Following Trick-or-treating Kids in Car

Where I grew up it was a bad neighborhood...so my mom "trucked" us into grandma's neighborhood. She always parked at Gma's and we all walked together.

I am lucky, we have an awesome neighborhood and lots of kids. We live on the "main" street in a corner house. We had tons of TOTers. Some teens who didn't dress up, if I had been home I would have said, "no costume = no candy"...I am a firm believer in this. My husband, no so much. I don't care if you are 35 and TOTing...I'll give you candy if you have a costume on. This is probably why I do the walking and hubs passes out. I'm a ol' meanie...

Added: As far as money issues go...ok I get it. Howeverthere are still costumes that can be made at home, with items you already have.
We were poor growing up, one year my mom took an old pillow case and made me into an envelope...used my white tights to go under it and voila...I had a costume.

When I lived in PA parents would be following in cars, some would park at the end of the street and walk. All the kids were in costumes. But where we lived there were no sidewalks and the houses were far apart and far from the street. I think since it was in the mountains some would come to different neighborhoods because some of the roads were just too steep and people there would not hand anything out. I also wonder if some parents want to bring their kids somewhere safe, I know I would.
The first time I took my daughter trick or treating she was 3 and we went to the town where my MIL was living. The fire dept would close the streets so the kids could walk in the street with no problems and not have to worry about traffic.

drives me nuts! we had a bunch of kids out last night and some almost got run over because drivers were going to fast, or were trying to watch their kids that were walking and not the street in general.

I can see if you live on a street with not a lot of houses or a bad neighborhood that you might drive to a nice, safer neighborhood with lots of houses, but park the car and walk or walk half of the hood and then move the car. we had one Dad last year that was on his riding lawn mower with a trailer full of kids. He'd pull to the end of the street, they'd all climb out, hit the street, climb back into the trailer and go to the next street.

If our daughter was trick or treating age.. I would have left our street last night.. I noticed hardly any of my neighbors had their porch lights on! Makes me mad because we all trick or treated with our kids, the least we can do is give out candy to this group of children.

We only had about 8 kids. I gave them handfuls of candy, because of the lack of participation..

Some people are just Scrooges, even when it is not Christmas.

Well, here in MN parents do it to stay warm! We had a beautiful Halloween last night, but Oct. 31 can be downright nasty up here and my husband has followed along behind in the car in the past to keep an eye on the kids and to stay warm, listen to the radio and maybe do some work. We do not drive our kids from neighborhood to neighborhood, although sometimes they will join a friend in a different neighborhood or a friend from another area will come here to join our kids, which is what happened last night.

We've invited friends to come TOT in our neighborhood because they live in rural areas where it's not practical to go from house to house. I know others come because their neighborhood isn't safe.

I drove around MY OWN neighborhood. Only every 10th light is on so I had to cover several blocks in order to hit just 10 houses. I get out, let the kids out, we do a house or 2, they get back in and we drive down the street to the next light. It might look like I trucked em in, but I assure you, I stayed within 5 blocks of my house. I dont know the people 5 blocks over, so they may think what ever the hell they like. But, I didn't run into anything but smiling happy people.

Your 2nd question - kids in street clothes - I dont have teens out trick or treating, but a mom of teens told me her kids think they are too cool for costumes and at that in between stage where they want to be cool, but are still just kids. She wanted to take them out so they could still enjoy some good clean fun and remind them they are still kids. She went with to be sure they didn't cause any mischeif. I don't know if that's a good enough reason for yall, but I understood it perfectly.

No idea why adults trick or treat. Maybe they are bored, stoned college kids.

Why didn't I park and walk around with the kids? Because they would want to walk the 5 blocks and then cry all the way home because it's too far. It's so much easier just to bring the car with. Then if there is a bathroom emergency or somebody falls inthe dark and skins a knee or they get sleepy and crnaky and mom wants to pull the plug - the car is only a few feet away.

I hope I have adequately explained our trick or treating philospohy.

I hate when the parents follow the kids in their cars! This makes it so dangerous- Park, get out and WALK!!! (We had this problem too) Phew..... I feel better now.
Onto your question. This has been the first year we have taken our kids to another area to TorT. We live in a small town and there are not alot of "neighborhood" type areas. The street we live on the house are very far apart, not alot of kids and most lights are off. (we had 3 groups of kids come to our house last night- about 15 total) Yes- we still have someone at home handing out candy while we go out to TT. So for our kids to get some real fun from TorT we go to another nieghborhood as most of our town does. We have two good subdivision type areas and they really have fun on Halloween. They expect lots of kids (half the town) and they dont seem to mind. I know a few people that live in these areas and they say they love the crowds!

