Halloween Parade

I spent the morning at The Kid’s school watching the Halloween parade. The Kid was dressed up as Harry Potter. Please do not tell The Kid that he should be Ron Weasley because of his red hair. The Kid is really tired of people saying that to him. He wants to be Harry Potter – leave him alone! The costumes were cute and the kids all had fun.

After the parade, the first grade classes sat on the floor in the hallway so they could watch the 2nd through 5th grades parade by in their costumes. This was fun for me – a visual of how kids turn into self conscious adolescents parade. Some of the first graders held out their hands and received high fives from the older kid as they filed past. But as the parading classes got older something went terribly wrong. The cute high five thing turned into some sort of bizarre hazing ritual, with the older kids slapping hard against the little outstretched hands and the first graders shouting “Harder! Harder!” I was utterly speechless, and pleased that The Kid didn’t succumb to the pressure and stick his hand out like a few of his classmates. He just watched and laughed.

(I felt bad for the kids who didn’t have costumes – not the too-cool-for-school fifth graders but the younger kids who had to participate in their jeans and t-shirts. Did their parents forget?)

We’re in for more Halloween fun tonight at the karate school party – thirty kids hopped up on candy and cookies and a room full of sparring equipment. What could go wrong?!