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That happened to us 2 years ago so now we turn off the light and don't pass any out

So last night, one house left out an empty bowl and asked kids to donate one piece of candy, we all thought it was hilarious.

But my son and I went out TOTing and my husband stayed home and passed out candy.

We live in an apt building so we probably could just leave out a bowl and it would be fine. But we took turns. 4:30-5:30 I took DS and DH passed out candy. 6:30-7:30 DH went and I passed out candy. That way we both got to enjoy the ToT’ing and someone was always home.

Have parents discuss and if one's ok with staying home, then they do it - like, DH had a lot of work to catch up on, so he stayed home. Next year I'll stay home, hopefully with LO2 who will be 7 or 8 months.

Otherwise, if we both want to go out (probably in the toddler years), we will just turn off the porch light and not participate.

Growing up, my mom ALWAYS handed out the candy (got dressed up, played music, made baggies) and my dad always walked with us.

I walk with our son and his friends and my husband sits outside with the candy and talks to the neighbors who are all doing the same thing. Or we invite friends who don't get trick-or-treaters or don't want to hand out candy to come over for drinks and to help him pass out candy.

I'll be honest, I think kind of kills much of the joy of Halloween to leave a bowl out, although I understand why parents do it. We skip the bowl-only houses.

We left a bowl out last night and same thing happened to us. I think next year we'll just turn out our light while we are trick or treating and hand out candy when we get back. We still got quite a few kids once we got home and my kids enjoyed handing the candy out to them!

We have neighbours with boys the same age as ours, so we went together and took turns - the moms went for a while then the dads went. We all wanted to do a few friends who live a few houses down so I put a bowl out for a few minutes - when I was walking back I saw one kid taking two bags of chips, but whatever. Then we left the bowl out while we put the kids to bed - I kind of worried that somebody would take everything but also we way overbought so I sort of didn’t care. I went out at 8:30 to blow out the pumpkins and there were still probably 15 bags of chips in the bowl, so I was pleasantly surprised by the manners of the neighbourhood kids (although a little displeased that I have like 70 bags of chips leftover).

I left out a bowl while we went out. We both wanted to TOT with the kids. Last year I left a note that said “please take 1” and we had a bunch left! This year I left a note that said “please take a few” and we had two pieces left when we got back. But we live at the end of a cup de sac and the houses are pretty spread out, so I think it was mostly direct neighborhood kids, largely with their parents.

In the future probably we will all go to the neighbors pre trick or treating party then one will go home to pass out candy and one will take the kids. But while they are so so little we both want to go!

We both went early with DS who is 3 and left a bowl with a note saying take 2. The bowl was almost full when we got home 40 mins later so I think the younger kids with parents respected the note. We handed out til DS went to bed and then sorted out the stuff we didn't like that he got and put it back outside in a bowl. One older kid took it all but I didn't want it anyway

We just turned out the light and both went with our LO to trick or treat. Our street generally gets very few trick or treaters because they have to walk uphill! We will donate leftover candy to our church’s float in an upcoming holiday parade.

@MrsLonghorn: this helped me put things in perspective. You just never know what's really going on.

My friend did last night, and someone stole all the candy, the non-candy items, and their teal pumpkin

ETA: Oh, also my coworker had the same thing happen -- came back to all candy gone. He also watched his doorbell camera, and it was an adult woman who took all the candy...

@MrsLonghorn: I agree with @looch: on trying not to judge.

Our next door neighbors is 17 and still trick or treats. He appears to be a typical teenager, but he has autism. A lot of people probably think he and his friends are way too old to be out collecting candy, but as long as they want to participate, we're happy to have them visit.

Oh, and this was the first year he and his friends were allowed to go alone without a parent. In previous years his mom would hang back as they went house to house so they sort of felt somewhat independent.

@MrsLonghorn: the only way to prevent that for next year is to put the candy in the bag for the kids. I pass out Ghoul-Aid every year and hand that off to each kid to make sure everyone gets just one. Then for the candy I let the kids pick out a piece or two or three (fun size though). I have run into a couple big kids over the years that really dig in and come out with a lot of pieces, but it’s so balanced by the kids who just take one. Just so I am not left with a bunch leftover I encourage the onesie and twosie kids to take a piece for their mom.

@MrsSCB: oh geez! I wonder if these candy snatchers would do the same if they knew they were caught on camera.

@kiddosc: I understand what you're saying, it's not that the kids have a disability or don't, but it's more along the lines that you just can't make a reasonable judgement on anyone's situation from one behavior at one single time. That's all, no more, no less.

Regarding your particular situation, I wouldn't say anything to the kid or the parents after the fact. I know it feels like maybe you should, to help them get back on the right path, but what's the action that you want? An apology? To give the candy back? That's how I decide if it's worth it to pursue.

@MrsLonghorn: I mean, if they were trick or treating with a parent they couldn’t have been that old, I would think?

Also while I think dressing up as the poop emoji is gross, I don’t think that putting brown makeup on your face is automatically “brown face” and therefore inappropriate. He wasn’t being a brown person. If a kid was a bear or a dog or a chocolate bar I think it’s fine to wear facepoint (that being said, I’m white, so what I think doesn’t really matter and if a bee of colour wants to weigh in and says otherwise I’m willing to learn).

All that being said, I would probably also be annoyed.

We left a bowl out because we were going to a party. We came home pretty early so that we could also go ToT in our neighborhood and saw that about 1/3 was still left. After going around a few houses for about 30 min we came back and there was only 1 candy left. My neighborhood is a “destination” so there’s TONS of kids so I think most kids were good about just taking 1 piece.

This year my mom left a bowl out and only a few were gone, she doesn't get many kids in her neighbourhood. We ended up at a couple houses that just had bowls out and even the big kids were just taking 1 or 2.

Last year we left the bowl out while we both took DS out. It was fine. There were a number of houses that did that and I thought it was nice.

I feel if one kid is going to wreck it for the rest that is the way it will be. I want the candy gone and hope that everyone is good and just takes a couple.

in addition to a sign saying "you're welcome to 2 pieces"...how about a sign that says "smile, you're on camera"