I don't care WHERE the kids are coming from (I'm suspecting unsafe neighborhoods, apartment buildings, etc) but the following in the car seems dangerous to me. We had a local mom doing this last night (there was freezy rain) and I'm just thinking "If it's OK for your kid to be out in it walking around, then just park, get an umbrella and walk with him!"

I used to live in such a neighborhood where kids from the surrounding areas would pour into our streets. Besides having my landscape lighting demolished, flowers and plants stampeded, and trash strewn all over our neighborhood, it always burned my butt when the un-costumed parents would hold out their pillowcases for candy, too. I mean, really? Really?

I think it's fine for kids to cross neighborhoods. But respect the properties, stick to the hardscaped walkways while on people's properties and please! take your trash and wrappers with you.

And when there are that many kids in the streets, PARK your car and walk.

We are lucky to live in a nice neighborhood. Right around the corner from us are some really beautiful homes that back up to a golf course - these houses are always decorated from the sidewalk to the roof for every holiday! Anyway, as you might imagine this is quite the hot spot for trick-or-treaters. All the neighborhood kids walk down this street, and there are always a lot of kids bused in. I think, based upon my observations last night, that they are probably from the rough neighborhood that's a few miles away from here. I can't blame the parents. I wouldn't want my kids walking door to door in the neighborhood they live in. Why not take them somewhere where the houses are beautiful and it's safe to walk around? It reminded me how lucky we are to take this for granted. I don't mind having people bring their kids here. All the kids I saw were in costumes and had good manners.

As far as parents following the kids in cars, we saw someone doing that last night - and like I said, our neighborhood is absolutely overrun with kids. So many they can't all fit on the sidewalks. It's dangerous to follow the kids in a car. My husband knocked on one lady's car window and asked her to please park and walk; he was concerned for the kids' safety because this lady wasn't looking in front of her, she was looking at her kids walking to someone's front door, while her car was still rolling forward! Some people are totally clueless.

We go to a friends neighborhood every year. They block the streets for 3 blocks and almost every house participates. Lots of people come from surrounding neighborhoods. We all park and walk. I would never follow in my car, I would be to afraid to hit someone!

We drove our little ones to grandmas house, then to uncle aunt and paw paws house. Then we came back home and handed out candy while I took my son around the block. It was our first time to not trunk-or -treat but to actually go door to door. It was fun but dissappointing on how many lights were off. I would get one house then skip three or four. It was not very good. Although our neighborhood is one that loads of people come too. Alot of the people that are trucked in and in street clothes cannot afford to buy or make costumes. Truly most of them dont have running water.There is a lot of section 8 housing hear our neighborhood as our city has no zoning. As far as the parents that trick or treat...its a trashy thing to do. stating they have a sick kid at home. i dont buy that for one moment. you can always tell that parents are lieing either boldly or sheepshly.

That same thing is puzzling to me also. We have that same issue here in Amarillo with people from the other side of town "busing" their kids in to the better neighborhoods that have the "good candy". Quite frankly, it irritates me to no end! And my thoughts are they aren't handing out candy in their own neighborhood, but they have no problem sending their kids door to door requesting candy from others. If you are going to send your kids out asking for candy, you also need to do the same for other peoples kids.

When bigger kids/adults come to my house in street clothes trick or treating, I don't give them candy. I just tell them that trick or treating is reserved for littler kids and I'm not giving them candy.

As for parents following them around in the car, my answer to that is it's pure laziness. If you are going over to a neighborhood in your car that's not your own, then park your car and walk with your kids. Exercise is good and you aren't driving a vehicle through a neighborhood with a ton of kids hoping not to hit one of them.

We don't live in a city - I have one neighbor. So yes, I do take my kids into the nearest town for ToT - many families in the area do. When I lived in a suburb before I had kids, I never worried if the kids were 'local' or not, I just bought as much candy as I wanted and turned off the porchlight when it was gone.

The parents that drive their kids around make me crazy! Unless you're disabled, burn a calorie or two with your kids! We probably walked at least two miles last night with a 4 yo and 7 yo. Imagine that!

We don't do this, but I think it's obvious why they do........ Free candy!

My kids are a little older and in that awkward phase where they don't really fit in a ToT category. This year was the first time they have gotten to go. I got to go once as a kid because we lived in the country on 4 acres and my mother has never been a fan of halloween in the first place. My kids didn't get to go because we were on 35 acres and the nearest house is over a 1/4 mile away. We moved into our neighborhood last year and I had 1 toddler come to the door. The development wasn't completely finished yet. this year it was completely finished and we had between 20 and 30 kids. My mom came by and got them and also took them to my brother's neighborhood so I could finish passing out candy. I don't think it is a problem for people to bring their kids to our neighborhood especially since we are so near so many rural areas. In other words, if you're going to hand out candy why do it if your going to be judging the people coming to your door. If that was the way I felt I just wouldn't do it at all....

