I'm not crafty. I would have rather written double the amount of pages for my fourth grade book reports than spend time decorating the covers. So, when Halloween rolls around, I'm not excited to make my kids’ costumes. Working full-time does not afford me the hours to spend planning, measuring, cutting and sewing, but it does afford me some pocket change to buy their costumes. Still, as anxiety-inducing as attempting a homemade costume can be, no one actually likes costume shopping for kids, either. By "no one," of course, I mean "me."
Halloween is a big deal in our house. My husband is a huge horror fan, and my kids love dressing in costume. However, when I was growing up I was never really into the holiday. I was painfully shy, which made trick-or-treating my own personal nightmare. By the time I was 10, I was done with it. My kids, on the other hand and at ages eight and six, show no signs of losing interest. Eh, what are ya going to do, right? At least my kids can't say I've never done anything for them.
As of right now, they’re still deciding what they want to dress as. I’ve given them a deadline of four weeks from Halloween to commit to a character before time is up and they're SOL. After all, that's as much time as I need to survive the horror of costume shopping for kids, when I expect to experience all of the below:
They Are Only Available Seasonally
I know retailers would take a loss giving store space to costumes year-round, since the demand is concentrated in the three weeks leading up to Halloween. But imagine how much calmer and satisfying the shopping experience would be if parents could browse options — and there would be options because having them available all year means never having to be told the green ninja costume is out of stock (and no, my kid will not settle for the blue ninja costume) — without crawling on the floor to sift through the mess of tossed aside items in the hopes of finding The One And Only Thing Your Child Will Dress Up As.
Of course, none of the above will inspire me to go the DIY route when it comes to Halloween. I may hate costume shopping, but I’m better at it than I am at threading a needle.