Parenting Issues Debate

Hello ladies. I have a question about giving out Halloween candy and I'd like some other opinions. DH and I disagree at this point.

We live in a small townhouse complex. There are maybe 5 kids in the are that may be trick-or-treating on Saturday. There are other neighborhoods nearby and it is possible that others may trickle over to our lone street, but I doubt it since we are out of the way of everything else.

We are going trick-or-treating at a friends house because she is having a birthday party for her daughter before going trick-or-treating. I suggested that we take candy to give out at our friends house since we will be trick-or-treating there, DH agrees to this. We are torn about what to do at our house. I don't think we should do anything. I don't want to leave a bowl outside because there are a lot of wild animals in the area and who knows what would happen to it (also, we won't be home for most of the day, so it would be sitting outside all day). DH thinks we should leave a bowl out for the children that live near us.

So, what do all of you think? Leave a bowl at home to sit outside all day, or just take the candy to our friends to give out??

Thanks!

Thank you to mom2jess_n_ky for my beautiful siggy!                                                                                                                                                                                           

If I were you, I would just leave the outside lights off, do not leave any candy out, and go enjoy yourselves at your friends house.  AFAIK, the rule of thumb is - if the outside light is off, don't go to the house.  There is certainly nothing wrong with not passing out candy when you are not home anyway.  I know some people who choose not to participate even when they are home.  They just turn all the lights off and ignore the doorbell.  There is no rule that says every single house has to participate.

I even suggested to my DH that we not pass out candy at our house and we both just take the kids to the mall.  The mall does a whole halloween deal where the kids can go trick-or-treating from store front to store front and then there is an area with a DJ for the kids to dance and have fun.  It's supposed to be considered a safer alternative to going around the neighborhood.  But DH said he wanted to be at home to pass out candy so I conceded to him.

I like both of the replies given so far :)

I've left a bowl outside before (we had to leave for an emergency) but given that are so few kids in your complex maybe you might drop by their homes the night before and leave some candy for their parents to dole out the next day on your behalf :)