Top 5 Worst Kids Halloween Costumes
Halloween is more than six weeks away, but if your kids are anything like mine, they’re already talking about what they want to dress up as for Halloween. My 8-year-old daughter can’t decide between Hermione and Hannah Montana while my 5-year-old wants to dress up as either Tinkerbell or a Zhu Zhu pet.
I guess I should be relieved that they’re not interested in dressing as a pirate wench.
In an essay in The Huffington Post, Joel Schwarzberg writes about how some Halloween costumes are inappropriate for kids. In particular, he’s disturbed by gory costumes inspired by horror movies such as “Friday the 13th,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Halloween.” But there are others that are even worse.
“When I went online to find kids’ costumes, I found life-like swords and machetes, clear masks that filled up with blood, and a wide range of disembodied heads and severed limbs,” writes Schwartzberg.
Meanwhile, over at MomFinds, they found some costumes that are “just wrong on kids.” For instance, “you should probably pass on that pimp costume for your son and that Jesus ensemble, we’d save that for the Christmas play.”
Inspired by MomFinds’ picks and Schwarzberg’s column, I’ve come up with my own list of the Top Five Worst Kids Halloween Costumes:
1. French Maid – Maybe it’s cute for adults at a costume party, but not for the kiddie set.
2. Gangster Rapsta – Yes, they sell these — complete with bling bling and all.
3. Prison inmate – Do you really want to see what your kid would look like in prison stripes?
4. Rabbi/Priest – Yes, they come in infant sizes.
5. Hooker/Pimp – Why would they sell these costumes for little ones anyway?
Would you let your kid dress up as any of the above? What’s the most offensive, inappropriate Halloween costume you’ve seen?
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Looking for more classic and less controversy? Try these cute and easy Halloween costumes!
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Photo: flickr/Klobetime
Yeah-I kinda agree with you. My daughter is tall for her age- and fits into small women’s sizes. Most of the costumes are skanky in that size- or frumpy. Nothing just cute or pretty.
I can understand disliking gore; that’s a matter of personal taste more than anything. And I am 100% on board with the hypersexualized women’s costumes being off limits. But I guess I don’t get why it would be upsetting to allow the kids to dress as a cleric… how different is that than dressing up as a doctor?
Little Johnny.
I wouldn’t let my kids dress up in any of the horrifying racially stereotypical costumes that are out there. Last year I told an adult couple who were ToT’ing with their kids to scram because the dad was dressed as a stereotypical “Mexican” and the mom was dressed as a taco. I think dressing up as a cleric is disrespectful towards those religions and seeing as the rep priests are carrying around these days, inappropriate for children.
Why not help kids make a costume themselves from stuff you have around, instead of buying a ready-made costume? That was always 3/4 of the fun for me and my friends when we were kids.
Well, because you wouldn’t want the priest to be around children.
I don’t think the priest belongs in the grouping unless you include firemen, policemen, doctor or any other legal profession. All professions have their bad apples.
Don’t diss the good pimps, either.
Wouldn’t the good pimps be the bad apples?
I used to work in a theater renting costumes at Hallowe’en. We got LOTS to tween girls. They all seemed to gravitate toward 1 of 2 costumes. The ones who were not into the whole girly thing loved being animals (bonus – bear costumes are warm). The ones who were into the whole girly thing loved ’80′s prom dresses — the kind with the full skirt and puffy sleeves. We had a bunch of them redone with jewels and bits of lace. On stage they read as vaguely Victorian evening wear. If you can find one of these dresses at a garage sale or Goodwill, they make a great costume. You don’t need awesome sewing skills, simply sew the chest area a little flatter, add a sash for cinching, and hem. Then get some craft store goodies — jewels, glittery fabric paint, maribou, and whatnot — and let the kid go to town. Add a tiara or scepter or wings. It’s creative, it’s pretty, and you control the modesty level. The one thing it’s not is warm. So you might want to add some long johns underneath.
Good idea, JesBelle!
