Halloween will be here in 11 days. Now is the time to assess whether or not you are a good mom. A good mom will have already hand sewn an elaborate Anna or Elsa costume, complete with replica braids made out of yarn. I saw this on Pinterest the other day, so I know really good moms are actually doing it. Pinterest is my barometer of good momness. I look at the amazing crafts, recipes, clothing, hair, and heart-felt stenciled sentiments that fill the homes of really good moms around the world and try to mimic them with varying amounts of success. Well, if you are keeping an eye on your Pinterest boards as Halloween approaches, you will know that it is crunch time in the mom department.
A good mom will have picked the theme for her children’s Halloween party. What will it be this year? Monsters University? Gone Batty? Skeletons in the Closet? Whatever you have decided I’m sure it will be spooky. You will have created coordinating cupcake picks, goodie bags and decorations for the ultimate spooky night. This is just prep, though. The actual test will be the day of Halloween, when a really good mom will hand-pipe spooky spider webs onto every cupcake and use tweezers to place itty-bitty sugar spiders on top. You can set these masterpieces next to the pitcher of gummi-worm guts lemonade. You’ll serve that in the paper cups you stenciled the names of kids on two weeks ago.
You haven’t carved the pumpkins yet, right? Good moms know not to do that until just a week before Halloween, or the pumpkins shrivel and mold. This is the week where good moms plan their trips to the local pumpkin patch so their children can hand pick a pumpkin grown by a real farmer in overalls. That very farmer may own the corn maze on the other side of town. It wouldn’t be Halloween if you didn’t go to a corn maze. I also like to visit the local rustic village that is decorated with hundreds of witches for the holiday. The photo-ops are endless. If you want, you can combine the pumpkin patch trip with the corn maze or country village full of witches trip. I know, as a good mom, I like to do all three trips separate, so that I can create three times the spooky memories for my children.
Here’s the real test. How would you rate your decorations on a scale from 1-10? Is your mantle draped with gauzy webs and pipe cleaner spiders? Or did you go with the haunted house motif? How many ghosts are drifting above your head right now? Mummies, bats, cats? Papier-mâché, cardboard, cloth? That should take care of the inside. What kind of Halloween bling do you have outside? I saw a template in a magazine for a life-size circle of witches dancing around a cauldron. You just blow up the pictures at a local Kinkos/Fedex, trace them onto plywood, use a jigsaw to cut all 7 of them out, paint them black, stake them in the ground, backlight them with landscape lights, and voile! Easy-peasy! It’s one of those projects that separates a mom from a good mom. I’m sure you finished it a week ago.
I love Halloween. I participate in all the above mentioned festivities to some degree. I don’t think participation in holiday activities sets you apart as a good mom. Making sure your children are kind and literate keeps you on your good mom toes. I feel holidays are a chance to be distracted from the daily routines I usually perform. I am a stay-at-home mom, and one thing SAHMs know about is the repetitiveness of a job. It’s nice to fit in a little fun around the usual chores I do each day.
I like to do craft projects with my kids as a hobby. I ask three basic questions for any craft. Can I do it with my kids? Is it cute? Is it cheap? It is a great way to spend time with them, and the bonus is the cute decorations for the house. I’m more of a cut-some-holes-in-a-sheet-poof-you’re-a-ghost kind of mom when it comes to costumes. If it were not for Halloween Express, my daughters would be ghosts every year. I was a ghost every year as a child, and now I know why. The time and energy required for just the Anna and Elsa hair I saw on Pinterest was mind boggling. Not going to do it. I really enjoy throwing parties for my girls. I like to see them happy and involved with their friends and family, but parties can take a lot of time to plan. I am a SAHM, but this does not mean I have nothing but free time on my hands. This is a common misconception of SAHMs. We actually do work all day, every day. If I have a little spare time, I will try to squeeze in a birthday or holiday party for my girls, but it’s not my main priority.
What I enjoy doing for any holiday, is going on fun outings and participating in community events. I get maximum time to entertainment value in these situations. For starters, I love to go the pumpkin patch! I know they are the exact same pumpkins I could buy at Walmart, but there’s no guy in farmer overalls helping my cute girls inspect each pumpkin at Walmart. I really like when you can go to a pumpkin patch that is also a corn maze. I haven’t made it to the rustic village with a hundred witches yet, but I will be sure to bring my camera when I go. Because of my heart condition, I no longer go to haunted houses. I’m not sad about that in the slightest. Even though I love Halloween, I really don’t like feeling scared. Spooky is a good middle-ground for me. Let me know if you have any other ideas for fun Halloween outings.
Halloween is such a fun, non-committal holiday. It’s not religious, it’s not political, and it’s not a national or state holiday. Everybody can participate in their own way without any feelings of getting it right or wrong, because the whole thing is completely made-up. I will not be pinning a single craft, costume, or party idea to my Pinterest page, but don’t rule me out as a bad mom yet. First come check out the shriveled pumpkins on my porch steps and admire the crepe paper bats in my window. Check out this and my other posts on my blog http://springlane.weebly.com/
