Yes, Labor Day is barely over, but all you have to do is step into a grocery store or Target to know that Halloween is coming up. If you and your co-parent are recently separated or divorced with a young child, you’ll soon need to start thinking about how to divide and conquer Halloween festivities.
Many co-parents don’t include Halloween in their parenting time agreements or parenting plans. Nonetheless, it’s a big holiday for most kids. If yours is among them, it’s worthwhile to find a way to share it with them while they still need and want your participation.
Halloween is more than a one-day celebration – especially when it falls on a weekday, as it does this year. That gives you and your co-parent plenty of ways to participate in Halloween events at school, church, daycare, your workplace and in the community. There’s plenty more to do, including decorating, making or shopping for costumes, carving pumpkins and watching new and classic Halloween movies.
What about trick-or-treating?
What about the main event – trick-or-treating? There are a number of options, depending largely on your living situation. For example, whichever parent has the child on Halloween night can take them trick-or-treating. If you and your co-parent live in close proximity, you can take turns trick-or-treating with your child or take them together if you can do it peacefully.
If you have a friend who offers to take them with their children, that may be the best solution. If your child is old enough to weigh in, give them a couple of options that you and your co-parent can live with and let them choose.
If you’re still working out how you’ll share parenting time, it may be worthwhile to add some language around Halloween if your child is young enough to still have a few more years of trick-or-treating ahead of them. It’s typically better to include provisions you end up not needing than to leave out things that you’ll only need to work out later. Having sound legal guidance as you do this always helps.