This has to happen to all of us parents at some point…right?

We try hard to do right…to encourage our children to be, “anything they want to be”.  And then it comes to this…fighting over Halloween costumes.

Despite my best efforts, my family REFUSES to do any sort of themed-family costumes.  In the past, I’ve pushed for Angry Birds or pack-man and the ghosts…but no luck.  I’ve given up on that fight.

So before I dive into the most recent battle, let’s look back at family Halloween history.

The year: 2003 –

As parents, aren’t we supposed to start brainwashing our children young?  He also went as a pumpkin for trick-or-treating – but he was only 3-months-old, so not so much fun for him.

The year: 2004 –

How cute is he? Except his eyes pretty much tell the story.  We live in Florida – Halloween is typically hot and humid – so he didn’t last too long in this costume.  But he’s adorable – even if his eyes look like they are going to kill me.

The year: 2005 –

He’s fast – just like Dash.  He loved this costume and wore it around the house often.

The year: 2006 –

This was the first year with two boys!  They were both pretty adorable – and both obsessed with television, hence the costumes.

The year: 2007:

This may be my favorite Halloween costume ever…

The year: 2008 –

Yes, we like to recycle costumes.

The year: 2009 –

The year: 2010 –

This was the first year things started going downhill – Brendan wanted to be something SCARY – this was it. My rule was NO BLOOD.

I did get into this one as well, playing Velma to Patrick’s Scooby-Doo.

The year: 2011 –

Patrick went as Scooby again – Brendan…

Again – it was a fight.  I’m pretty anti-mask.  They are so dangerous – and HOT.  But…I lost this battle.  Patrick was just fine being a dog again.

And that brings us to this year – 2012.

My oldest, Brendan, wants to return to the skeleton look with face makeup.  This year, he wants to kick it up a notch and make it a skeleton pirate with some new accessories he bought from LegoLand.  Fine.

My youngest, Patrick, decided months ago that he wanted to be Wreck-It-Ralph.  Keep in mind, this was months ago once they started seeing the commercials on the Disney Channel.  I had no idea what it was – and as Halloween started inching closer, started looking for ways to put it together.  Since the movie doesn’t come out until November 2, Disney isn’t putting together costumes for this year – so it’s a Do-It-Yourself project.  For those of you unaware, here’s what Ralph looks like:

We know we can buy the giant hands at Walt Disney World – so we’re set.  Saturday morning, we got a chance to see the movie, so now we’re even more excited about the costume!

So Sunday morning we wake up and head to the Goodwill Store – my thinking was we could get the items there for clothes – including overalls.  I’m not paying full price for them knowing he’s only going to wear them once.

Well, things went bad from the second we walked into the door.

First, Patrick couldn’t understand why we weren’t in a costume store.  I explained that the clothes will make the costume.  He seemed suspicious.

I found a perfect orange shirt – found a perfect green shirt for under…and then said…”Now we need to find some overalls in your size.”

And he broke down CRYING in the middle of the aisle.  He couldn’t even speak to tell me what was wrong.

After about five minutes, he said he didn’t want to be Wreck-It Ralph anymore and wanted to be a Storm Trooper instead.  He wouldn’t really tell me a reason, only that he didn’t want to wear overalls.  I’ve tried talking all sorts of sense into him…and nothing.  So we went home and we didn’t really speak the rest of the day.

We tried talking about it again later – he said he “didn’t want people to make fun of him for wearing overalls.”  This makes me more mad than anything else.  I asked, Do people make fun of you for what you wear now??  No, he said.   So I don’t understand.  He’s a confident kid – makes friends everywhere he goes – but suddenly he’s more concerned that someone will make fun of him during a three-hour trick-or-treat period instead of just dressing in the costume he wants?

It appears it doesn’t matter what I or his father say.  Now he wants to be a boring Storm Trooper.  So unoriginal and boring.

Do I fight this battle? Or just let it go?