Halloween debates: A princess goes to the Dark Side

Posted in Holidays & Seasonal
by besttech

Kimberly Kauer SILICON VALLEY MOMS BLOG

(MCT)

The first catalog of Halloween costumes hit our mailbox a few days before August. We’ve never ordered from one of these catalogs, but because they can entertain our 5-year-old for an afternoon as she pours over each page and costume, we haven’t tried to get our name off the mailing lists. That may change as this year the catalogs have sparked an early debate in our house over Halloween costumes, pitting parents against child.

“I want to be on the Dark Side,” my daughter announced the other day. Our little girl, who last year was Princess Aurora (feel free to roll your eyes, I did too) and the years before that was a butterfly and a ladybug, made a quick, yet firm decision on her costume: Darth Vader. Last year it was heels and tulle, this year it will be a black suit and heavy breathing, if she gets her way.

My husband is in disbelief over her Darth Vader decision. “Why not a Jedi?” he keeps asking her. I guess no dad wants to see his little girl enamored of a bad guy, especially the Dark Lord of the Sith. Luke? Leia? Han? Chewbacca? He’s offered all of the alternatives to Darth Vader, but to no success.

My opposition isn’t as nerdy: I hate costumes with masks. Masks seem like a good idea, but they make your head hot and then moist from humidity. It’s hard to breath and just gross, so I can see her abandoning the mask and when it comes to Darth Vader, the mask is 95 percent of the costume. Without the mask, she’ll be a girl in a cheap black coverup holding a red lightsaber. I can make a Jedi robe or put together Leia’s flowing outfit, which would look nicer and last longer than a flimsy Vader costume, but quality is hardly her concern.

I told her that we won’t buy costumes for a few weeks, giving her time to think about it and consider all of the options, but the heart wants what the heart wants and my daughter’s heart belongs to Darth Vader. Halloween is a time to try on a different persona and normally she is a sweet kid, which makes a Jedi too close to her every day life. Or at least I keep telling myself that to explain why my girl has gone to the Dark Side.

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This is an original post from the Silicon Valley Moms Blog, http://www.svmoms.com. Kimberly, who was Princess Leia for Halloween in third grade, also writes at Tippy Toes and Tantrums (http://tippytoesandtantrums.typepad.com/).

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