Halloween 'Scaries' Solved!

Hello, Happy Humans!

We're here with our weekly 3 things...

1️⃣ A question from our community

2️⃣ Our actionable tip of the week

3️⃣ A resource from our toolkit

1. The question

“My kid had a REALLY tough time with Halloween last year. How can I better prepare him for it this year?”

2. Our actionable tip

Even if your kiddo is all excited about Halloween, it can still be a tricky (no pun intended) night that might lead to meltdown after meltdown if we don’t take the time to prepare our kids (and ourselves) ahead of time. 

With all the costumes, candy overload, and unfamiliar people and sights, Halloween can feel overwhelming, so it’s best to ease into it. 

We’ve found three tried-and-true tips that have worked with all of our kids and plan to use them again this year, especially with our 3- and 7-year-olds. 

Here they are:

Tip #1: Pick out their costume together & practice wearing it at home. 

Let’s be honest…Halloween costumes typically suck! 

They’re expensive, often poor quality, super itchy, and sometimes too big. That’s why we like to let our kids try on and pick out their own costumes, then play dress-up lots and lots before the big day. 

*Bonus tip: If you’ve got sensitive kids like ours, try pajamas that look like actual costumes. 

We got the most adorable Iron Man costume for our little guy from the Disney Store, and it’s literally pajamas. They’re super comfy and he’ll be able to wear them all year long!

Tip #2: Practice trick-or-treating at home.

This tip goes hand-in-hand with Tip #1. Practicing trick-or-treating at home can be a game changer. 

Our kids love playing this game together, going from room to room, knocking on doors, saying “trick or treat” and “thank you” while collecting little knick-knacks.

Tip #3: Day-of tip… go early.

Trick-or-treating before dark can remove some of the scariness. Think about it… there will be fewer people and the lawn decorations seem less real in the daylight. 

Plus, you’ll likely be home closer to bedtime, significantly reducing the chances of multiple meltdowns. 

That being said, DO prepare YOURSELF for meltdowns. 

They’re bound to happen. BUT, when we know what to expect, we are better able to manage how we react and stay more present to enjoy the moment.

3. From our toolkit

If you’re looking for another way to prepare your kids for Halloween, we have a new Happy Human downloadable social story that you can read with them… ‘We’re Going Trick-or-Treating.’

It’s 10 pages of colorful, real-life pictures and walks you and your child through Halloween prep and what to expect, step-by-step, on Halloween night.

We plan on reading it to our kids throughout this week and next to help everyone feel as prepared as possible. 

It covers things like practicing at home and how to handle situations if saying “Trick-or-treat” or “Thank you” feels uncomfortable. 

Remember, kids thrive when they know what’s coming. It will lessen their anxiety and build their confidence. 

The more they know what to expect, the more fun they’ll have, and you’ll be able to enjoy the night with fewer scary surprises. 

Halloween should be exciting, not overwhelming, so a little preparation goes a long way!

Use this link to grab the downloadable pdf of 'We’re Going Trick-or-Treating,' a helpful and practical story, on sale now for only $3!

Thanks for being here. 🙂

❤️ Jenilee & Greg

P.S. The first five Modules of our '57+ Ways to Chill' workshop have been uploaded to The Collective!

If you're eager to get started learning everything you need to know about regulation so you can 1) lower your baseline emotional temperature and 2) reclaim your calm when you feel it slipping away, come join us in The Collective FREE for one week to see if the workshop is right for you.

The workshop will become available as a standalone activity once we finish with the post-production work on the other 5 modules, so if you're not interested in joining us in The Collective, hang in there!

If you're not on our list, you can use this link to stay in the loop about our 'Chill' workshop.

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