Protecting your neighborhood from people who obviously have no respect for someone else's property, privacy or safety is not wrong. For the op the main reason for banning less privileged or poor people was not because they wanted to spoil Halloween for the kids, it was because the parents behaved like scum and created dangerous situations. Strict parking rules and/or strict enforcement wouldn't have changed the situation at that time. You can't have a cop on every street to prevent jerks from parking their car wherever they like. NTA. For the parents: TTA (Totally The @ssholes)

My neighborhood growing up was like this. It was annoying and it was expensive. We also were unable to leave our home. We started parking a vehicle a few blocks away at a convenience store in case we needed it because we also had an accident and needed to get to a hospital. Thankfully, it never happened again but we were prepared. Also, even though we lived in a nice neighborhood that was so popular for Halloween, no one signed up to provide hundreds upon hundreds of dollars of candy for strangers. People would still knock and incessantly ring the doorbell even after we turned the porch lights off. It was like being held hostage in your own home. All for some candy. That's not what trick or treating or Halloween is all about. I'm not going broke to give kids a piece of candy and then pick up their trash in my yard. Those years nearly ruined it for my entire family. We still love Halloween and over the top decorate for it but I buy a few bags of candy and that's it.

I see both sides of the story. Folks shouldn't litter and block road ways. Especially for medical emergencies such as this. Broken bones could be fatal (think sharp bits of hard organic matter). Also parents/guardians should teach their kids about not littering and respecting peeps properties regardless of where they are at. This deems to be a lesson. Also the housing community was in vote of this, not just one person who was looking out for their family. Parking management for a future holiday (to help with medical emergencies, and note medical emergencies can happen at anytime regardless of holidays) can help while keeping doors open. Folk can walk in and be well reminded to not litter. Halloween is a really cool holiday and I love that folks have fun. But I love it more when all parties are responsible with celebration.

Not everyone celebrates Halloween. I don’t, and it would annoy me too if people flooded my neighborhood. Especially since you’re paying more to be in a rich neighborhood. Then you should at least be able to get some peace. Kids or adults, the inconvenience is the same. It doesn’t matter what age the neighborhood pests are. They aren’t entitled to be there.

Not familiar with all the cultural context of trick and treating but the way I see it, its just one neighbourhood. Can't the kids visit other neighbourhoods? Sure, the candy is probably less but the fun of dressing up and hanging out with friends should still be there.

NTA, but I will say, a better way of doing this would be to have the police at the entrance so they can direct them to parking areas outside the neighborhood and maybe have a hay ride or two to bring the kids into the neighborhood. Make it clear there should be no unattended minors and then put decorative trash cans at every driveway or door for trash. Have signs that say people who litter will be asked to leave immediately. Perhaps the real trick here is not to cut everyone off, but to have more organization to it. If anyone argues with it, they can leave. Make the parents behave so the kids can have fun.

At the end of it children behave in a manner they have been allowed to so blame should be placed on the parents. I also find it hard to believe that people parked on peoples lawns and the home owner allowed it for years before it was stopped and the police never called. I lived in a pretty nice ungated community and all the kids trick or treated in the complex growing up because their was about 500 houses so no need to go anywhere else. We take my granddaughter every year to a different area in the city about less than a mile from my house. Less and less lights on houses are lite up every year, but we only stay out for an hour. Its possible that the residents had an issue with the amount of trick or treaters, but the only trouble makers I ever saw was older kids. I understand the frustration about not wanting property destroyed but I also think it is getting harder and harder to find areas to trick or treat in because people arent giving out candy as much.

NTA. NTA. NTA.

Regardless of everything, no way am I handing out candy till 1 am! Lol!!!😂

I grew up in Connecticut. If you've ever been to Connecticut you'll know that sidewalks and streetlights are incredibly rare outside of metro/downtown areas. Even in new housing developments sidewalks and streetlights aren't common. So in my town, everyone went to the center of town to trick or treat because it was the only place with sidewalks and streetlights and therefore the only place to safely trick or treat. Otherwise you would be walking around a neighborhood in the dark on a street that likely has blind drives and blind turns everywhere. I know many people who lived in the center of town complained about the cost of buying candy for thousands of kids but the ones who hated it that much simply shut off their lights and didn't participate. Plenty of people loved it and fully participated. My childhood would have been ruined if those people that hated it attempted to stop the trick or treating all together.

Did OP seriously eot their kid sit there with an injured arm (even if they didn't know it was broken at the time) and not call an ambulance? That's asinine. The police would have had to come make sure the ambulance could get through and that would have solved the problem about the parking right then and there. F*****g ridiculous.

