Halloween Safety Tips For Trick or Treating
Trick or Treating should be one of the great adventures of Halloween for kids! They can get dressed in scary costumes and go door to door, begging "Tricks or Treats!" from neighbors or at the local mall. It should be a fun time, without trouble and pain, so following some easy tips can keep your child safe every Halloween.
Anytime a child has an accident, it's tragic. The last thing that you want to happen is for your child to be hurt on a holiday, it would forever live in the minds of the child and the family.
There are many ways to keep your child safe at Halloween, when they are more prone to accidents and injuries. The excitement of children and adults at this time of year sometimes makes them forget to be careful. Simple common sense can do a lot to stop any tragedies from happening.
Halloween Safety Tips for Trick or Treating
- Children should go out during daylight hours only unless accompanied by a responsible adult.
- Plan a safe route so parents know where their older kids will be at all times. Set a time for their return home. Make sure that your child is old enough and responsible enough to go out by themselves.
- Let your children know not to cut through back alleys and fields. Make sure they know to stay in populated places and don't go off the beaten track. Stay in well lighted areas.
- Stop only at familiar houses in your own neighborhoods unless they are accompanied by an adult.
- Small children should never be allowed to go out alone on Halloween. Make sure an older sibling or adult is with them.
- Instruct your children not to eat any treats until they bring them home to be examined by you.
- Instruct your child to never go into the home of a stranger or get into their car.
- Make sure your child carries a flashlight, glow stick or has reflective tape on their costume to make them more visible to cars.
- Let them know that they should stay together as a group if going out to Trick or Treat without an adult.
Halloween Safety Tips for Kids
- Help your child pick out or make a costume that will be safe. Make it fire proof, the eye holes should be large enough for good peripheral vision.
- Make sure that if your child is carrying a prop, such as a scythe, butcher knife or a pitchfork, that the tips are smooth and flexible enough to not cause injury if fallen on.
- If you set jack-o-lanterns on your porch with candles in them, make sure that they are far enough out of the way so that kids costumes won't accidentally be set on fire.
- Kids always want to help with the pumpkin carving. Small children shouldn't be allowed to us a sharp knife to cut the top or the face. There are many kits available that come with tiny saws that work better then knives and are safer, although you can be cut by them as well. It's best to let the kids clean out the pumpkin and draw a face on it, which you can carve for them.
- Treating your kids to a spooky Halloween dinner will make them less likely to eat the candy they collect before you have a chance to check it for them.
- Teaching your kids basic everyday safety such as not getting into cars or talking to strangers, watch both ways before crossing streets and crossing when the lights tell you to, will help make them safer when they are out Trick or Treating.
Halloween Safety Tips for Adults
Parents of trick-or-treating kids can get so caught up in the fun that they might forget some simple safety ideas that could save everyone some trouble. Below are just a few common sense tips that can help.
- Know the route your kids will be taking if you aren't going with them.
- The best bet is to make sure that an adult is going with them. If you can't take them, see if another parent or a teen aged sibling can go along.
- Know what other activities a child may be attending, such as parties, school or mall functions.
- Make sure you set a time that they should be home by. Make sure they know how important it is for them to be home on time.
- Explain to children the difference between tricks and vandalism. Throwing eggs at a house may seem like fun but they need to know the other side of the corn as well, clean up and damages can ruin Halloween. If they are caught vandalizing, make them clean up the mess they've made.
- Explain to your kids that animal cruelty is not acceptable. Kids may know this on their own but peer pressure can be a bad thing. Make sure that they know that harming animals is not only morally wrong but punishable by law and will not be tolerated.
Make Halloween a fun, safe and happy time for your kids and they'll carry on the tradition that you taught them to their own families some day!
