Thread: How do I take a break?

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I am 24 Years old and have been haunting since birth. My parents started with wooden tombstones and some simple spooky lighting before my birth. I have added year after year, always thinking and plotting on what to add next year.

I had to scale back a bit last year with the birth of my son. Now the family life takes up so much time, plus I will be getting married in 2009.
I have big plans for a nice maze, the main hallway is haunted mansion esque and 65% of the wallflats are built.

Each year the amount of vistors increases and I get people that drive in from other countys just from word of mouth, but I don't feel like I can present a haunt this year. I feel like I should skip this year and focus on making the haunt the best it can be, but I don't want to disappoint our fans.

Website for my haunt:
Welcome to Jackson Manor

I'm sure I am not the first faced with this dilema. How else have people handled this?

Thank you,
-Travis Jackson
-Jackson Manor

YIPES! You've got a lot on your plate! Congratulations on the birth of your son and your upcoming nuptials. I'm not a haunter so I can't really speak from experience, but I would definately say take a break. A long one. Stay in the loop on what's new and maybe even do a bit of shopping but don't go to all the trouble to set it up. A new baby and a wedding takes a lot of time and it's quite an adjustment. If it were me, and again, I'm just sayin', I would take this year off and next year. Spend the time with the new family unit and all the while plot and plan and then come back raging in 2010. Best of luck whatever you decide!

First off...congrats on the birth of your son, you'll have years of teaching the joy of haunts to him.

Love your website. It looks great. You have accomplished a lot. You should be proud of what you have done. If you have to scale back some, I would suggest just not changing anything this year, and go with what you already have. As your son gets older, you';ll be able to gradually add more to it.

Or, you could scale back the way I do....just run out of money!!

Not much more I could say but keep up your hard work...looks fantastic

if you feel you need some time take it..scale it back a little ,just put up a couple of simple decorations and hand out candy ,then next year get them good!!!!!P.S. congrats on the birth of your son and your marrage to be!!!!

First of all Jackson Manor great pics. You really have done a lot over the years. Congrats on the son. I can tell you as a mom of two who had mine around the same age you did, only 15 years ago that.....BOYS RULE!!! If you thought Halloween was a blast before just wait until your little guy gets old enough to really understand the holiday, you are in for the ride of your life As for you time....do what you need to do...If you need to scale back then do so, I wouldnt add anymore, you certainly dont need it, take a break this year and enjoy your lil one.

Not wanting to disappoint the patrons, thinking that if you vanish for an October the rumors may spread that you have quit it all together, forever?
I have had my haunted house, the Ravens Grin Inn open for nightly tours almost every night for the last 20 years!
It would be slow in winter, bad weather, ex cetra, my wife would plead to close, go out to a movie.
"Well, nobody has shown up for a tour on Tuesday night for about a month now, I guess we will be closed tonight."
We put the message on the answering machine.
Go to the movie.
Get home at 10:30 and there's 12 people standing at the door in the dark.
"Where have you been? We've been here since 8:30!"
(Grumble, mumble, gripe is the undercurrent coming from the peanut gallery.)
The next winter we would decide to be closed every Wednesday, people would show up anyway!
They wouldn't listen to the message.
Being commited to serving the public requires a certain dedication (or is it "fear"?)
I have seen way too many people go into some business in this small town, get discouraged, begin being closed on different times, different days, the potential customers get mad ramming their noses into a locked store door that is supposed to be open for business.
You really have to weigh the pros and cons, figure out what you want, can feel comfortable with. After you get "you" figured out, ask your Wife how she feels and follow her lead , of course if you don't care what she has to say, then you should not be married.

Hey Travis, do what you need to do, but I beleive the show must go on. My daughter was born on Oct.18 and I still did my thing . Last year we had high winds and rain up until three hours before sunset. When the wheather got better we busted our butts to scrape together a haunt. When we told people there might not be a haunt , they asked us to do anything we could. We have heard of complete strangers talking about a haunt they attend every year which happend to be ours. You may not realize what it means to your community. Good luck!!

Only you can balance your tasks and priorities. Sounds like we have something in common ... we tend to be our own worst critics. We ... er ... I have a tendency to judge my Haunt success on how much improved it is this year over last year.

But even in those VERY busy years when I barely get everything out - the same as the prior year - I learned two things:
1) The task of putting up the Haunt is very theraputic and relaxing, while at the same time being physically exhausting.
2) Even unchanged from the prior year, our haunt is far better than any other for many miles away (too many sane people in our area). To forego the looks on the faces of visitors, even in years of little change, is too big a sacrafice.

Whatever you decide, I'm sure will be best for you.

I am of the belief that if you need the time off/away you need to take it. We have been haunting for about 8 years now and got about 2700 TOTers last Halloween. We have decided to take next year off. Ths has been the most relaxing summer not having to worry about what I am doing for Halloween. granted,this fall, when the weather is at its best I wil be working of projects, but it wontbe the mad rush that it normally is.

I would also drive a few counties to see your haunt. That's some great stuff. And the lighting is superb.

Is it possible that you could set up the display, but not actually run the haunt? Just the display itself would be enough to keep the regular fans pacified, but you could skip everything that requires a lot of your time, such as fog machines and stuff like that.

One day, you will be at the point that I am at now. Both of my older boys have ZERO interest in trick-or-treating this year. All they can talk about now is building them stalk-around costumes so they can be part of the "production".

Congratulation on "Little Jackson", and don't let anyone tell you to be afraid of marriage. I can tell you firsthand, it can be awesome if your willing to work at it.