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VMI77 wrote:Maybe because you live in the Texas liberal mecca? We live far out in the country now and don't get trick or treaters. But when we were in town, in a nice neighborhood, 90% of the trick or treaters were lower income children shipped in from poorer neighborhoods. All were very polite and well behaved. But then, maybe that was because of my 170 lb Great Dane, who loved Halloween and rushed to the door every time the bell rang. No one seemed to fear him though.....he was so sweet...but they did marvel at his size.

It's a possibility that being near Austin is a factor, but I suspect it's mostly related to this specific neighborhood. For what it's worth, our previous neighborhood was inside Austin city limits, but near the northern edge. We had to put up with city ordinances and APD and all that, but our neighbors were relatively conservative folks with common sense. Our current neighborhood is outside the limits, but still in its shadow (aka extraterritorial jurisdiction). Eventually I suspect we'll move completely into one of the smaller communities surrounding Austin, but between my husband's field of employment (technology) and our roots (20-25 years of living in the area, family here, longtime friends, church, etc.) I doubt we'll ever get too far from Austin geographically much as we may not fit in politically.

I grew up in the country (just outside Leander when it was smaller) and we never got trick-or-treaters unless the next-door neighbors' grandkids maybe dropped by to visit. I've realized living out there spoiled me for suburban living. I like my neighbors a lot better when there's enough space between us that their noise, parking choices, personal disputes, etc. don't affect me.

We moved a couple of years ago and have noticed a big difference in Halloween between the two neighborhoods. At our old house, we'd get a few polite, adorable young trick-or-treaters with their parents, and maybe a couple of also polite teenagers who really did put effort into costumes. Then we started doing a block party, where we'd set up a bouncy house in the driveway and invite the neighbors for fajitas. There'd be a bowl of candy, and a cooler of beer and one of water and juice. People would come hang out with their lawn chairs, eat, the kids would bounce, good conversation, never had any trouble with the beer, and we'd have a reasonable trickle of non-immediate neighbors stopping by for candy and and a few minutes in the bounce house before moving on. At our new house, we're a little afraid to try the block party thing because our first Halloween here we sat out in the driveway with the candy (trying to meet people and make friends) and encountered hordes of rude, grabby trick-or-treaters. I think the best was an adult, no costume, who tried to grab a huge handful of candy. Based on the traffic we'd had so far (more than we'd expected) we'd been asking the kids to take just one piece, so we asked her the same. She gave us a LOOK and said, "really?!" then dropped a few pieces and walked off with the rest and a whole lotta attitude. But generally even the kids would just swarm the candy bowl, grab as much candy as they could, and walk off without a thank-you or even stopping long enough to let us get a look at their costumes. The adults with them seemed to consider this acceptable behavior and get impatient if we tried to engage in conversation. Kind of ruined it for me.

We haven't been home for trick-or-treaters since then, but generally our approach has been to be already out and ready for them. No opening and closing the door all evening, no way for someone to push inside and do bad stuff where no one will see them, and when the candy is gone and we've gone inside there's no reason to open the door.