Homeowner In An Upscale Neighborhood Refuses To Hand Out Halloween Candy To Kids Who Don’t Live There
Stingy or smart?
Joseba Abenojar / Shutterstock The Grinch of Halloween opened up to Reddit about her plan to deny candy to kids who don't live in her neighborhood.
In a recent "r/AmItheA--hole" (AITA) Reddit post, the homeowner shared her conversation with her Homeowner's Association (HOA) about refusing candy to kids coming in from outside neighborhoods.
The AITA Reddit thread allows people to share their stories and get feedback on if they’re being an “A--hole” or not.
The homeowner says their 24-house neighborhood is known for “giving out better candy, baked goods…extensive Halloween decorations…haunted houses."
The user says everyone in the neighborhood is relatively involved with their HOA, and they often have meetings to discuss issues.
She makes sure to express the kindness of the people in her HOA group — many will cook dinner for sick neighbors, talk about their family activities, and throw parties for people in the neighborhood — but, meetings are not always fun.
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A recent HOA meeting revealed they've been having issues with the increase in kids from other neighborhoods on Halloween.
In addition to the added expenses on candy for homeowners, she shares that the influx of outside neighborhood kids has led to issues like “kids being rude, stealing decorations, taking candy from younger kids."
A couple of Halloweens ago, the Reddit user decided to make gift baskets instead of passing out candy but was shocked to find out that they were gone before most neighborhood kids could get one.
This year, she put a sign up in her yard that reads “Candy Only For Kids Living in the Rosewood Hills Neighborhood.”
“I don’t want my neighbor’s kids as well as kids from outside of the neighborhood coming to my door, and giving one kid a piece of candy and a different kid a gift basket," she said.
Instead of refusing candy to kids from outside her neighborhood at the door, she uses a sign to do it instead.
When she brought up her use of the sign in the HOA meeting, many were in favor and wanted some signs of their own.
One HOA member, Karina, suggested that hiring “an off-duty police officer to…deal with kids who steal” would be a better option than refusing candy to kids on Halloween.
The Reddit user complains that “Karina and I argued a lot about it" but ultimately, “most of the neighborhood is on my side and are tired of these kids ruining Halloween for a lot of people.”
Many of the comments on the user post ridiculed her for being “classist" as she complains of high candy costs while making Halloween gift baskets and living in a small “sheltered” neighborhood.
They claimed that it’s “classist and ignorant” to imply kids should miss out on Halloween if they don’t live in a neighborhood to trick-or-treat in.
Nevertheless, many of these homeowners use signs to refuse candy to children coming from outside neighborhoods in an effort to decrease their Halloween “issues” and lower their candy costs.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a news and entertainment writer. They cover topics ranging from pop culture analysis to human interest stories. Catch up with them on Instagram or TikTok.