Thread: I thought I was done...

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Last halloween was great but my kids didnt enjoy it nearly as much as I did, plus Im losing my haunt house. I had already decided to put up some of my props on ebay... that was until I came here today. After browsing the posts and looking at pics I got motivated again!!! (Im sure hubby will be thrilled to hear that! NOT) LOL I could try an outside haunt this yr. I have a fenced back yard or a large concrete driveway I could use. It wouldnt have to be as big or complicated as the haunt house was............ Hmmmm.... I can feel the rusty wheels in my head spinning


Thanks for the motivational boost!!! I needed it

their is always something you can do or create big or small to feed your halloween needs and craving their is alot of things you can do outside even if it is just a display , kids and halloween fans will still enjoy and apreciate the time you took to make it

YAY Newbie! Glad to hear those juices are flowing again!

A couple years ago, I got frustrated with all of it. I was basically doing everything on my own and all the people that promised their help were a bunch of no shows. I thought next year I was not going to do it. But as time went, my friend came thru to give me the help I needed. Since then he has come over every year to help. It's amazing what a little support will do.

I've been fortunate so far My family is into helping with the haunt and those who have said they would help have followed through. I can foresee a day though when it may not be so easy, I hope I get the same kind of recharge you have gotten Newbie!

Heck ya go for it.....with Halloween on Sat. this year we are going all out and expanding further into our backyard woods........it should be an all day party late into the night. My only concern is all the adult party's around here may steal some of our #'s away but we'll advertise heavy and promote it big.

Glad to see you didn't give up!!! I would miss the terrified looks on the tots if i didn't do this anymore. i would still do something even if it was small to get a reaction from the tots. even if i had to sit in a chair with some pumpkins next to me just to scare them and here their little screams. which is how i got started in all this.

I'm glad you changed your mind!

Stick with it NewbieHaunter. We live on a hill in SoCal, so we probably have one of the smallest foot prints here, but we fill it up. See the link to our pics in my sig.

Not trying to tell you how to raise your kids here, but this worked for me...

My son went through a phase where he was kind of burned out on the haunt too. I started asking him for more ideas - around this time of the year too - and by the time it was time to start construction, enough of his ideas were good enough we included them and he felt more "ownership" in the haunt and worked to achieve his vision. Improved our relationship at the same time.

The trick is that for even the ... unacceptable... ideas you tell them you understand what they are going for with that idea and that you are adding it to the list of projects from which "WE" will pick for the haunt. If you start early enough, there will be enough good ideas to push the not-so-good ideas down the list until there's not enough time to get to them. The kids won't care, because you ARE using some of their ideas and they are more involved. I always make my son draw his ideas before we add them to the list. In fact, the kids will start to develop their good ideas at your encouragement and loose interest in the bad ones.

FWIW

Its funny that you should post that because my son (15) just suggested that he'd rather have a party at the barn than a haunt. So I guess this yr a party it will be, of course I'll still have a haunted yard on halloween for the tots Anyone got suggestions for a teen/tween party around the ages of 12-16????