I live in a small town and when we went trick or treating, we mainly to just people our parents knew. We were always respectful of the residents' property and traffic was not blocked. It's unfortunate that these children can't trick or treat anymore, but it's their parents' fault for not being more cautious.

I don't give out candy any longer, I did for 40 years and now it's kids with huge bags full coming to the door, not like before where you had the kids around your street coming with their little pails. Now there is nothing wrong with older kids coming better that then getting into trouble lol but most didn't even dress up and you didn't dare not give them candy or your house might be egged or worse. Candy is nothing new to kids now, most have something every day not like years ago where it really was a treat.

I have always loved Halloween and used to go all out. Over a period of several years, though, it quit being fun. First there were the droves of kids that I knew for a fact don't live in my neighborhood. Then I started getting teenagers and young adults. The final straw was when the parents started showing up with bags of their own and expecting candy. Just nope. Now I don't decorate and turn off all of the lights in the front of my house.

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Having for many years lived near one of the most popular "Christmas Tree Lanes" in SoCal I can appreciate the traffic and inconsiderate people problems being caused by too many people showing up for Halloween. Unfortunately, too many people have not been "raised" to put consideration of their actions and how it will affect others high enough up on their list of priorities to keep from spoiling a good thing and a fun time for all by their inconsiderate actions. In a more socially conscious time this was referred to as "boorish behavior". When a sufficiently large segment of the population engages in boorish behavior, it wrecks it for everybody. Places such as Disneyland can restrict the number of people by virtue of their design, having been built this way, something that "neighborhoods" aren't designed to do. They also have inconspicuous security in place to keep the more obnoxiously boorish people form getting out of hand, once again, something "neighborhoods" aren't set up to do

I understand if you are in an apartment building or some other situation where your kids can't trick or treat in their own neighborhood, but it makes no sense that there should be 1000s of kids going to one single neighborhood. I took my son to my parents' neighborhood when he was little. If others in my apartment did something similar, there'd be maybe one extra piece of candy handed out by each house in the target neighborhood. That's horrifying that your neighborhood would be taken over by 1000s of people, doesn't matter if they are rich or poor. With my son, one woman did ask me suspiciously if I was from the neighborhood. I said my parents lived up the street. They'd been there for over 40 years at that point, so I figured I was okay.

NTA. I am not an american so an opinion from a person from a different culture. It is not mandatory for you to participate in other ppl's fun activities. It is good if you do and you are a good person if you make a child's day better but it is not your responsibility. Children were free to come to your house till it wasnt bothering you but as their behaviour startied impacting your privacy, damage your property and restrict your freedom of movement in an actual case of emergency you had to put a stop to it. You could be considered an AH if you did not allow ANY kids to your neighbourhood but you clarified that you allowed the local kids and kids who have some connection to your neighbourhood. I am all for doing charity and good in general to other ppl but not if it impacts your heath, security and privacy. I abide by the rule My freedom ends where the other person's freedom starts. /continue

I'm going with NTA. 1000+ kids. That's A LOT of candy to buy. And then you would have to basically just stand by your door all night just to hand it all out. Its not like they banned Halloween all together. The 300 they let in is already way more than I've ever had where I live. And why were the vehicles there until 1:00 AM. They should have cleared out of there by 9:00 pm...10 at the absolute latest. I don't blame them for wanting some more order.

I have never understood this custom. Parents always tell their children to never take sweets from strangers then encourage them to solicit sweets from strangers on Halloween.

I’d there’s so many kids and cars that they’re literally blocking the street for hours and littering, that’s not an a-hole thing to want to reduce that number. Those kids can trick or treat in another neighborhood.

They had to wait for hours? They couldn't have walked past the cars and called an Uber?

asshole because its not the kids' fault. But if this is not exaggeration, then their community, or police need to make sure the streets are clear of parked cars. Thats on the town/village for not enforcing

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I'm against those apartheid gated communities..that said I actually think it's fair what they did and limited the numbers.

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Sounds fake to me. Really a VIP list ? 1am? Ridiculous.

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There are two wealthy neighborhood that are popular with trick-or-treaters in my city. The people in these neighborhoods go all-out, constructing insanely complex displays that they obviously spend weeks on. One house constructs an entire full-size prop, like a pirate ship every year. Kids from neighborhoods that are too dangerous to trick-or-treat in come and everyone has a great time. The city cops coordinate with the neighbors in the rich hood to block off the street, and at least one cop car stays through the night in case there is an emergency and they need to move a barricade and offer an escort to the ER. This is a SOLVABLE PROBLEM. You don't need to ruin Halloween for a bunch of poor kids.