For most children, Halloween is a frighteningly exciting time. Lots of sweets, fun costumes, hanging out with your friends, and a week off from school - what’s not to love?
However, for anxious children, Halloween can be a dreaded time. The scary costumes and films, the pressures of social anxiety and the jump scares of fireworks going off can really unsettle them.
If you're worried about how your little one is going to cope with the festivities this Halloween weekend, this is completely understandable. Below, we have curated a list of our top 5 pieces of advice, to help your child through these next few days. Hopefully, these tips will help your child to relax, and maybe, they might even end up enjoying themselves!
Make your preparations
The best thing you can do for your child is to ease them gently into the season of Halloween. Take brief trips into costume shops to introduce them to the costumes and decorations that they will be surrounded by during festivities. Reassure them that these costumes and scary stories are not real. To ease their worries, tell them fun stories about your own experiences of Halloween as a child, to see if this will pique their interest at all. Think of Halloween as a pool - you want to gently ease your little one into the water, not dive straight into the deep end.
The perfect costume
Finding a costume that your child will love can be a really simple way to get them excited about the Halloween season! Fun and lighthearted costumes such as Disney characters, the protagonist from their favourite book, or a career that they want to achieve when they grow up (such as a doctor or a popstar) can be an amazing alternative to the traditional terrifying masks and blood-spattered outfits. Not all costumes have to be scary ones!
Plan accordingly
If you think that your child is going to be overwhelmed by all of the Halloween events, then perhaps you should consider scaling back and making alternative arrangements, so that they can feel as comfortable as possible. Instead of trick-or-treating on Halloween night during peak times, have a think about going door-to-door in the early afternoon instead, while it is still bright outside and there will be less people about. Or, if you think your child won’t be able to handle the intensity of Halloween festivities, then you could always stay at home and have a much more low-key affair, with family members and a few friends instead.
It’s okay not to feel okay
When your child is feeling nervous or stressed out about something, the number one thing that they need from you is validation, and reassurance that it is okay to feel the way they are feeling. If they tell you that they are scared by the frightening Halloween costumes, reassure your little one that those feelings are perfectly normal to have at their age. Acknowledging their stressors is one of the most important things you do to help your child to get over their fears.
Know your child’s limits
Above all else, you should be aware of how much your child is able to cope with. If you are trick-or-treating and they are showing signs of being overwhelmed, don’t be hesitant to step in and take them home, whilst praising them for doing so well. If you are watching a Halloween-based film and they’re hiding behind the sofa cushions, you may need to turn the film off and change it to a lighthearted movie or one of their favourite TV shows. You don’t want to push your child to their limit!
