You *know* that the day after Halloween, everybody and their brother is going to post cute kid pictures.  That is, they’ll do this after they awake from their candy-induced comas.

This year, Jaden was Superman, replete with totally ripped abs.

*sniff* yeaup, AHEM, he, um, gets those from my side of the family…

Jaden started off on his trick-or-treating trip pretty excited and wanted to get a jump on everyone else

You might not be able to tell from the photo, but he’s running at a speed of 75 miles per hour.  The car next to him is easily going 60, and as you can tell, Jaden is passing with ease.  It’s a good thing I have an amazing shutter speed on my digital camera!   

Soon after his super-fast jaunt, he quickly was sidetracked by a single focused thought in his super brain …

MUST HAVE RAYGUN

After he did some trick or treating, he tired of it quickly.  He kept saying that he just wanted to go to the park.  I’m thinking “WHAT?!?!?!”  Son, you have an extremely limited number of opportunities for free candy in this life.  And you get less and less as you get on in years.  You’re going to pass that up?  For some stupid swing in a stupid park?

And then he did

Ah, the bliss of childhood enjoyment.

There was one stop we made where the adult giving out candy asked the kids their names and when they responded with their names, he yelled back “DON’T GIVE OUT YOUR NAME!”.  I thought it was a good lesson.

So the 4 of us went to the side and decided on what name they’d give if someone asked their name.  Jaden would say “Superman”, and the others had good names like “kid,”, “pipsqueak,” and “princess.”  So we went back to the same house and he asked again “what’s your name” and Jaden said, proudly, “SUPERMAN!”  I was proud too.

Jaden is so ADORABLE.

What exactly is the logic in having kids not give out their names?

Poppy, I agree. I know that all parents think *their* kid is the cutest around, but I happen to know mine is.

Ren, it’s the whole ‘telling your name to strangers’ thing when you’re a kid. Unless I’m wrong.

I hear ya. I happen to think my furry kids are the cutest.

Can I borrow your cute kid? Just for like … an hour. I promise to give him back in the same shape as I got him. I just wanna pinch his super cheeks. CanICanICanIhuh? He is adorable.
And I wholeheartedly agree, be very proud he’s not giving out his name. You’re doing well.

whall:

Ren, it’s the whole ‘telling your name to strangers’ thing when you’re a kid. Unless I’m wrong.

Other than the more generic “don’t talk to strangers” I am not familiar with a meme about not telling your name to strangers. I don’t see any logic to it — but I’m not a fan of the “don’t talk to strangers” concept in the first place. I truly believe that it does more harm than good by instilling a non-friendly environment. On the other hand, advice like “don’t take a ride with a stranger” is a different story and, in my opinion sound. Even then, though, the actual risk is vanishingly small — about 300 child kidnappings occur per year (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0838/is_n71/ai_15257083). There are nearly five times as many children killed in automobile accidents each year (http://0-www.cdc.gov.mill1.sjlibrary.org/ncipc/factsheets/childpas.htm).

Poppy, you have cute furries. But I must admit, I can kind of tell your gravatar is of a kitty, but I still can’t make out anything like eyes or body parts… so I just assume it’s a kitty.

Michelle, I promise when I’m up there (you’re in Portland, right?) we’ll come by and take a ride in your cab. We have some family up there, and one of our sites (for work) is in Seattle. I went up there a couple times in the last year but didn’t bring the family. We determined, tho, that next time, I bring the family for some vacation time buffeted by work so I can show them the Space Needle, the science museum thing, the kids music discovery place thingy, etc.

Ren, I’m glad the above Michelle, a cab driver, is no longer a stranger! That would be double bad, because then she’d be hit with the kidnapping stat and the auto accident stat. I was just discussing that this morning with Caitlin (our 13yr old) - about the risks we take as Americans. For example, 40,000 die per year in auto accidents, yet we still choose to use cars. But I can agree in general about the wariness of strangers and how it can contribute to non-friendly environment. I’d rather just teach self-defense and a super-aware mind so that if things become suspicious, they’d recognize it instead of stamping a generalist “strangers are bad” assumption. But how are kids to know the difference between the innocent and friendly “hey kid, what’s your name?” and the potentially malicious “hey kid, are your parents home?” followed up with “hey kid, my doggie is lost, can you help me find him? I have a van here and we can search the neighborhood together. His name is scruffy and he looooves kids!”

I made my avatar back when I was being anonymous about my appearance, etc. I don’t have a favorite kitty, but Ripley is the most like a person so she personifies me.

While I agree that it is difficult to teach young kids how to recognize the different situations, young kids are also less likely to even encounter them in the first place because they probably aren’t out wandering around alone very often. Kids that are old enough to be out and about unattended are also old enough to understand the differing situations. In fact, being able to understand the situations should probably be a prerequisite.

Awwwww…