All good advice above we do the same, all mask off and no jumping out, we even escort them through our yard and garage maze. We don't do any gore or horror except for the costums, we just do very creepy and thats anuff around here.....you know lots of fog and lights of which we have warning signs up.....our actors about 12 of them are the scareist, heck we even had to kill the sound effects because kids wouldn't come in. I tell ya now and please don't forget this......its no fun building your maze and making it too scary.....if they won't enter you wasted your time..........we adjust as we go, and you really don't need much to be creepy, teens were even scared, its what they don't see and whats really not there that freaks them out......it s all about playing with their imagination's !!!

There are a couple of things we've done in the past:

We once did a 'guided walkthrough'. Where we would actually take groups through and tell stories about each room. This went over VERY well with the wee ones. The first thing we had them tell each group was the the guide was to go first, to make sure it's safe, and so any monsters would eat the guide instead of the kids. The wee ones buy into it hardcore. And would wind up hiding behind the guide till they got fully into each room then slowly come out to check things out.

We've done the seperate stations, to give out candy to those too frightened.

Currently, however, we shoot for scaring the little ones, and being 'cool' to the older ones. Our philosophy is we want them gripping the parents legs, but not up all night with nightmares. And the parents around here attest we hit that mark pretty close.

One thing we do to assist the wee ones is handing out glow bracelets. We have a mildly dressed person out front with a bag of em. Tell the kids it's magic to protect them, just hold it up and nothing will harm them inside. And a lot of kids will walk through brandishing the bracelet like lightsabers warding off all evil. Actors are taught to respect that as well. So, yes, you sneak up and scare the kid, but then flee when they flash the bracelet/glow stick/etc. They're scared, they're having fun, it's all good.

We did have 3 incidences last year though:

#1. ~1.5 year old. Smart kid. Too young to understand the whole magic deal, mom carried him through. WOULD NOT EVEN TAKE the glow bracelet, he was too scared. So his mom put it in his bucket, followed by some candy later. Kid never stopped staring at me the whole time. As soon as we were out of sight, (his mom later informed me) he threw out the glow stick and the candy, and would scream if they tried to put them back in his bucket. To his mind, it came from the evil place apparantly.

#2: Co-worker brought her kids. 8 year old thought it was great. 2 year old was fine...for about 20 minutes. He finally got overwhelmed with the wierd guy talking to his mom.

#3: I refuse to take responsibility for this one. 5 year old kid didn't want to go in. Took the bracelet, and we sent someone out with candy. But...the mom literally drug him kicking and screaming through anyway.

a few points that I would like to make

first: I agree with your *siderant* you know that they are there for themselves my daughter did the same thing 4 years ago with my granddaughter but she only went to houses that were doing a display.

my feelings are if you are willing to get your kid dressed up to come out to see my haunt you will get treats, not as many as TOTs but a bag of chips or a chocolate bar(mini).

second: as for the scare factor and littlins when we moved into where we are now 6 years ago we set the exit as kiddie friendly with bubble machine and cartoon stuffies and othe cuitsy suff, when we moved the haunt into the parking garage we left the yard with the cutesy stuff, most of the kiddies in our area love the "SCARY" stuff even the littlins, so we have removed the cutesy stuff. Now please remember that my haunt is not gory, we have moving props and sometimes actors who will jump out so that is always controable.

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Our yard/porch haunt is pretty hairy but we do try to be aware of the really little kids. We always have one scareateer on the porch looking out for them and warning our yard scareateers. But sooner or later, one or two gets past our lookout.

But what gets us is that all our neighbors know what we do and how hard core we are yet they drag their children kicking and screaming through the yard and up to the porch every year.

We do a static display and its usually scray enough that the wee ones wont come up the sidewalk. This is where mom-mom is positioned with candy. We sent our grandaughter out last year but the costume was well pic below. I do take extreme difference when we get an adult who drags a kid through the adult becomes fair game. We usually get them even if they have to followed down the block. My neighbors know me and usually explain it to the victim and suddenly they get it. But god forbid I tried to explain it.

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l2...oween016-1.jpg

Just wanted to add a quick story. Last year we had a husband, wife and 6 year old son, come to our walk through in our yard. The child is walking in the middle of the couple. As they round the corner of the house, a stuffed body falls from the tree. The parents both freak out, and the kid stays calm.

Every individual regardless of the age is different.

If you put it out, they will come.

We usually adapt our acting to the age of the ToTers.... Last year, our theme was "The Witch's House" and some adults were afraid to come in the opened garage!! But when little ones came up to the garage, I would knelt down, talk to them in a normal voice (forget about my witchy voice) and let them touch my fake witch nose.... I also explained to them that it was a only a costume.... They were kind of surprised to see adults going all the way with costumes and stuff!!

And if they were still too scared to come up to the house, my son (who is now 8) would take the treats to them.... Child-to-child communication is the best thing!

And like Childofthenight said, we'll get them when they're older... LOL

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I take my daughter out so she can enjoy and experience the whole thing. She is only 2 years old, but I hope it becomes something she gets into every year. So I wouldn't expect anyone to tone down their haunt for her, but also I would never push her against her will because that could have the opposite effect and she could turn out to hate scary stuff-gasp!

Couple of true stories

(1) Years ago when my grandfather was alive, he'd go to the apple orchard and hand pick a few bushels of apples. He'd get these huge apples and would fish around for a big one when those little kids would come up. The lady next door to him was a retired schoolteacher who would dress up as a witch and give out homemade cookies to the kids. This little tot comes up on the porch after visting Miss Pendly and opens his bag up..looked all of 3-4 yrs old. Gramps reaches in his big ol sack and pulls out one of them bottom buster apples (the ones that are so big they'll bust the bottom out of your bag). He drops that thing in and this little guy looks down..looks up and back down..and starts to cry. Gramps being hard of hearing just smiles (I mean its alittle kid, they cry at a lot of things) and he goes dragging his bag off the porch just wailing. His mom looks in the bag and talks to the boy. He tells her that that old man busted his cookie and that's why he was cryin!

(2) As a rule I wont have anything that pops up suddenly. I thinking that if I did..someone trips...falls...gets hurt...I am liable. But that doesn't stop me from having slow moving props. I have this spider that crawls up and down slowly (t hink I got it at Big Lots). Had this big ol lady come dragging his grandkids up once year, telling them that everything was fake and all. She comes thru the arbor I have and when she gets close by. the spider touches her. She screams and takes off running backwards, leaving her grandkids there. Hollering and screaming waving her hands and arms...it was hilarious. Her grandkids just come up..get their treat and leave, Granny meantime was on the sidewalk, telling people that "there is a real haint in dat house, it nearly cut my haid offn my shoulder"

On the above topic... I get SafeT pops -- suckers that are made for little kids, and give those out for anyone that looks under 2 or 3, or anyone ToTing for them. The parents who really think they're going to use their infants to get free chocolate lose out at my house. One year, I had a woman - in regular clothes - demand candy for her grandchild, who was asleep in the car. Yeah, if the kid can't stay awake, s/he is too young to ToT! Gramma got a SafeT pop, and wasn't happy about it.

Anyway... because of the sue-happy country I live in, I would probably not ever have a walk-through haunt. I don't plan on doing anything too gory, either, but hope to do a full cemetery with fog, etc. Kind of elegant spooky, if that makes sense.

I remember finding one house so scary when I was a kid that I wouldn't go up the driveway. All they had was a speaker out at the road, playing sound effects! By the time I'd screwed up the courage to go, everyone in my group was back. That's what I want: scary, but mostly in the imagination.

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