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Mr. Incredible is ready to conquer the neighborhood

^{Posted by: IronJessica}

I have to admit, around some of my friends, I get a little embarrassed at this time of year.

"Are you willing to volunteer at the church's Harvest Party on Oct. 31?," they ask me.

And the answer: "Uh, no. My kids are allowed to Trick-or-Treat."

Sometimes I'm met with a non-judgmental, "Oh, okay" -- but other times there's just stunned silence.

Are my kids condemned because I allow them to gather candy in the neighborhood?

Now, I am going to admit up front to a double standard. I don't like the secularization of Christmas. But Halloween? We're so far as a society from the origins of this holiday, and it's now just about candy, costumes, and fun for kids.

However, I'm not fully embracing goblins and ghouls. we do have a few ground rules. First: costumes are not meant to be scary, unless they're scary in a silly way (like Darth Vader). We're not dressing up as witches or ghosts or skeletons.

This year, both my kids went exactly the opposite direction: The Boy is Obi-Wan Kenobi, and The Girl chose to be SuperGirl (how funny that I could have picked either of those costumes as a kid, too!).

Second, there's really no such things as "tricks." They have asked before why they say "Trick or Treat," but they recognize that different people celebrate different holidays, and if they don't get candy at someone's house, that's perfectly fine.

Finally, we celebrate Halloween with another family we've known since The Boy was a baby. That first year, we hung out together and answered the door; since then, as our families grew, we developed a tradition of a pizza party, games, and a little trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Although they only live a half mile from us, we alternate each year which house we start at.

I have to admit, though, this might be the year when we actually reach my house from theirs - each year, the number of houses we go to has grown.

I'm all for a Harvest Party -- bobbing for apples and the like is great, if unsanitary, fun. But I also love the joy of watching my babies dress up and show off their cuteness to the neighbors. And I just won't take that away from the kids.