be a disappointing experience, she spotted one that she liked right away - Little Red Riding Hood.

Now, if you think about the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, you could argue that this costume is not significantly better than a vampire costume, given the context of the story, but it worked. It wasn't ghoulish, or scary, and definitely something she could wear to school.

Being the problem solver that I am, I saw that red cape and thought instantly 'she can be Red Riding Hood during the day, and at night I can turn her into a vampire.' So, I made sure to purchase a face painting kit, blood, and vampire fangs for the transformation.

Crisis averted, in my mind anyway. Would my daughter have been truly crushed to just be Red Riding Hood? No. Does she have plenty of Halloweens ahead of her where she could be a vampire? Sure. Remembering my son with his Spiderman costume and how much that meant to him made me want to make her wish of being a vampire come true. Besides, I figure there will be a few Halloweens to come where I'll be the one censoring her costume choices, in roughly seven to ten years!