Neighbour's Halloween letter incites backlash: 'Keep your snowflake at home'
A note written by a parent has copped backlash after it requested neighbours hand out carrot sticks and raisins for Halloween due to their son's severe allergies.
The letter were plastered on lampposts in a neighbourhood in Connecticut, US, detailing what "tasty and allergy-conscious" treats should be handed out to children.
It was posted on Reddit on Monday and has sparked thousands of new reactions, despite originally appearing in 2015.
"My son has severe allergies and comes home every year devastated that he can’t eat any candy he’s collected at your homes while trick or treating," the parent's letter reads.
"Don’t exclude my child, or any other child from the fun.
"This Halloween, practice responsible parenting and do not distribute candy containing nuts of any kind, gluten or dairy."
The parent then suggested a list of alternative options including carrot sticks, raisins, smarties, lifesavers and lemon drops.
People react to letter on social media
"Please do us all a favour and keep your little snowflake at home," the poster on Reddit captioned the photo of the flyer.
In just 24 hours, the post has been seen by almost 30,000 people, with many believing the parent was expecting too much from others.
"My thought was that if this parent wasn't a total nightmare she could easily speak to a few friendly neighbours and ask them to have something set aside for (their) kid so they could still have a Halloween experience and I bet they would be really happy to do that," one person wrote.
"Instead (they) want to control every other kid's experience.'
Another person agreed, even saying that the parent should take responsibility for their child and provide the lollies herself.
"Better yet, be like the mom of the kid in my neighbourhood with severe food allergies," they said.
"She came to every house on the street last year and gave us all special treats to give (their) son later that night when trick or treating.
"A small sandwich bag with some tolerable treats. Everyone knows everyone on this street so we all happily obliged. Kid got to participate and nobody had to change the way they did anything. Easy peasy."
Someone else suggested the child could still go out trick-or-treating and then swap the lollies with the ones the parent bought, instead of "making Halloween suck for other kids".
"It also gives him the opportunity to see and learn to recognise the packaging of candy that isn't safe for him, because at some point he'll have to make these decisions on his own," they said.
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However not everyone was pleased with the poster's descriptor of the child, calling them a "bully".
"Who calls children snowflakes? I wouldn’t blame another parent for doing this, why do you think it’s such a sin that a parent is working hard for their child to be included in Halloween," one person said.
Halloween becoming more common in Australia
Halloween, occurring on October 31, has been celebrated in America and the UK for a long time, but has become increasingly popular in Australia.
According to Australian Retailers Association and Roy Morgan’s survey, one in four Australians will attend or host a dress-up party for the event, The New Daily reports.
The cost for outfits and other Halloween-themed accessories is expected to be $430 million, averaging at $86 per person, according to the two organisation's data.
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