Happy Halloween, how will your children be tonight?

Happy Halloween, How will your children cope tonight?

Celebrations can always be a challenging time for our children, the loss of rountine, the unexpected surprise and the noise, overload and extra excitement, sugar & fear,  is an explosive combination for kids with high stress. What can you do to keep them (and you) regulated? 

So one option is to opt out and not join in the fun. I have always hated it when i have been the kill joy and not allowed my son to join in parties (even if he was blissfully unaware of them), but this is definitely a safe option... except there will be trick or treaters banging on your door tonight and you cant switch off all the lights and hide...... (maybe you can and make that a game!!) So another option is to go out for dinner or the movies tonight and miss it all! 

If you decide to join in with halloween, it is better  to start to accustom your child to the levels of stress early. Practice putting on their costume before the day. watch some halloween videos to get them used to the idea. Browse google for costumes so they get to see they are just costumes.  

On the day

eat before you go out with really filling food

Make an agreement with how many sweets they can eat and how many they save. ( they will sneak a few extra when you are not looking and choose to ignore it). 

Agree how many doors you are going to knock on.

Take really bright torches with you.

Have a really long scarf that everyone needs to hold onto as you walk along the street if you dont have enough hands. 

Have a nice warm bath at the end of the day to help calm down after doing some deep breathing together and a debrief of the evening -what was great? what was scary? what would they like to do differently next year.

enjoy!! 

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