By Kam H-K
We’ve all had our parents check our candy haul for dangerous things and already opened candies. But is there really a reason to? We have almost never found anything bad in our hauls. So what is the reason behind the search? Some people say that it’s never bad to be safe, some people say that maybe something like that happened to them once, and some people say it’s just an excuse to snag some of your candy. Which one is right?
To be honest, all of them can be right. A lot of parents take some of the candy from their kids as a way to get something in return for all they do, because you brought back plenty of candy, and they don’t have to pay for it. Some parents may even say they deserve it. But if they didn’t do the back breaking work of carrying it, walking from door to door, and getting spooked for the candy, maybe they didn’t really earn it. Tell them that.
Another reason for the candy searching would be to find things like pins, razorblades, or tampered candy. However, the odds of this are not only low, they are virtually zero. Finding a sharp object has almost never seriously happened, and most of the time when it does, it was just a prank. Candy with broken wrappers or that seems like it’s been tampered with was almost always a mistake at the factory, and not dangerous.
When you think of Halloween, you don’t think of danger, you think of fun. And the same goes for those handing out candy. They have no reason to want to seriously harm kids who have done nothing wrong. Most people who don’t like children simply keep their porch lights off or use a take one bowl.
In any serious situation, if there was any danger, parents would have you not go out trick or treating at all. Since this isn’t the case, they obviously understand that the dangers are at an absolute minimum. So they should also understand that searching, stealing, or inspecting our candy is completely unnecessary.
With all of these factors, Halloween candy is not dangerous, and searching for danger isn’t necessary at all. The only things you should watch out for on halloween are dangerous people and cars on the street. The dangers of Halloween are much more mundane things, nothing you would find in your candy. If you want to stay safe this Halloween, make sure you don’t run into traffic or knock on a door with no porch light. Stay safe, Benicia, and happy Halloween!
