Halloween Pranks to Teach Your Kids

What do you do when your kids are too old for trick-or-treating? Some parents host Halloween parties or allow their kids to attend get-togethers at a friend's house. But sometimes tweens and teens are feeling a little mischievous on this holiday-I'm sure we have all seen homes that have been pelted with raw eggs and yards with trees that have been covered with toilet paper. These pranks aren't harmful, of course, but they are rather messy...and they do force the unfortunate homeowners to have to do a lot of clean-up work the next day. So what can parents do to make sure that their kids have an enjoyable Halloween and still give them an opportunity to have some good-natured tomfoolery? The answer is easier than you may think.

Instead of forbidding your kids from pulling pranks this Halloween, what you can do is teach your kids some safe, simple, and harmless tricks that they can try out on friends at a Halloween party. If your tweens and teens have humorous practical jokes that they can spring on unsuspecting buddies, it will satisfy their sense of mischievousness and will keep them from fooling around with any more serious (and possibly harmful) pranks.

Here are a few ideas for tricks that you can teach your kids to pull on their friends and fellow party-goers. Some of these will be easier to setup if you throw the Halloween party for your kids, but that isn't necessary for all of these pranks. None of these are destructive or hurtful. Your kids can try one of these or several-or, perhaps they will come up with some original ideas after going over the suggestions here. In any case, they will certainly have fun!

Caramel Onions

You can buy kits to make caramel apples at any grocery store, and it is a fairly simple project. But why make caramel apples when you can turn it into a prank and make caramel onions? Follow the directions on the caramel apple kit, and just substitute onions instead of the apples. Try to choose onions that are around the size of apples. Make sure to cover them with nuts and/or coconut to make them look really tasty. Unsuspecting party-goers will think they are getting a treat until they take a bite!

Sink Surprise

This is easy to set up. Your child just needs a little bit of waterproof tape. Tell your child to go to the bathroom (whichever bathroom the kids at the party would be using) and apply the tape to the faucet where the water comes out. Make sure your child knows to leave a small space or crack for the water to come out; it is important not to cover the entire faucet with the tape. This trick should work well for at least the first couple of people to use the bathroom-when someone turns on the faucet, the water will spray up in a burst from the space left by the tape, hopefully catching the unsuspecting person in the face!

Want a Mint?

Teens and tweens are at the age where they start wanting fresh breath, so here's a prank that takes advantage of that. Get an Altoids mint tin and empty it of nearly all of the mints inside. Also buy some plain white chalk. Cut the chalk in pieces to match the shape of the Altoids by slicing it into small rounds. Coat the pieces in flour, then put them into the tin along with a few of the real Altoids mints (make sure that your child can tell the difference between the real ones and the fakes). At the party, your child should take out the tin and pop one of the real mints into his mouth in front of a friend, and then he should offer that friend a mint. Chances are the friend will accept (if not, your child can try this with another pal)-just imagine the reaction when your child's friend realizes that his "mint" isn't an Altoid at all!

The Disgusting Dish

Make sure to have several bowls of various types of candy on different tables for the kids to munch on at the party. All of the bowls-except one-will be just normal bowls, filled with treats. You and your child need to make one bowl special, though. The way to do this is by filling the bottom half of the bowl with some kind of disgusting concoction, one that no one would want to put their hand in. You could use Jell-O mixed with spaghetti, chopped up bologna mixed with diced tomatoes, or whatever you have handy in the kitchen that would be kind of gross to touch. After filling the bowl about halfway, set individually wrapped candies on top to cover the concoction (do not use loose candies for this bowl). Encourage party-goers to help themselves to lots of candy, and hopefully some will also inadvertently help themselves to handfuls of your distasteful mixture. This prank can still be tried even if you aren't hosting the Halloween party-simply have your child offer to bring a bowl of candy to the party.

Spray Chalk

This is a great idea-if you know that the hosts of the party your kids are attending are fun-loving people. Spray chalk looks just like spray paint in that it comes in a spray can, but it washes off with water so it is not destructive. Send your child off to the party with a can or two in a bright color (it comes in several colors, including red, blue, purple, pink, and green). For this trick to work your child must not tell the other party-goers that he has spray chalk; you want the other kids to think it is spray paint. Tell your child to spray a message on the party host's garage or front door, while several other people are watching. Everyone watching will act horrified, of course-this is your child's cue to grab some water and show how it will wash off with water and let everyone know that it wasn't paint.

As you can see, none of these tricks are malicious or injurious. Sure, they may provoke irritation or disgruntlement among other people-what prank doesn't? But by allowing your kids to have some fun and showing them some harmless and humorous Halloween tricks, you will let them get their mischief out of their system without having to worry about them getting involved in more serious or potentially destructive pranks. Don't forbid your kids from doing pranks; simply teach them how to do some safe and controllable tricks and everyone will be happy. Enjoy your holiday!