Last night as we were walking our kids from house to house we walked up to one with a running car sitting out front. A couple kids hopped out and ran to the door. This big kid in a huge chicken costume walked across the street towards my husband and me, yanked off his chicken head and asked, "Why do people drive their kids from house to house?? What happened to walking on Halloween?? THAT'S what is causing childhood obesity, not hamburgers!" Then he put his chicken head back on and walked up to the door. It was hysterical!!!

It was a beautiful night to walk along the street with our kids!! I don't understand why people sit in their cars and wait.

Edited: We go to a friend's neighborhood because we live in the country and have never had a trick or treater come to the door and there are only a couple neighbors. We only go if we are invited because I feel weird, otherwise. I offered to take candy for her to pass out and she didn't want us to so we took a thank you gift.

We don't do it but we live in a rural area in a pretty big subdivision. There are quit a few farms in the area so some of those parents will bring their kids to our subdivision to trick or treat. Its fine with me because they have cool customes. I do hate when kids trick or treat and don't have customes. It could be a money issue though.

funny that you bring up parents follow in the car, my friends brother was parked in front of her house to go trick-pr-treating & his car got hit from a parent following

The only time we drove as kids was if it rained. My own children walk and we only go 4 or 5 blocks. They don't need the candy and I refuse to drive them. The exercise is good for them and they are only alloted 1 big piece or 2 little candies a day. What child needs a pillowcase full of candy?

Some kids live in areas where it is literally unsafe to walk around (thinking of some neighborhoods on the south side of Chicago). Sometimes they come out to the suburbs to T/T.

Last year we had 1 year olds with us, and it was COLD! So, my BIL drove his car so my son and niece could sit in the warm car, listening to kiddie music. My sister and I took our older kids around.

Some parents might be disabled.

If a parent is being lazy, well, that speaks for itself.

In our previous neighborhood, there were only a few houses that participated in trick-or-treating...it would get pretty depressing for the kids to walk around for half an hour and only get two houses giving out candy, so we learned to go to another neighborhood. Not sure about the following in the car...we always just parked at one end of the block, went down one side of the street, back up the other, then drove home. Much more fun now that we are in a neigborhood that participates :)

Are you talking about not trick or treating in your neighborhood, or following the kids in the car from house to house? Honestly, we TOTed with a family member in her neighborhood because our neighborhood sucks, quite frankly. I would not follow my kid in a car though, and I wouldn't just randomly show up to a different neighborhood. I think it's kind of pointless, really, and a little greedy, and something that parents create & feed into. I mean, how much freakin' candy does your kid need?!

I can't answer most of your Q's but I can answer 1:

In Seattle, trick o treating isn't big (sniff). I'm pretty sure it has to do with our heinous hills and rain. There is ONE "FreakStreet" neighborhood (3 streets this year!!!) with about 100 houses on it that go ALL out. Neighborhood covenant and waiting lists to buy into it kind of all out.

So thousands of people, including us!, come trick o treating there. Otherwise, only 1:5 to 1:10 houses that you go to will have candy in the city. Unless you go to a trick o treat area... (malls, neighborhood, etc) it's just a Very. Very. Very. long walk with a lot of disappointment.

We can't follow in cars, though. We have to park blocks and blocks away... because the streets are all closed off!!! :) Hundreds of people at any given time are on those streets and it's an absolute blast! EVERYONE is in costume. Parents, kids, teens, adults. Everyone is welcome. Not having grown up in Seattle it reminds me of MY childhood... where the same was true: Everyone dresses up, everyone is welcome. None of this: You're too old, or sanitized "fall" instead of halloween stuff.

Pure fun.

There is a neighborhood in the Dallas area that is like what RIley described. Neighborhoods like that are SO AWESOME on Halloween! It's so much fun (for me too even!!) to see all the kids dressed up and costumes and peoples laughing and getting scared and all that!

I notice that in my neighborhood too. I think some of it for us is that I know we have a few big apartment complexes not too far away and maybe people choose our neighborhood b/c the apartments don't really ToT. I do not like parents getting candy for infants in the stroller who are clearly too young to eat candy...it's a whole other thing to have a 2 or 3 y/o who is in the stroller b/c they are tuckered out and can't keep up with their older sibling, that I think is fine. I like for people to be in costumes for sure! If an adult is in a costume and asks for candy then I guess I'm fine giving it away but I still think it's weird! ;) I give it even when they aren't in costume but I am secretly judging them!

