Halloween Safety: Trick or Treat Tips

10 Tips for a Fun and Safe Halloween

1. Drivers need to be extra careful on the road. On Halloween, the streets are crawling with ghouls, witches, and other creatures. Individual kids and groups can pop up where you least expect them on dark roads. Take it more slowly behind the wheel and be more cautious.
2. Take an adult along. Trick or treating isn’t what it was years ago. You need to be more careful in multiple ways. Even older kids need supervision. Adults can hang back so that kids feel independent, but they are still under your protective watch.
3. Help your kids pick a safe and fun costume. Make sure that costumes and masks don’t obstruct vision. Be sure the costume material is fireproof or treated to be fire retardant.
4. Be visible. Carry a flashlight and glow stick, and use reflective tape to help make kids more visible to drivers.
5. Show and remind kids how to cross the street safely. Cross at marked intersections if possible and look both ways. If in a group, older kids should take the hand of younger kids. If there are no sidewalks, always walk facing traffic.
6. Feed kids a good meal before trick or treating.  It reduces the temptation to eat candy before they get home. An adult should inspect all candy before eating it. Besides, there may be something good that needs “adult sampling.”
7. Use cell phones to stay in touch with older kids who are going out on their own. Plan a route and be sure your kids know to stay within it. You would like to know where they are even with cell phone contact.
8. Review everyday safety tips. Kids shouldn’t go inside the house of someone they don’t know. Don’t take rides from strangers.
9. Know the details if kids are attending a party on their own. Make sure you’ve met the parents who will be supervising and get contact numbers.
10. Discuss the difference between “tricks” and “vandalism.” No kid is perfect, and even well-behaved kids can bend to peer pressure. Throwing eggs at a house may seem funny, but it causes damage that can ruin Halloween.  Even pranks that don’t cause permanent damage, such as TP-ing, make a huge mess for a homeowner. If your kids are caught doing something, don’t clean up after them. Make them apologize and clean up themselves.  It’s how they learn right from wrong…and responsibility.