Daily Vegas ~ When Halloween costumes go too far...

I am a newer parent. My son is only 16.5 months old, so I am not going to pretend to be an expert in the ways of parenting by any means, but in recent years I have noticed a trend in costumes. Children as young as my son, dressed up as what I can only assume is something their parents think is funny. It really makes me wonder, when did Halloween become a reason to flaunt bad parenting choices??

Recently we spent an evening at the Haunted Harvest. While walking in, my sister in law pointed out the costumes of the kids in front of us. The children were probably about 10, 6, and 3 years old. They had dressed like characters from the recent movie kick-ass. Now this film was rated R, so really these children were dressed as characters from movies they shouldn't have seen.

Okay, maybe the 10 year-old dressed as Kick-Ass (and that is a big maybe) would have seen this movie, but dressing your 3 year old as Red Mist, and 6 year old as Hit-Girl? These are not your typical superheros. They are vigilante wannabe superheros who use extreme violent measures to stop the "bad guys".
(Note - I have not seen this movie. I got my information from my sister in law who is a huge movie buff.)

Have you been on Photobucket lately. Take a look at the current number 1 voted costume. I know some may disagree with me here (which is fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinions), but really this child is not much older than my son. Why is it funny to dress him up as a serial killing doll complete with bloody knife?? I am choosing not to post a picture of this "Chucky" costume for the simple reason that he is an innocent party in this mess of a Halloween costume.

Finally this last costume isn't for children, it is for "adults." But really - when did Elmo become sexy? And I would imagine that the people buying this costume mostly have children who like Sesame Street, which really? Sexy Elmo? Do I need to get further into this?

I'm not even going to get into the teenage sexy costumes. The things I saw on some 12 year olds in the past few years, I wouldn't even wear as an adult. At least throw a pair of leggings underneath.

I fully understand Halloween is a holiday to have fun, let loose, be silly. But there are better ways to dress your children up than vigilante murders, Serial killing Dolls. And if you plan on being Sexy Elmo, do me a favor, please don't trick or treat in it.

Sorry, I will step off my soap box now. It doesn't happen often, but every once in a while I get to a point where I just need to get something off my chest. Now should I have a teenage daughter one day, I am sure we will have many conversations on appropriate clothing. It just makes me sad when there are so many sweet and funny costumes for little children, that some costumes just go too far.