The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

Sunshinemummy

silvercar wrote: »

We also have firework season that extends for weeks. I don't really have a problem with it, though I see on Facebook that those with pets are majorly stressed. I'm personally more bothered by the halloween adults banging on doors.

Years ago when my kids were little, a neighbour and i would take the kids down the road we lived on. We only really knew the few neighbours on each side of us. Someone about 10 doors away was really horrid to the kids, and despite appearing shocked that parents were stood at the end of the path, carried on, I went to get the kids, he started on me, but stopped as my friend had ran home and got her husband. The following day he walked past me house as I was taking to the neighbour on the door step, and when she challenged him, his response was 'I thought they were off the estate,' I will not tell you what I called him (as I no longer was in PC mummy mode).

I have since ensured that my kids only went to houses that we knew, or people who put candles in their windows, and decorations as they have taken off.......when we moved house we used to have a party for the local kids as we are isolated location.

We still love the kids coming around, but last year we was in the midst of giving out sweets when a neighbour informed us that a woman had fallen at the pub and they wondered if it was mum... so I left OH to give the sweets out whilst I went to hospital with her. Looking forward to this year... we have the candles, spiders weds etc.. sweets and little toys for the kiddies. :D:D:D

Cakeguts

I have always thought that it is only a good idea for children at Halloween to visit properties where their parents had already arranged for them to go.



Many elderly people do not like to open their front doors on dark evenings especially if they live alone.



Some families do not have enough spare cash to supply the whole neighbourhood with sweets.



In some areas it isn't safe for children to be out going door to door even if they have an adult with them.

BobQ

I think there should be nationally known symbol available on line or from newspapers (eg a pumpkin). Those celebrating haloween should only visit the houses of those displaying the sign. Not everyone wants their evening interrupted by knocking at the door.

ukmaggie45

Many years ago when our kids were small some friends gave us cardboard build it yerself skeleton - might well have been from the Science Museum. We took it away with us the following summer (we have a static caravan in Wales) and on one of the inevitable wet days we assembled it...

Driving home we sat it between our two daughters on the back seat of the car. We did get some strange looks from people beside us in traffic jams! :rotfl:

We still have that cardboard skeleton, we even made the effort to bring it with us when we moved. We sit it in our porch on Halloween, and have nightlights too, plus daughter's witches broom (we have to take it to her next time we visit London). All to let the local parents know we welcome kids on Halloween.

We only do the small kids though. We pack up before the teens may come round.

GDB2222

BobQ wrote: »

I think there should be nationally known symbol available on line or from newspapers (eg a pumpkin). Those celebrating haloween should only visit the houses of those displaying the sign. Not everyone wants their evening interrupted by knocking at the door.

I think that might apply already, in practice. One year, I stocked up on sweeties, but had no takers. The next year, I carved a pumpkin and put a candle in it, and we had loads of takers.

zagubov

We don't have any neighbours with kids the right age for Hallowe'en.
When I grew up in Scotland, it was a great night for the kids. They'd go "guising" going door-to-door in costumes (not necessariiy horrific). They'd sing songs or tell corny jokes and get sweets as a reward.

A very innocent thing not remotely like the sinister American import of trick or treat that seems to becoming the norm down here. Plus it didn't focus on cheap decorated tat and weird spooky paraphernalia but that's just part of the commercialisation of life we're putting up with.

I agree with Bob there should be a sign in the windows to show trick-or-treaters are welcome.

Sunshinemummy

zagubov wrote: »

We don't have any neighbours with kids the right age for Hallowe'en.
When I grew up in Scotland, it was a great night for the kids. They'd go "guising" going door-to-door in costumes (not necessariiy horrific). They'd sing songs or tell corny jokes and get sweets as a reward.

A very innocent thing not remotely like the sinister American import of trick or treat that seems to becoming the norm down here. Plus it didn't focus on cheap decorated tat and weird spooky paraphernalia but that's just part of the commercialisation of life we're putting up with.

I agree with Bob there should be a sign in the windows to show trick-or-treaters are welcome.

We had a great amount of freedom when we were kids, we would go trick or treating, then penny for the guy for bonfire night, it was normal kids behaviour, back in the day! Sadly I never let mine have the freedom to wonder the street, especially when it was dark.

I think now most kids would not go to houses without something indicating that they are wanting trick or treaters.

I've just driven mum back to her residential home... a young teenager was riding on the path and then pulled out into the road with no warning right in front of me...... if I did not have mum with me, I would have frog marched him back home and told his parents!

CKhalvashi

Sunshinemummy wrote: »

We had a great amount of freedom when we were kids, we would go trick or treating, then penny for the guy for bonfire night, it was normal kids behaviour, back in the day! Sadly I never let mine have the freedom to wonder the street, especially when it was dark.

I think now most kids would not go to houses without something indicating that they are wanting trick or treaters.

I've just driven mum back to her residential home... a young teenager was riding on the path and then pulled out into the road with no warning right in front of me...... if I did not have mum with me, I would have frog marched him back home and told his parents!

That seems to be the case around here too.

We've moved house this year so it's the first October we've spent here, therefore it's unknown whether it's the same in this direction. We haven't moved far, but the place is generally more connected than where we were before.

I won't be decorating the house and probably won't be answering the door if in as having just returned from abroad there's a mountain of paperwork to get through in the next few weeks, starting today with anything urgent.

Cakeguts

Well that was interesting. I get the distinct impression that no one has done that before.



Last night in the middle of what sounded like mortar fire in my area I went for a walk to pick up firework debris. I got it from off the pavement and off the middle of the road. The biggest bit I found was on the pavement next to a 4 lane main road. That was a piece of wood covered in soot with a bit of firework paper on one end and it measured something like 1cm square and 103cms in length. It would certainly have damaged a car windscreen if it had come down in the road. I also picked up a lot of what was actually a complete firework minus the explosives. All of them would have broken the glass in a greenhouse.



Today I took the whole lot down to my local council offices for the health and safety department, the local environment department and the counterfeit goods department to look at. Any of it would have injured someone if it had fallen on them. The council were having a problem deciding who should collect this bag of sticks with lumps of plastic attached to them.



It was raining lumps of plastic with wood attached in my area last night. So I thought that the council ought to know.

CKhalvashi

vivatifosi wrote: »

I'm also concerned about climate change. I disagree that most people arent interested. Everyone I know is. There was an interesting point about XR on the radio the other day. It said that many people disagree with their tactics (me included), however nobody is thinking less about climate change as a result.

I have to agree with not agreeing with their tactics at all.

I think it's more a case of cutting back on emissions rather than trying to go completely neutral.

Do I fly? Yes. At the same time I try to minimise emissions in this case by flying (for example as I've done it twice in the last week) in an A321 with 230 seats rather than either something smaller or similarly sized with less seats. According to FlightRadar24, this had a slightly lesser environmental impact compared to completing the same journey in an average small car, whilst being significantly quicker.

Equally, stripping out a reasonable percentage of the 100 flat bed seats a certain operator has in a Boeing 747 and replacing these with standard economy/premium economy will mean that a) more people will be able to fly on fewer flights and b) the price of the Business seats will rise between the city pairs those particular aircraft fly, encouraging greener travel.

The same goes with driving, moving to a smaller, more efficient car substituted by public transport where appropriate rather than stripping driving out completely is a reasonable compromise in the modern world. The price of public transport needs to come down to encourage this method of transport.

We need to be more proactive with renewable energy too in order to cut emissions.

As a side note, I saw that Airbus have re-purposed a BAe146 as a test plane for an electric engine. I can see at least hybrid aircraft being the way forward in terms of a next step, with possibly hydrogen taking it further.