Is Halloween too scary for my child, or am I a helicopter parent?

Craft is very big in our house. We go through pipe cleaners, Play-Doh and origami paper like other families go through Tip Top Sandwich White. So as a rule, we’re big fans of two-dollar shops.

Or at least, we were.

Lately, two-dollar shops have become like the Boo Radley House – some place to walk past briskly without looking, lest we catch a glimpse of something that can’t be unseen.

Australians will spend a predicted $490 million on Halloween decorations and costumes this year.Credit: Nick Dent

The reason? My five-year-old is scared out of his wits by Halloween monsters.

You may laugh, but he’s got a point. Have you seen what they’re selling for what is supposed to be a family festival?

Ghastly figures of nightmare. Cackling crones with staring eyes. Killer clowns straight from the darkest imaginings of Stephen King. And some of these abominations even move.

My son used to love Halloween. But this year, he’s flat-out refusing to go into craft shops, Kmart, Spotlight or Bunnings, and we’re wondering if he’ll even be game to leave the house on All Hallow’s Eve.

Coulrophobic’s nightmare: items like Halloween monster masks are big sellers.Credit: Nick Dent

When I was a kid, Halloween was strictly an American thing. Nowadays, you’d better have a pack of fun-size Mars Bars in the cupboard on October 31 because chances are a miniature Dracula or Elsa from Frozen will be knocking on your door.

According to Roy Morgan research, in collaboration with the Australian Retailers Association (ARA), more than 5 million Australians will celebrate Halloween this year, with spending predicted to reach $490 million – up 14 per cent, or $60 million, on 2022.

The research points to a massive growth in decorating homes and gardens – 36 per cent of those participating in Halloween will put a jack o’ lantern, giant spider or other spooktacular item on their front lawn.

A typical witch effigy for sale in a Brisbane two-dollar shop.Credit: Nick Dent

Bunnings national outdoor lighting buyer Rebecca Hevey says she’s noticed a surging demand for string lights, stake lights and skulls.

“We expanded our Halloween range and increased quantities based on the spike in interest we saw last year,” she says.

Dr Gary Mortimer, professor of consumer behaviour and retail marketing at QUT, says the sheer volume of Halloween inventory in Australia is nothing like a decade ago.

“The range gets deeper and wider every year, and we find more and more businesses leveraging the event – like bars and nightclubs doing Halloween events,” he says.

“When we’re projecting year-on-year growth of 14 per cent it tends to suggest that the majority of Australians have warmed to this US tradition.”

As this masthead has noted, Halloween has a waste problem. But Halloween also, arguably, has a terror problem.

The celebration puts kids in a terrible bind.

They want the candy, but must pay in mental trauma. It’s like, dare one suggest, a deal with the devil.

Then again, perhaps it’s the helicopter parent in me trying to shield my kid from something they need to process anyway.

I’m reminded by Dr Alina Morawska, director of the Parenting and Family Support Centre at the University of Queensland, that children can enjoy being frightened, just like adults who skydive or watch The Walking Dead.

“It’s part of their learning, to understand scary things, to make sense of them,” Morawska says.

“But of course, it does need to be done in a developmentally appropriate context, and different children will have different levels of sensitivity to particular experiences.”

Morawska says it’s important to talk to children about the scary things they might see, experience or hear about.

“It’s about following the child’s lead. If a child is anxious, then it’s up to parents to think about, for example, finding an appropriate costume, because it doesn’t have to be scary.”

So this Fright Night, as I accompany my kids around the block, I’m just going to have to hope that our neighbours lean more into Casper the Friendly Ghost and less into The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Because you’d be amazed by how dark the paraphernalia can get.

In addition to the leering effigies, my local two-dollar shop has tombstones, fake blood by the half litre, plastic weapons and torture devices, and fake wounds to be applied to the skin.

One item, however, made me laugh out loud, as it seemed to encapsulate the irony of parents being more protective than ever of their kids.

It was a realistic-looking severed human arm that came emblazoned with a safety warning. Not about the atrocious item itself, but about the bag it came in.

“Keep plastic bags away from babies and children,” it said. This plastic bag? You can count on it.

Get the inside word on the news, sport, food, people and places Brisbane is talking about. Sign up for our City Talk newsletter here.