Not So Happy Halloween

BB had three Halloween parties to go to today.  Dressing up is probably one of his least favourite things, face painting is a definite no no.  Halloween is a time of much anxiety for BB.  Knowing all this I never push him to do anything. 
The first party was at after school club, he had no option but attend.  As it is straight from school there is no dressing up or face painting  -   just games and party food.  He always copes with this party ok, and when I turned up he was playing a game and didn’t want to leave.

The next party was at cubs.  He said in the morning he didn’t want to go, and he was very definite about that when I picked him up from after school club.  However, he surprised me by saying he wanted to go to the school PTA party and he wanted to dress up.  This was most unexpected, and it was already 5.45pm!  He wanted to be a school boy zombie and he needed fake blood.  We stopped to buy some fake blood on the way home (as you do!), and he also got some vampire teeth.  I managed to pull some old clothes together for him, which did the job with a few rips.  So far so good.  I made his hair messy – it was all going well.  I put some makeup on him so he had a pale face and black eyes – it all went horribly wrong at this point.  The make-up had to come off and he started crying, and sobbed away for ages while he had his tea.  However, he still wanted to go.  He wanted fake blood, but not on his face – I put it on his arm while he sobbed.  He didn't want it, It all had to come off and he had to wear a jumper to cover the residual redness.  He got in the car and cried all the way to school, but still he wanted to go.  I told him that if hadn’t stopped crying by the time we got to school he wasn’t going.  He stopped crying at the school gates, then a  friend ran past him. BB ran off with him and immediately it was all fine.

I was helping at the party.  He was fine.  There were loads of kids there – almost the whole school – and some fabulous costumes and pumpkin lanterns.  They all had a great time – well almost.  On the way home I asked BB if he had enjoyed it.  He said, not really.

Here’s a blip from the park next to school.