I don’t recall Halloween ever being stressful for me. Obviously, as a child I found it fun and even as an adult, I never had much problem finding or coming up with a costume. So why is it that since I’ve become a mother, I’ve found Halloween to be so loathsome?

I had grand aspirations about making Davey a Halloween costume this year. I thought, “hey, I’m a stay a home mom, I have some time, I love to pin on Pinterest, and I’m perfectly capable of doing something creative.” Boy, was I ever wrong! The last two years have been a piece of cake, but this year Halloween has become downright painful. And why is that? Could it be because I’m putting too much stress on myself? Let’s be serious. Davey doesn’t really understand the concept yet. Heck, he’s not even aware of what day it is, much less that the tradition is to dress up. So, what am I so stressed about?

I’ll tell you. I want my son to not just wear some mass produced costume. Yeah, yeah, I know a lot of moms and dads out there find it a lot easier to just buy a costume, even if their child will look like Billy Joe down the street. I know, it’s ridiculous for me to spend my energy fretting about something that really is so trivial. And I’m perfectly aware that Davey could care less. So, I guess it’s more about me.

Here’s my issue…I’m a stay at home mom. I should be able to make a costume for my son. I should be able to come up with creative ways to make him unique and I really thought I had this year. I really thought that this year would be different, but now I’m down to the wire and I can’t help but shake my head and say, “why oh why, Amy, must you put so much on yourself?”

And here’s my other issue, completely irrelevant to the costume…what about little goody bags for his friends at school? Should I do this? Is it acceptable? I know some moms out there are shaking their heads at this, telling me to relax, to not take on so much, but I desperately want to be THAT mom who does take on the extra tasks. I just can’t seem to find a way for it to NOT stress me out. Just a side note, even if I go the store bought way with a costume and don’t do little bags for the kids at school, I’m still stressed out. It’s just a part of my nature.

So, I guess there’s no hope for me, and I guess since NO ONE seems to sell plain hooded yellow sweatshirts these days, I’ll have to go to Plan B on the costume. At least I do have a contingency plan in place. Let’s just hope I can pull it off!

Happy Stress-O-Ween, Everyone!