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American Morning

Tips for Halloween Safety

Aired October 29, 2001 - 09:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: If any of you have children out there, you no doubt know the countdown is on to Halloween. Tuesday night, of course. Many parents will be on high alert this year.

So try to calm some of you fears, we called in an expert this morning, "Parenting" magazine's Mary Giles has some tips to prepare to trick-or-treat with your little one.

Welcome.

MARY GILES, "PARENTING" MAGAZINE: Thank you.

ZAHN: There has been enough concern from parents, and I understand you actually conduct a poll to see what parents are worried about this year. What did you find?

GILES: Well, we conducted an AOL/"Parenting" poll, and about half of the parents who responded said that they feel they don't need to have any additional concerns this Halloween, but the other half is a little bit worried. About 60 percent say they will trick-or-treat as normal.

ZAHN: Against this backdrop, we need to make it clear, there have been a bunch of rumors spawned out here. One being you shouldn't go near shopping malls Halloween night, and we can determine that was an absolute hoax.

There was a story, too, about a man buying a vast amount of candy in New Jersey, and just based on his -- what he looked like physically, people jumped to the assumption, oh, he's going to poison the candy and give it to children. That is ridiculous. This man was actually buying a lot candy to give to newsstands.

GILES: He was a distributor, exactly.

ZAHN: So walk us through what other concerns parents have this time of year.

GILES: Well, aren't any real specific concerns. It's just the general fear, given the environment that we're all living in right now. They're a little bit worried about going to homes where they don't know where people live. The easiest way to avoid that this year is go to homes where you know the people who actually occupy those houses, and then maybe go to a local carnival, a church, or a museum, or a school this year, and then you don't have to have a worry.

ZAHN: Have you been able to determine from your talk with the parents whether the fear is translated to children? Are they...

GILES: It really depends on the age of the kids, and an important thing to remember is in unsettling times like this, a great way to make your children feel safe is to be able to go about your normal routines as much as possible, and that includes Halloween this years. If you normally celebrate it as a family, one way that you're going to make them feel assured that the world is still a place where they can do their normal things is to celebrate. Now if you are more comfortable going door to door or carnival at a sponsored events. Either way, it's a great way to celebrate with your kids and help them feel that life still goes on.

ZAHN: But there are things you should obviously be very careful about, and let's go back to the times when Miles and I were trick-or- treating.

GILES: Right, there are some basic safety tips that you don't want to forget about this year. You don't want to be overshadowed by these other worries. The number one this, you want to be sure that your child is visible at night. Kids are four times more likely to get hit by a car on Halloween. So you want to make sure you put some reflective tape, or stickers on their costumes, on their trick-or- treat bags, carry a flashlight and don't go trick-or-treating during rush hour.

ZAHN: Which makes a lot of sense. And then, how about charitable giving this year?

GILES: We talked to the UNICEF people last week. They're going to be encouraging people of course that trick-or-treat to carry around their little boxes. Are you aware of how active kids will be this year. A lot of kids are doing a lot of things this year, that kind of thing with trick-or-treating. They've been setting up their own lemonade stands, all kinds of things, so they can donate to various charitable groups.

ZAHN: And I know in your magazine, you talk, too, about the honesty that parents must show their children, and any of us who have children know, it's certainly based on each individual child. But your recommendation to parents when kids ask them these scary question about Halloween against this potential threat of -- ongoing threat of terrorism?

GILES: Depends on your child's age. Young kids want to feel safe and reassured. So you want to acknowledge their fears, don't minimize them, you want to make sure they feel like they've been heard, and listened to and you understand their concerns, and you really want to reassure them, don't play up the spears, or give them more information than they really need. Older kids, you know, 10-12- year-olds, it's more important to be honest. Try and see how much they know and what fears actually are before you introduce additional ones, and then talk with them about it and assure them you are there to protect them and you are doing everything you can. ZAHN: Well, happy Halloween.

GILES: Thank you, same to you.

ZAHN: Thanks for your advice this morning from "Parenting" magazine.

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