Boy Boycotts Halloween

For weeks, Tom and I have been asking Jackson what he wanted to be for Halloween.  His response was always the same, "I don't want to be anything for Halloween."  Followed by either, "I just want to be a boy." or "I'm just going to be Jackson."  People would ask him what he was going to be, he would respond the same way.  I tried everything I could think of.  I suggested a train conductor or Thomas the Train, since he loves him.  I suggested Lightning McQueen or Nemo from his favorite cartoon movies.  We even thought of him being Marty McFly from the movie "Back to the Future" since he has a sweatshirt/vest thing that he loves to wear.  Give him a skateboard and he would look just like Michael J. Fox.  But then we decided against it since he really didn't know who Marty McFly was.  Anyway, you name it, I probably suggested it.  All of the ideas were rejected by the nearly three year old.  We read books about Halloween, looked at decorations at people's homes while we went on walks, and perused all the Halloween items in the stores - none of it excited him about Halloween.  We told him he couldn't get candy if he didn't dress up.  That didn't work either.  He was sticking to his guns to avoid Halloween.  Talk about a stubborn kid.  I wonder where he gets that? 

I was trying so hard to think of something for Jackson, that I couldn't decide for Morgan either.  And she isn't old enough to voice her opinion on a costume.  I got to the point that I didn't want to spend money on a silly costume that neither wanted to wear.  So I was looking for clothes that we could use any other day of the year, but that we could modify into a costume of some sort.  Finally, I decided that I would put Jackson in some overalls and borrow Grandpa's train conductor hat - he could be a train conductor.  I was hoping that since he would be in normal every-day type clothes, and not a costume, that he would go with it.  My mom and I found a cute little outfit that was all red - Morgan could be a little devil or the lady in red.  I showed Tom, and he vetoed it.  So back to the drawing board for Morgan.  In the end, I got Morgan some overalls too and thought she could go as a little scarecrow or a farmer.  Those should work, right? 

I was wrong.  Jackson REFUSED to put them on yesterday (our community had trick or treating yesterday to avoid a school night).  Tom and I were at the end of the battle; we waved our white flag and gave into Jackson's stubbornness to boycott Halloween.  Poor Morgan was denied her Halloween because Jackson wanted nothing to do with it.  So we all stayed at the house to give out treats.  Jackson did enjoy that some, but was still refusing to get into the Halloween spirit.  I will say, even though it was a nice evening, it was a cold one, and it was nice to stay in the house rather than hit the chilly streets.  And it did give us an opportunity to meet more of our neighbors as they came to our house with their kids. 

All in all, a nice Halloween, but disappointing. I have no cute pictures of the kids in costumes to share with you. Well, I do have some pictures of Morgan in cat ears... they were ones that I was wearing as we greeted the trick or treaters. That was the extent of our dress-up this year. So sad!