Keeping Your Light on This Halloween

Everyone said one day you’ll miss the piles of laundry, the little fingerprints, and the backyard filled with neighborhood kids. They were right.

Kids grow up so quickly and while you treasure the new and evolving relationship you have with your grown children, you just can’t help missing the little upturned noses looking up at you. The good news is that you can enjoy every moment of having adult children, and still have little ones be a special part of your life.

Keep Your Light On This Halloween

Don’t retreat back into your living room this Halloween. Remember when you took your kids around the neighborhood? Every light on brought pure joy to your kids hearts, as they raced up the steps, rang the bell, and bellowed “Trick or Treat!” enthusiastically. Then, running right back to do it all over again, their bags getting heavier by the minute.

This Halloween, you can be the cause of happiness in many children. Ask them what costume they’re wearing, their favorite candy, and send them on their way. Know that you had a small, but meaningful impact on those kids and the young parents at the end of the drive.

How to Celebrate

Halloween is the perfect time to let yourself enjoy the happiness that children bring to our lives and let your mind revel in the wonderful memories from when your own children were small. The nest might be empty, but that does not mean the fun needs to end.

Here are some ideas to keep the Halloween fun, and Halloween memories, alive in your heart and home.

  1. Decorate. Get festive with fun indoor and outdoor Halloween decorations. Whether you add little touches like Halloween throws or doormats, or go full on spook-a-rific with a haunted house, decorating will keep the fun in the day and your life.
  2. Give away nostalgic candy from your childhood and that of your children’s. From bit-o-honey to bottle caps, nothing can stir warm memories more than something special from our own childhood.
  3. Give special prizes to trick-or-treat visitors. Keep special prizes for kids that look like the need special encouragement, or for costumes that remind you of your favorite Halloween past.
  4. Fill treat bags for Halloween. Take time to collect special treats to fill treat bags for your little visitors. They will love the surprise and you get the pleasure of making kids extra happy.
  5. Throw a party. Have your kids over and let them pass out candy to the costumed youngsters. 
  6. Dress up in the craziest costume ever.
  7. Organize a Halloween or fall event for other empty nesters, like a hayride with spiked cider.
  8. Send your kids a Halloween care package filled with a fun costume,  a treat bag, candy, a flashlight, a band aid for skinned knees, and a reminder to be in an a decent hour. They will appreciate the thought and you get to hang on to the fun!

Just because the kids are grown and gone doesn’t mean the fun needs to end.  As the kids grow, we do too. The opportunities change and open new doors of Halloween fun.  And the best part is—it probably is not long before your home is filled with the patter of little feet once again.