My Halloween Growing Pains by Conlee Ricketts

In thirty days the energy in our house is going to be ALL Halloween! It’s my daughter’s favorite holiday. She spends weeks pondering what she will “be”. In fact our house is usually decorated by mid September. Not this year. I am wondering what’s going on??

When she was younger she knew a year in advance what she was going to be for the next year. I always expected her to change her mind at some point but she never did. She just seemed to know. Imagine an entire year discussing the “upcoming” costume.

Last week Skye and I were trying to remember all her past costumes in order: Pumpkin, Flower, Mermaid, Spiderman (twice), Dorothy, Vampire, Witch, Ghost, Pea, and Butterfly. This year the winner is Can Can Dancer. An entire month devoted to flipping through the costume catalog junk mail I get.

At age eleven it’s all about how cute the costume is, as opposed to her former years of passion for Peter Parker (Spiderman) and the hours of watching The Wizard of Oz over and over and over. I gave her a brief history lesson of Cancan dancing, Paris ballrooms, and Toulouse-Lautrec; it made me eager for the day when she would be willing to sit though Moulin Rouge! with me.

She doesn’t really remember the years she loved Spiderman. We had two costumes—one without muscles and one with them built in. She wore them all the time. Her crush on Peter Parker was adorable and yet for some reason my crush on Tony Stark aka Iron Man is met with “Really Mom?!” and the necessary eye roll. I would think she could relate but for some reason it just embarrasses her.

I realize my years of trick or treating are moving into their final years so I don’t mind constantly looking at the catalog. But one more notable thing has signaled how fast she is growing up. It’s the end of September and the house isn’t even decorated yet! She usually begs to drag those boxes out the first week of September, and I’m typically trying to put it off one…more…weekend.

I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I may have to be the one who asks, “Is it time to put up the Halloween decorations yet?” Where has the time gone?

Tags: 35+ mom, daughter, family, Halloween, Halloween costumes, humor, Ironman, later mom, midlife mother, parneting, raising a chld, Spiderman