Meltdown

Halloween is one of my favorite times of year. I love the sinister ideas that go behind it, the "evil" lurking around the corner, the cool nip in the air, changing of the leaves, carving pumpkins. And then I hate it. I hate the commercialism that surrounds it. Today I bought roughly $15 of candy so that the kids can take it to school next week and hand it out to their friends at their "fall party". It is called a fall party for two reasons. First is because it's fall...duh!! Second is so that the teachers don't have to worry about costumes and faculty don't have to worry about upsetting parents that don't like Halloween. Whatever.

This afternoon, I took the kids to Wal-Mart (what was I thinking!!) to get some Halloween treat bags to put their candy in. We walked down the candy aisle and Younger Son states he's looking for Crabby Patties. They weren't where they were before. So he eyes dum dum suckers. And proceeds to ask for them. My answer....NO!! He starts to pout. So I tell him they don't eat those when I buy them. He says something about the root beer ones. I tell him no, I'm not buying the suckers so that they can eat everything except the root beer and leave those behind. So they can go back to the bowl and look in it and turn their noses up at the root beer ones and drop it on the floor for the dog to eat. No. Tears start to fall. My answer is still no. I grab him by the hand and pull him down the candy aisle, still crying, and show him Crabby Patties. He pouts and says he doesn't want them, until I start to put them back. Immediately the tears dry up and he declares them all his. Then we make it through the rest of the store without any further incidences.

I hate Halloween.