Halloween is a fun holiday where kids get to dress up as something else for a night and play pretend. For parents, helping children perfect the costume of their dreams can be a stressful endeavor. They also have to organize a festive group for trick-or-treating, then blindly trust strangers to give their children candy.
One Reddit user — the parent of a kindergartner — decided to go a different direction for a school Halloween party, and while their intentions may have been good, they took to the site to see if they made things harder for parents. The internet can always be counted on to give its collective opinion. The parent asked: “AITA for giving movie vouchers for Halloween?”
The parent goes on to explain the full situation: “My son attends half day kindergarten. I just picked him up and has to deal with some moms. I'm writing this in the car just to calm myself down from dealing with these people. I know this is ridiculous and I never thought I would be writing here but here goes.”
"My son has 17 kids in his class so I decided to do something nice," begins the original poster (OP). "Through my company I get discounted movie tickets to give away to clients. So I put 17 envelopes in my son's backpack for his teacher to put in each other kid's Halloween treat bag today."
OP clarifies, “There is no problem with this. It's a private school and All the parents agreed to send treats for every kid in the class. No problem with religion or economic hardship.”
"The problem came when I got there to pick him up," OP continues. "Three moms were waiting for me. They wanted to know where their ticket was and if I had extra for their other kids? What? I just thought this was better than more candy. But they are upset with me because now they will have to spend money to use their Halloween treat."
OP concludes, "I think all the kids go to see movies. The voucher is good for one kids movie admission, a small soda, a small popcorn, and a small candy. But it seems that I'm the a**hole for only providing for the one kid in my son's class. I think that they are being greedy. And cheap."
While there was a diversity of opinions on the post, most agreed that the movie ticket gift was a lovely gesture. One commenter agreed with the original poster: “They are being greedy.” Another took it a step further, saying OP “should’ve asked for the voucher back and said 'there! Problem solved!'”
Some commenters pointed out that this gives parents homework of sorts. One commenter wrote, “I can see I'm in the minority here but I would have preferred candy. You gave them an obligation. Now they have to plan a day to take the family to a movie. Given that it seems like money isn't really an issue is still resent the fact that I now have a task to complete. I much prefer movies in than a night out in a movie theater.”
One commenter took a more middle-of-the-road approach: “I think your gift would have been awesome if the children were old enough to attend movies on their own. But these kids aren't and now the parents have to either pay money to use your gift or throw/give it away. The voucher really isn't in the spirit of the event, not for kids that young. Again, I think it would be awesome for older kids,” the commenter wrote.
Situations like these just go to show that you can't win them all. Perhaps it is best to follow your own heart and give whatever you want for Halloween. You will be judged for it either way.
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