Anonymous
10/12/2025 13:46
Subject: I hate the book character “Halloween” parade
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It’s really easy to find a book about anything.
What does your kid want to be? How old are they?
I can find an age appropriate book to match any costume in 5 minutes.
8 and The Rake
It’s a popular costume.
I have never heard of 8 and the rake. Niche horror movies are obviously not okay. No kid wants to be a grey blob for Halloween.
The kid is 8
The costume is The Rake
It is popular.
the Rake | Origin and History | Dictionary.com https://share.google/iURQjlJ066mOTtN2l
Anonymous
10/12/2025 13:23
Subject: Re:I hate the book character “Halloween” parade
Never heard of a word costume. What do they dress as? Words like pirate or paratrooper in which case no different from book character costume. Or is it words from a vocab list they are studying? Or just completely random like benign, comma, mandolin?
Anonymous
10/12/2025 13:18
Subject: I hate the book character “Halloween” parade
Anonymous wrote:You can find a book about literally anything. What was child going to be for trick or treating? Go to the library and find that thing as a book.
One year kid was an axolotl for trick or treating: found a non fiction book about axolotls.
One year kid was a Minecraft character: found a graphic novel about Minecraft.
One year kid wore their sports jersey and brought a mike lupica book about the sport.
We have never bought or arranged a second costume. Most years dc can find a matching book at the school library so I don’t have to do anything extra. “Book character day” allows those who are anti Halloween to still participate, so I’m all for it.
This. You work backward from what kid wants to dress up as and then find a book. There is a book for every possible thing they could dress as.
Anonymous
10/12/2025 09:39
Subject: I hate the book character “Halloween” parade
OP- you’re just old and cranky due to having a high schooler, 5th grader, and 2nd grader. I’d be cranky too.
Anonymous
10/12/2025 08:54
Subject: I hate the book character “Halloween” parade
We just work backwards and find a book to match. My kid is still young and usually wants to be a random but funny concept to her (like rainbow cat or a butterfly ghost), which I’d rather encourage than make her buy something on Amazon. We just kinda match it, sort of. I don’t worry about it too much.
I get they’re trying to get kids to wear appropriate costumes/non-macabre but it does feel a bit controlling.
I get they’re trying to get kids to wear appropriate costumes/non-macabre but it does feel a bit controlling.
Anonymous
10/11/2025 23:04
Subject: I hate the book character “Halloween” parade
Anonymous wrote:Honestly, this kinda stuff is why I'm so glad my kids go to a title I school. There's is SO MUCH bullsh*t like this at schools with richer kids. No, I'm not getting my kid what amounts to TWO halloween costumes! Crazy. Our kid's halloween parade at school is just that, and they even have extra costumes for kids who don't have one or can't afford one.
And spirit weeks! Ours are stuff that are easy to throw together in less than 10 minutes in the morning with stuff you already have. Wear stripes! Crazy socks! (just two that don't match) Pajama Day! Crazy hair! These are all so easy.
My friends in other districts have like costume theme days, things like wear your holiday socks (who has holiday socks?), dress like a book character (and not even at halloween), "Christmas in May" (oh, so now you need to buy Christmas things that fit for spring too?) that involve planning and spending money.
I always think about this stuff with the fertility rate panic. It's not One Big Thing. It's that every single thing about raising kids has gotten slightly harder in the last thirty years, and often for no good reason. Death by a thousand cuts!
We used to be at a title I and they had dress as a book character for Halloween, and the spirit weeks were always stuff we didn't have in hand (they were big on stuff like 70s day, dress like a medical professional, sometimes we'd have something in the costume box but often no).
We are now at a non title I and kids just wear their usual costume for Halloween, and spirit weeks are stuff like mismatched socks, or wear "ocean colors." It's super easy.
Anonymous
10/11/2025 22:40
Subject: I hate the book character “Halloween” parade
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It’s really easy to find a book about anything.
What does your kid want to be? How old are they?
I can find an age appropriate book to match any costume in 5 minutes.
8 and The Rake
It’s a popular costume.
I have never heard of 8 and the rake. Niche horror movies are obviously not okay. No kid wants to be a grey blob for Halloween.
Anonymous
10/11/2025 22:38
Subject: I hate the book character “Halloween” parade
Anonymous wrote:if it's just halloween, why the rouse of the book parade? Coming up with another costume is easy enough, but then you have rule following kids and kids who do whatever. (I guess like everything else).
To appease the parents who want to take the fun parts in school. You know the ones who think all these activities are taking away from "reading and writing"
Anonymous
10/11/2025 22:38
Subject: I hate the book character “Halloween” parade
Anonymous wrote:My kids just wear whatever their costume is going to be. Unless it’s too scary for school (has blood or weapons). Like, one year my kids wanted to be a mummy and a slice of pizza. That’s what they dressed as. No one cared.
+100
There's a book character for everything . It's just the public school's way of avoiding the controversy of Halloween (religious roots) and promoting early literacy. They check-off the boxes and your kid still wears a costume to school to be fun.
You are over thinking this anyway
Anonymous
10/11/2025 22:31
Subject: I hate the book character “Halloween” parade
if it's just halloween, why the rouse of the book parade? Coming up with another costume is easy enough, but then you have rule following kids and kids who do whatever. (I guess like everything else).
Anonymous
10/11/2025 17:51
Subject: I hate the book character “Halloween” parade
My kids would always just wear last year's halloween costume or pick some dress up clothes and we'd google to find a book to go along with it.
Anonymous
10/11/2025 16:03
Subject: I hate the book character “Halloween” parade
Anonymous wrote:It’s really easy to find a book about anything.
What does your kid want to be? How old are they?
I can find an age appropriate book to match any costume in 5 minutes.
8 and The Rake
It’s a popular costume.
Anonymous
10/10/2025 15:49
Subject: I hate the book character “Halloween” parade
I've never heard of this.
We do have 100th Day.
And all the useless Spirit Week stuff.
Midwest "good" public school. Middle class town.
We do have 100th Day.
And all the useless Spirit Week stuff.
Midwest "good" public school. Middle class town.
Anonymous
10/10/2025 15:43
Subject: I hate the book character “Halloween” parade
Just send the kid in an old Halloween costume. No one cares.
Anonymous
10/10/2025 15:42
Subject: Re:I hate the book character “Halloween” parade
Teacher here. They are Halloween parades. They just renamed them to be PC. All kids dress in their Halloween costumes unless they are very scary or violent. We don’t have it on Halloween but usually the day after because attendance is usually bad on that day.