OMG...maybe I am a Halloween scrooge too! ;) I guess I just don't like to feel taken advantage of and although most of the kids/people that come to our house are on the up and up, those few that aren't do leave a bad taste in my mouth!

Well, I won't follow my kid in the car, but next year I'll "truck" her in because our neighborhood is Orthodox and they don't do trick or treat. We'll park and walk. This year she went to the mall's event.

I think the rest of it is rudeness and laziness and selfishness. You shouldn't drive your kid from neighborhood to neighborhood. Find a friend and go to ONE. Dress your kids up. I'll give candy to teenagers - in costume. If SD has gone to our local "scary street", she and her friends will ring the bell (and likely be our only trick or treaters) and we'll give them candy.

Never heard such a thing, don't people stay within their own communities or neighborhoods? Last year Halloween I was released from the hospital having my second child and I walked with my family. How lazy are these parents? Thank God for a gated community.

Well, our neighborhood used to be great. Now it stinks.
Only 3 houses of about 30 actually decorate, and maybe 5 give out candy
We have a group of about 15 of us (kids) with parents who all meet up at this one particular neighborhood close to ours. EVERY house in the neighborhood is totally decked out
They do haunted houses, at least every other one, and are all decorated to the max! (I think they are all trying to out do the others) Anyway, we all meet up there, park, and walk around the whole neighborhood, about a 2 mile walk. It's a blast! The kids go through the haunted houses and get candy. There have even been some people in the past few years who drive by with their candy because they said they don't get any trick or treaters where they live, so they hand it out of their vehicles. LOL! We leave out candy in a pail on our front porch for anyone who does come to our house while we are gone. We bring some too, and have no problem handing it out as we walk along since we aren't home. SOme of the people who have the haunted houses set up have adult beverages for all of the parents too. Last year they had jello shots, the year before appletinis in vials, and this year they had small shots in medicine cups. (Kamikazees) It's really fun. There was also a house that was set up with people from a church group who were handing out candy and water for the kids, and pens, ketchains and hot dogs for the parents. (all for free) It is a great neighborhood and all of the people really get into the spirit of Halloween. It's safe, very few cars driving by, and the people who don't have haunted houses set up actually sit by the end of their driveways with their candy so you don't have to walk all the way down the drive and walkway.
As far as walking / driving along with the kids, well I am disabled, and we usually walk the 1st mile or so and my hubby will go back for the car after that. Then he will drive a few houses up and park to wait for us in case I need to sit or ride a while. He is not in the area where the kids are, and drives very slow. This year I brought my cane and had a wheelchair in the car so if I needed a ride he could g back for that instead of the car, but I was fine and made it through the whole 2 miles.
Back in the day when our neighborhood was the one to go to, and we had all the houses participating................ we had carloads of kids driven here to trick or treat. I LOVED it because I really enjoyed seeing all of the cool costumes and enjoyed walking around our own "turf" with our friends and then getting to get home early to pass out candy here. It's fun to see the reactions to our decorations. (we still decorate, but like I said we are one of just a few) I really wish all of the neighbors would do it again, butu sadly most of their kids grew up and moved away. :(

That's silly to me also - and dangerous with so many kids walking and it being dark out. I drive to my parents neighborhood (where I spent a few years in highschool and know all of the neighbors) and let them do the few houses of the neighbors I am still close with, so they see them. However, we do the main trick or treating in our own neighborhood. I am interested in the responses you get, because I don't get it either.

I noticed the same in my neighborhood last night. We live in a nice safe community, not high dollar but nice and have quite a few households that decorate and hand out candy. We always invite my sister & a few friends and their kids to come Trick or Treat with us in our neighborhood, as the ones they live in aren’t as nice or as safe. I understand that most parents, regardless of their income, want their kids to have an enjoyable Halloween and if that means a less fortunate child coming into my neighborhood and getting candy (and a scare) from my husband LOL then so be it. I however hate to see all the vehicles driving up and down the streets. There is only two ways in/out of our neighborhood on the same road and there is no cut through. Park and get your lazy you know what out of the car and walk with your kids like the rest of us! With that many kids out walking and crossing streets and it being dark, kids in costume can be difficult to see. Very thankful that we have a couple of squad cars patrolling our neighborhood on Halloween. I actually witnessed our patrol last night pull up next to a minivan stopped in the MIDDLE of the street and asked them to pull over and park or move on.

