What a great photo. It was nice to see the kids all dressed up and out on the street last night.
I used to spend days making things to hand out. But after I saw parents tossing out anything hand made at the garbage can on the corner I stopped.
That is too bad. I still remember which houses handed out home made treats all those years ago when I was a kid.
The stupid fear that parents, schools, and even the Police spew from their lips does entire generation of children a disservice.
*************************
Here is an excerpt from a NY Times article on the subject:
Taken from “Five myths about Halloween” NY Times, Jack Santino October 24th, 1014
1. Beware of razor blades in candy apples.
Police in Denver this year are warning parents about the prospect of pot-infused candy. “We advise that you should thoroughly check your children’s candy,” the department posted on its Facebook page, “and not just for homemade, opened, or suspicious items, but also for any marijuana edibles that look eerily close to mainstream candies kids eat every day.”
This is just the latest iteration of a perennial concern. A 2011 Harris Interactive poll found that 24 percent of parents were fearful that their children might be poisoned by tampered-with or spoiled treats. In fact there is little, if any, evidence that this has ever happened.
Joel Best, a sociology and criminal justice professor at the University of Delaware, has examined reports of “Halloween sadism” going back as far as 1958. “I have been unable to find a substantiated report of a child being killed or seriously injured by a contaminated treat picked up in the course of trick-or-treating,” Best writes. There have been examples of product tampering, but not related to Halloween. And there was one 1974 death blamed on poisoned Pixy Stix — though the 8-year-old Texas boy was actually murdered by his father, who was trying to cash in on his son’s life insurance. Other reports of Halloween sadism have turned out to be hoaxes or have had more benign explanations.
While it should be reassuring to know that contaminated candy falls squarely into the category of urban legend, it’s a sad commentary on our society that homemade treats are considered suspicious and only mass-produced candy bars are seen as safe.
******************************************
There are legions of sources documenting the fact that kids are not at any risk of getting poisoned from anything they pick up on Halloween. The fact is the risk of getting hit by a car is a thousand times more likely than any candy or treat being poisoned.
If one digs into the literature one will see as well that the risk of a child getting assaulted, kidnapped, or anything else on Halloween is below getting hit by lightning. Our own local Police notice this past week on telling parents to warn kids not to do this and that is not based on any science. Just fear.
I feel for generations of children raised in a fear based environment. Fear raised children become fearful adults and we end up with a fear based country.
What a great photo. It was nice to see the kids all dressed up and out on the street last night.
I used to spend days making things to hand out. But after I saw parents tossing out anything hand made at the garbage can on the corner I stopped.
That is too bad. I still remember which houses handed out home made treats all those years ago when I was a kid.
The stupid fear that parents, schools, and even the Police spew from their lips does entire generation of children a disservice.
*************************
Here is an excerpt from a NY Times article on the subject:
Taken from “Five myths about Halloween” NY Times, Jack Santino October 24th, 1014
1. Beware of razor blades in candy apples.
Police in Denver this year are warning parents about the prospect of pot-infused candy. “We advise that you should thoroughly check your children’s candy,” the department posted on its Facebook page, “and not just for homemade, opened, or suspicious items, but also for any marijuana edibles that look eerily close to mainstream candies kids eat every day.”
This is just the latest iteration of a perennial concern. A 2011 Harris Interactive poll found that 24 percent of parents were fearful that their children might be poisoned by tampered-with or spoiled treats. In fact there is little, if any, evidence that this has ever happened.
Joel Best, a sociology and criminal justice professor at the University of Delaware, has examined reports of “Halloween sadism” going back as far as 1958. “I have been unable to find a substantiated report of a child being killed or seriously injured by a contaminated treat picked up in the course of trick-or-treating,” Best writes. There have been examples of product tampering, but not related to Halloween. And there was one 1974 death blamed on poisoned Pixy Stix — though the 8-year-old Texas boy was actually murdered by his father, who was trying to cash in on his son’s life insurance. Other reports of Halloween sadism have turned out to be hoaxes or have had more benign explanations.
While it should be reassuring to know that contaminated candy falls squarely into the category of urban legend, it’s a sad commentary on our society that homemade treats are considered suspicious and only mass-produced candy bars are seen as safe.
******************************************
There are legions of sources documenting the fact that kids are not at any risk of getting poisoned from anything they pick up on Halloween. The fact is the risk of getting hit by a car is a thousand times more likely than any candy or treat being poisoned.
If one digs into the literature one will see as well that the risk of a child getting assaulted, kidnapped, or anything else on Halloween is below getting hit by lightning. Our own local Police notice this past week on telling parents to warn kids not to do this and that is not based on any science. Just fear.
I feel for generations of children raised in a fear based environment. Fear raised children become fearful adults and we end up with a fear based country.