Regent Review-- November 2016

Page 6
Feature
How old is too old to trick-or-treat?
by Quinn Buhman
At what age should kids
stop trick-or-treating? We
asked this question to two
distinct groups of people:
high school students and
adults. Our informal
survey, conducted over
the past week, yielded
some interesting results
as seen in the charts
below:
As indicated by the
darker bars in the
adjacent chart, a majority
of students thought kids
could trick-or-treat until
they were 14 or 15 years
old, or even later. Adults,
on the other hand, tended
to think that students
should stop earlier – at
10 or 12 years.
Pie charts provide us
with another view of the
data:
Fifty percent of students
believe that you should
stop by 14 years, whereas
fifty percent of adults said
a year earlier – 13 years
old. Additionally, 10% of
adults thought children
should stop trick-ortreating
when they are
10 years old – essentially
after elementary school.
The earliest age mentioned
by students was 12 years,
garnering only 4 % of the
votes.
Respondents’ comments
also provide some color
on the topic:
“Anyone who is still a
kid at heart can trick-ortreat.
Old people want free
candy too!”
“…around age 13
because adults get weird
when high schoolers trick
or treat.”
“…I think it is
completely up to the kid
to make that decision…
I am not a fan of older
kids not dressing up and
getting candy.”
“I think kids should
stop at 8th grade.”
“I think kids should
stop trick or treating
once they can drive, so
16 years old.”
Several respondents
picked up on this
costume theme:
“As long as in costume,
there is not a limit!”
“Any age… you have to
wear a costume though.”
A final, fun fact: one
in five adult respondents
thought you never need
to stop trick-or-treating.
“No age limit… if they
are in costume and
participating in the good
spirit of the event, I
will give them candy/
encourage them to go
out.”