We have trick or treaters that are driven in. They do come from poor neighborhoods where if they wanted to trick or treat there would be only a couple homes, theirs would probably not be one open either. Without judging the right or wrong of it I do know the quality of candy in our subdivision has dropped because we simply cannot afford to give full sized candy bars to a hundred kids that aren't from our subdivision.

Since we stopped giving out the really good stuff they have moved on to other subdivisions, take that for what it is worth, ya know?

What was always strange to me is they would just drop the kids off and leave, coming back an hour or so later. Still if they had stayed in their cars following the kids we would have called the police. With that many kids running around they would have hit someone. We don't take cars out for that reason sure as heck are not going to allow strangers to hit our kids.

The neighborhood we live in is pretty crappy & nobody gives out candy so we do drive to another neighborhood in our town. With that being said, so does what seems like pretty much the entire rest of the town because when we pulled up last night to park our car (yes, we park the car & walk around with our kids who are dressed in costumes) we struggled to find a space. It was really nice though because I would guess about 80% of the homes in this particular neighborhood were decorated & were giving out candy. There were a ton of parents walking with their kids so almost no cars driving down the streets.

About the driving issue: In our neighborhood, the whole time trick or treating (we were out walking with our kids... we were dressed up as well, but certainly didn't get candy! LOL!) we only saw one car driving the whole time, and they were driving VERY slowly, and it wasn't because they were following their kids.

I don't know what to say about this. I would never do it, I think that there are many other options (walk with them, have another adult walk with them, take them to an apartment instead! lol, etc) to take. I think it is safety hazard and a bad example. Lazy bums! lol! actually, if a parent is disabled or has a sleeping baby with them, I can see that- BUT that doesn't mean that another parent or adult or teen can't take the kids... I dunno. Bad idea.

Come from another neighborhood issue: NO BIGGIE! Their neighborhood may not be safe, they may be meeting with someone that lives in that neighborhood, they may not have one, etc... We always end up with candy left over( we still get a good amount or Trick or Treater's though:) Come one, come all! :)

Some parents dont like to walk around with their kids. And yes, the one's in cars are usually from a poorer neighborhood trying to insure their kids get some good stuff. I remember that happening a lot in our neighborhood when mine were little. They probably walked their kids in their neighborhood and then drove to yours and stayed in the car while the kids did their thing. It's pretty common.

While walking with my kids yesterday we could NOT shake this lady who was driving her beat up car that had so much smog coming out of it that we were choking. I was getting so annoyed. PARK your car and stop blowing your crud into me and my child's face! We finally went onto a different street and who shows up a minute late??? Grrr...

We go to a different popular neighborhood, because our neighborhood is not very friendly, unsafe and no one passes out candy here. One day, when we can afford to live in a better neighborhood, I plan to return the favor to these kids. But now, I do by volunteering at school's fall carnivals and the like. We do park and walk around with our children, we dress up and our kids say "Thank you!" to each candy giver. It's the safe and responsible thing to do.

We sometimes do, because we only have one neighbor, lol, not much candy!
So we go to a nice safe neighborhood and TOT. We do dress up though, otherwise whats the point!

Last night I saw a woman follow her kids around in a golf cart! I thought it was awesome. That being said I walk with my kids:)

I REALLY wish people would not do this. It is dangerous. People should avoid driving at all through neighborhoods on Halloween if they can help it. If you feel the need to drive your kids to a different area to trick-or-treat, that's fine, but get your lazy behind out and walk with the kids like everyone else.

We go to a friends neighborhood every year. Its not safe to walk in our neighborhood because were we live there are no side walks and the road curves a lot. I don't even walk during the day time because of the way people drive.

We make it a party. Have a huge group over at her house. Food and games then we all go out as a group. Last night we had 12 kids. Everyone had a great time. All the dad's stayed back at the house watching football and handing out candy. We were out walking for almost 2 hours. LOL!

It only happens once a year might as well make it as fun as possible.

We live in an area with several small towns clustered together. The rest of the unicorporated areas are not "neighborhoods" in the traditional sense. Big lots, long driveways, hills etc. Each town has an area that is more suburban tract with sidewalks and is flat. We go to our friends hood and use their home as a base and walk from there. No one drives, in fact a car down the streets would be dangerous with all those people. We park a few blocks away and walk in.
The driving thing is just laziness, part of the fun is the community of it. Our entire town is really small, we know lots of people in the tricking neighborhood. Teachers, coaches friends etc. decorate their homes, serve food & drink, watch sprots, it so fun and families are spending time together. By driving people miss all that and it seems the focus is just on getting more candy, sort of sad.