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Dad Field Manual · Field card 171 · Outdoors

Trick-or-treat night: Dad's plan for the route

Halloween night goes better with a route, a light, a time to head home and a candy check at the end. Here's the whole night on one page.

Time
2 hours
Cost
About $5
Ages
3 to 12
Where
Your neighborhood

What you need

  • Reflective tape for costumes and bags
  • A flashlight for each kid
  • Light-colored treat bag
  • Comfortable shoes that fit
  • Charged phone and a photo of each kid in costume

Before you go

  • Be seen. AAP and CPSC say bright costumes, reflective tape on costumes and bags, and a flashlight for each child. Costumes short enough not to trip on.
  • Corners only. AAP: cross as a group at crosswalks, never mid-block or between parked cars. Don't assume drivers will stop. Use sidewalks. With none, AAP says walk at the far edge of the road, facing traffic. Phones and earbuds stay put away.
  • Porch lights, doorsteps only. Visit only homes with the light on. AAP says kids never go into a home or car for a treat.
  • Check before eating. FDA says wait until home, eat only commercially wrapped treats, and throw out anything with unusual appearance, discoloration, pinholes or tears. Read the ingredient label too: a good wrapper doesn't make a treat allergen-safe.
  • Food allergy. AAP says a child with a food allergy carries their prescribed epinephrine, and every adult supervising knows how to use it.

Steps

  1. Plan the route at dinner. Draw the route, mark the corners, say the start-home time out loud. Eat dinner first.
  2. Light up the costumes. Reflective tape front and back and on bags. Flashlight each. Face paint over masks.
  3. Take the photo and set the rules. Phone photo of each costume. Rules: walk, corners together, never go inside.
  4. Walk the route. Sidewalks, porch-lit houses only, Dad on the street side, hands held at crossings, phones away.
  5. Head home on time. Ten-minute warning, then start walking home at the agreed time while they still have energy.
  6. Check the candy at the table. Dump bags under good light. Wrapped treats only; toss torn ones. Read labels. Under-4s: no hard candy, gum, gummies, popcorn, small candies or nuts. Pick tonight's few.

If it stalls

  • If a little one is scared of a decorated house, skip it without a fuss: "That one's too spooky for us. Next!"
  • If they want to keep going, point to the start-home time you agreed on at dinner. That's why you said it then.
Start home at ____
houses visited
Signed off: can do this.Signed by Date