There are some people out there that think an age exists at which someone becomes “too old” to trick or treat. I respectfully disagree. I am 36 years old without any plans to stop dressing up and getting bags of candy. Why? Because it’s fun.
I sometimes joke that the biggest reason I became a father was to give me the excuse to keep having all the fun ascribed to childhood, without having to explain myself. So far it has worked. As an adult, I have been able to unapologetically play with legos, build snowmen, watch all the latest animated films and dress like superheroes.
My daughter and I have an unresolved rivalry as to who can get more excited and involved in Halloween. I like to think that I win, but she would supply a different answer.
Last year, I lost a bet to my daughter and the result was that I had to dress like Katy Perry for Halloween. My daughter decided to dress as an undead version of Alice in Wonderland.
That arrangement found us walking around together in dresses, while she alternated between providing long vacant stares in an attempt to be creepy and enthusiastically taking as much candy as she could get her hands on.
As great as her costume was, the man walking next to her in a blue wig and cupcake dress drew a lot of attention, smiles and laughs.
While I would not have independently chosen to dress like a pop star woman with blue hair, it was a lot of fun and gave my daughter a reason to look back and laugh for the rest of her life.
That is a really fun experience that I would not have been able to enjoy if I felt I was “too
old” to trick or treat. I could have been like some parents and walk around in jeans and a jacket, being as boring as possible. My kid would’ve still had fun, but not as much. I wouldn’t have had any fun. Personally, I try to find ways to have fun every day, so going the boring route just sounds awful to me.
Life can be very hard. It is filled with stress, tragedy and disappointment. As a military veteran, I am acutely aware of how ugly and horrific life and people can be. Without the opportunities to regularly find enjoyment in life, it would be purely depressing.
For the sake of sanity and a positive outlook on life, the ability and desire to have fun is essential. There is no age cap on that. From cradle to grave, we are never “too old” to have fun.
In fact, the moment that a person decides they are “too old” to have fan, they might as well walk out to the backyard with a shovel and start digging their grave. A life without fun is not living, it is merely existing.
It is my belief that people who have decided they are “too old” or too mature to embrace the youthful desire for fun are not mature enough to appreciate how precious the opportunities to have fun truly are.
When one ponders the reality of human growth and development, it really becomes an unbalanced and unfair thing. We only have 18 years to be considered children. At least a third of that time we are probably doing everything in our power to separate ourselves from childhood.
After childhood, we have around 50 or 60 years to be adults and deal with all the stress and difficulty of being grown-ups. That’s around three times as much time spent being potentially “too old” for fun, rather than being able to indulge in youthful endeavor.
I don’t think that’s fair and I openly rebel against it. I encourage everyone else to do the same.
Since I don’t believe there is an age cap for having fun, I adamantly declare that a person is never too old to trick or treat. That is why this year, not having lost a bet to my daughter, I will be seen dressed as Spiderman and walking with my lovely zombie fiancée and wind-up doll daughter. We will be joined by other adults that have not yet given up on enjoying life.
