Hallowe'en

Kid#1 went as a lawyer - telling people that he'd sue them if they didn't fork over the candy. Wisely, everyone did. People generally agreed that he had the scariest costume.

Kid#2 resurrected a costume from 2 yrs ago, when he went as a snail. The costume is quite ingenious (and I say that even though I had nothing to do with it). It is decorated foam that covers a backpack, and the candy goes into the backpack through a flap in the top of the shell. It was Kid#2's idea, but Kid#1 and hubby built it.

Kid#2 got a lot of "wow" and "that's so cool" and other positive attention. Kid#1 did not.

Kid#1 sulked and said he hated Hallowe'en.

Sigh.

Hallowe'en is not my favourite occasion either. I remember as a kid having a perfectionistic bent around costumes - wanting the best one, wanting to be clever and original, wanting a great creative amazing something that everyone would adore and I'd shine. I never got it. One year, I went as a robot that I made out of cardboard boxes. Problem - we lived in the country and had to drive to each house. I had forgotten to engineer getting in and out of cars in my costume design. Another year, I went as a crash test dummy - it was clever except that I looked nothing like a crash test dummy. I worked from memory instead of research and no one got it.

So I completely empathize with Kid#1's bummed-outedness.

However, I reminded him of two things:

1. he had actually created the snail costume - so every time someone said that it was a great costume, he should take pride in that because even though Kid#2 was wearing it, Kid#1 was the actual creator.

2. going out for candy was totally optional and he could walk home by himself at any time.

We ended up staying out for an hour and a half and the lawyer's satchel was full to bursting when we got home. Kid#1 has plans for next year's costume already.

Clearly, you can't keep a good lawyer down.