When my youngest was three or four, we asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween. He responded quite certainly, “A blue ghost.” We asked him a bunch of questions trying to figure out why a blue ghost. None of the tv shows the kids watched had a blue ghost. He wasn’t familiar with Pac-man at that age. We never really got an answer. But he was certain he wanted to be a blue ghost.
We had an old blue sheet that I’d gotten in a remnant bin at a fabric store for a dollar. I cut it down to size and made eye holes in it, and we had a fast, and easy Halloween costume. It was probably the easiest and cheapest costume for any of my kids in any of our years. It was incredibly unique. I bet he was one of the only blue ghosts in the nation that year!
Many parents would have told a child no to the blue ghost idea, though, and that saddens me. Parents often think that they should be the ones to choose their child’s Halloween costumes, their clothes, their toys, their foods… pretty much any element of their children’s lives. I don’t ever remember having a voice in my Halloween costumes. My mother made what she wanted, and I wore it. I had no voice in such decisions as my clothes until I started buying them with my own babysitting money in middle and high school. I paid for many of my semi-formal and formal dance dresses, too, so that I could wear what I wanted rather than what my mother had selected for me.
Had I come up with an idea as unique as a blue ghost, my mother would have refused because it was too unconventional. She likely would have seen it as a negative reflection on her as a parent in some way. Yet I think the blue ghost showed a great deal of creativity and inspiration for a child that age, and I was proud of my son for coming up with a creative costume. He didn't care if he was different, and I was happy to help him follow his dreams (such as they were at age three). I encourage other parents to do the same. Ask your children for their opinions. Let them make choices. Let their creative voices shine through every day of the year, not just on Halloween.
© 2015 Elizabeth Galen, Ph.D., Green Heart Guidance, LLC
We had an old blue sheet that I’d gotten in a remnant bin at a fabric store for a dollar. I cut it down to size and made eye holes in it, and we had a fast, and easy Halloween costume. It was probably the easiest and cheapest costume for any of my kids in any of our years. It was incredibly unique. I bet he was one of the only blue ghosts in the nation that year!
Many parents would have told a child no to the blue ghost idea, though, and that saddens me. Parents often think that they should be the ones to choose their child’s Halloween costumes, their clothes, their toys, their foods… pretty much any element of their children’s lives. I don’t ever remember having a voice in my Halloween costumes. My mother made what she wanted, and I wore it. I had no voice in such decisions as my clothes until I started buying them with my own babysitting money in middle and high school. I paid for many of my semi-formal and formal dance dresses, too, so that I could wear what I wanted rather than what my mother had selected for me.
Had I come up with an idea as unique as a blue ghost, my mother would have refused because it was too unconventional. She likely would have seen it as a negative reflection on her as a parent in some way. Yet I think the blue ghost showed a great deal of creativity and inspiration for a child that age, and I was proud of my son for coming up with a creative costume. He didn't care if he was different, and I was happy to help him follow his dreams (such as they were at age three). I encourage other parents to do the same. Ask your children for their opinions. Let them make choices. Let their creative voices shine through every day of the year, not just on Halloween.
© 2015 Elizabeth Galen, Ph.D., Green Heart Guidance, LLC
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