Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Halloween 2008
After last years Halloween fiasco (see January 2008 to review) I was considering ignoring to whole end of October event. Sadly my daughter has gotten too clever for this charade and she knew something was coming up, but she was also apprehensive as well. See Halloween is scary and strangely enough a three year old does not like all the scary monsters and ghosts. This adds an element of fear for Nate and I, since we have just gotten over a particularly bad sleep disorder spell with Lotus. We were both terrified that all the Halloween decorations would send Ms. Lotus back to the very bad place of no-sleep.
So I was kind of torn what to do. Lotus has really gotten into playing dress up, especially with all the horrid pink princess dresses that she got for her birthday, so I wanted her to have the dress up Halloween experience, but I also didn't want her terrified. In the end I didn't think I could get away with just boycotting trick or treating.
Another option was presented to us through her school, but it also made me nervous. Lotus goes to a Waldorf School and I feel like I am still navigating all the rules of the Waldorf lifestyle. I also don't like rules and it is in my nature to recoil when there are too many boundaries. Nevertheless the main Waldorf School was having a Fairy Walk on Halloween night, I had no idea what a Fairy Walk was, but all of Lotus' class was going and I do like the families in our school so I signed us up as well. As we got closer the event we got the list of rules, the main one being no characters from the media. Lotus had her heart set of wearing one of her DISNEY princess dresses. I did not see this going well. I do have an issue with this aspect of the Waldorf philosophy. Even though I understand that the media has way too much influence on children's imagination, I feel like I am stifling Lotus' creativity if I dictate what she can or can not wear. I came to a compromise with Lotus and myself, if she wanted to wear the non-commercial fairy outfit that she had we would go to the Waldorf School Fairy Walk and if she donned the Sleeping Beauty costume we would trick or treat in our neighborhood at non-scary houses.
As fate would have it she chose the fairy outfit and we joined her classmates at the main Waldorf campus in Pacific Heights. And I have got to tell you am I glad we did. All my nervousness was for nothing. First off their were a few kids in Disney Princess Costumes with the label covered up, so I felt like there is some wiggle room and I can live with rules if there is room for interpretation.
Second, Lotus loves her classmates and they were all so cute hanging out together. Lastly, the walk itself was amazing. I am so sad they didn't let us take photographs inside. The school took groups of kids through the campus that was decorated in various Fairy Tales with older kids and adults acting out the stories. It was entirely magical and made me realize what a special experience the Waldorf school creates both in the classroom and outside.
In the end Lotus had a wonderful Halloween and she got to wear her Disney Princess costume a couple days later at the annual Pixar kiddie Parade.
So I was kind of torn what to do. Lotus has really gotten into playing dress up, especially with all the horrid pink princess dresses that she got for her birthday, so I wanted her to have the dress up Halloween experience, but I also didn't want her terrified. In the end I didn't think I could get away with just boycotting trick or treating.
Another option was presented to us through her school, but it also made me nervous. Lotus goes to a Waldorf School and I feel like I am still navigating all the rules of the Waldorf lifestyle. I also don't like rules and it is in my nature to recoil when there are too many boundaries. Nevertheless the main Waldorf School was having a Fairy Walk on Halloween night, I had no idea what a Fairy Walk was, but all of Lotus' class was going and I do like the families in our school so I signed us up as well. As we got closer the event we got the list of rules, the main one being no characters from the media. Lotus had her heart set of wearing one of her DISNEY princess dresses. I did not see this going well. I do have an issue with this aspect of the Waldorf philosophy. Even though I understand that the media has way too much influence on children's imagination, I feel like I am stifling Lotus' creativity if I dictate what she can or can not wear. I came to a compromise with Lotus and myself, if she wanted to wear the non-commercial fairy outfit that she had we would go to the Waldorf School Fairy Walk and if she donned the Sleeping Beauty costume we would trick or treat in our neighborhood at non-scary houses.
As fate would have it she chose the fairy outfit and we joined her classmates at the main Waldorf campus in Pacific Heights. And I have got to tell you am I glad we did. All my nervousness was for nothing. First off their were a few kids in Disney Princess Costumes with the label covered up, so I felt like there is some wiggle room and I can live with rules if there is room for interpretation.
Second, Lotus loves her classmates and they were all so cute hanging out together. Lastly, the walk itself was amazing. I am so sad they didn't let us take photographs inside. The school took groups of kids through the campus that was decorated in various Fairy Tales with older kids and adults acting out the stories. It was entirely magical and made me realize what a special experience the Waldorf school creates both in the classroom and outside.
In the end Lotus had a wonderful Halloween and she got to wear her Disney Princess costume a couple days later at the annual Pixar kiddie Parade.