Some Halloween costumes are just nasty, both for adults and kids. Though I do have to disagree with one part of the article. What is wrong with a lifelike sword? Certainly, a pirate wench is an inappropriate costume, but what about a pirate? And what is a pirate without his sword? Or a knight? Or a ninja? C’mon, there is nothing wrong with those. If your kid would run around hitting other kids with it, don’t give ‘em a realistic sword, of course. However, I probably wouldn’t give that kid an unrealistic sword either.
Last year a group of kids went around as “illegal immigrants” with dirty white t-shirts and tanks and torn up jeans. They all had brown faces and the stereotypical mustaches and tried to do accents “treeeek or treeeeet”. AND to top it all off, they had the UNICEF stickers on bags and asked for money! I told them to go home and google unicef and they left without candy. (and my pumpkins magically were smashed that very night!)
I personally have no problem with a lifelike sword, Rebecca. That was my quote from Joel Schwartzberg. Meanwhile, perhaps I’m old-fashioned in this regard, but I wouldn’t want my kid to dress up as a rabbi or a priest because it’s disrespectful. And, of course, I’d never let them dress up as “illegal immigrants.” That’s really offensive!
[...] Top 5 Worst Kids Halloween Costumes for KidsBabble (blog)Halloween Costume Ideas for Women in 2010ZippyCartPR Leap (press release) -HONOLULUMagazine.com -PR Web (press release)all 30 news articles » [...]
It doesn’t seem to matter what the costume is, every character has been “sexed-up.” It’s more pronounced for the adult costumes (sexy pirate, sexy cop, sexy witch, sexy cat, etc.), but I wouldn’t put my daughter in 90% of the costumes you can find for sale.
[...] Kids Halloween Costumes | Strollerderby My 8-year-old daughter can't decide between Hermione and Hannah Montana while my 5-year-old wants to dress up as either Tinkerbell or a Zhu Zhu pet. I guess I should be relieved that they're not interested in dressing as a pirate wench. Prison inmate – Do you really want to see what your kid would look like in prison stripes? 4. Rabbi/Priest – Yes, they come in infant sizes. 5. Hooker/Pimp – Why would they sell these costumes for little ones anyway? Would you let your [...]
There’s a really fun post on Halloween trick-and-treating on Ethic Soup blog. It gives 10 Halloween Ethics and Hints — funny for adults with some good advice for kids. It could be a good short piece to read aloud with your kids — gives you a chance to answer their questions, slip in your own advice and maybe some of your own childhood Halloween memories. Check it out at:
http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/09/halloween-ethics-when-you-go-trickortreating.html
[...] Abby Cadabby is another. For more Halloween nightmares, check out Paula’s list of the Top 5 Worst Kids Costumes (including mini french maid), and my fellow comedian and pal Brooke Van Poppelen’s original [...]
I loved the zhu zhu pets, but I don’t know how you would dress up as one. I found some referance pictures on http://www.getzhuzhupets.com though
[...] where you live in the country, leaves will start changing colors and your kids will start getting excited about Halloween. You may also experience an inexplicable desire to go apple picking or to wear a [...]
K that was original of those kids and i bet you some of them were not just caucasian underneath the brown ,make up and dirty clothes and mustaches….part of halloween is being imaginative, creative and dressing up as something your not, what no funny bone? oh but its a o k to dress up like a chinese person? a native american? geisha? or african tribal person? muslim? but oh god forbid children dress up like border jumpers with unicef bags (you should look that up) smh send your creative trick or treators here ill load there baskets full of candy and cash. Maybe they were making a statement? I have lived in new mexico, and arizona and even the mexican children there made fun of the “stereo type” border jumpers (how is it a stereo type if its true of border jumpers? no im not saying every mexican jumps the border as there are plenty of other ethniticitys who jump over too including polish etc ) hope you didnt yell out obsenitys and were nasty to those poor trick or treators hence why your pumpkins were smashed. .
A search for what qualifies as a “tween” costume on the Spirit website would make a good strollerderby post onto itself.