Age is just a number?

Age is just a number?

How old is too old? Trick or treating is an American phenomenon that has been in our culture for over 100 years. It started with people dressing up and asking for food instead of delicious treats. But who gets to participate and who doesn’t?
Babies are too young to eat candy and ring doorbells, but dressing them up is so adorable they get a free pass. Toddlers on up to pre-teens seem to be the perfect mix of adorable, verbal, and tall enough to reach the door knocker. They have every right to spend Halloween night going door to door from after school and right through people’s dinner hours. They should collect all the candy they can carry each and every year until…when? When is it time to throw in the trick or treat bag? Have we teens lost the adorable part of the equation?
If you’re in high school and are lucky enough to have a younger sibling, guess what, you can still go trick or treating, a younger child is a great excuse to go.
If you and a group of friends are about to head out and are past freshman year, I’d think again. The first year of high school might be a good stopping point for trick or treating; it’s time to mature and move on from this fun past time. Once you hit ninth grade, you are old enough to get a job and go buy your own candy. To me it feels like we are robbing the the youth in a way because they are helpless, and this is one thing that they can do for themselves at this age. Showing up at strangers houses at 15 years of age and more, they question you and sometimes even deny you the candy because of the weirdness and awkwardness for someone that old to be trick or treating. I know people my age that have gone trick or treating and were denied candy and treats because of how old they looked and the people that opened the door thought it was wrong for them to be trick or treating
It is a personal choice as to what age you throw in your bag, but let’s face it, it really is like taking candy from a baby. Don’t you think? I don’t think there is anything wrong with taking your little brother, sister, or cousin trick or treating, but when you are just going with your friends and you are in your mid to late teens, well in my opinion that’s too old. I think we should leave the trick or treating to the kids and move on to other Halloween festivities that don’t compete with the cute little Angels, Spidermen, and Princesses.