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Reading one article after another about parents and schools taking extra precautions to try to prevent the spread of the swine flu among kids got me thinking: with Halloween just around the corner, will the swine flu pandemic affect how parents feel about their kids trick-or-treating?
Halloween was one of my personal favorite holidays growing up. I can’t imagine missing the crucial candy stocking day of the year because my mom thought that I might get sick. On the other hand, let’s just visualize for a minute a person putting candy into a bowl and kid, after kid, AFTER KID putting their hands into that bowl…. seems like quite the set-up for a germ haven, don’t you think?
Well, I was surprised to discover that there aren’t many flu fear articles written specifically about Halloween. Hopefully parents’ fears are subsiding, but I won’t be shocked one bit if I answer my door to a few trick-or-treaters wearing gloves this year or some other form of protective wear. I did find one article that offers a Halloween checklist for parents. Here’s step number 9: “Pack hand sanitizer. Your little one should sanitize his or her hands between houses.” This led me to my next thought that the upcoming holiday will only continue to increase the already high sanitizer sales.
Apparently, in the four months prior to August, more than $68 million was spent on sanitizers in U.S. stores due to the swine flu pandemic. This is a 54 percent increase over the same period in 2008. Check out this article for more. I’m assuming that Halloween will insure that there will be quite a few more travel size sanitizers flying off the selves.
So, I’m curious. Has your sanitizer purchasing increased recently? Also, if you’re a parent, do you have any hesitations about your kids trick-or-treating this year in fear of them getting the flu?
On a side note, if you’re interested in really making a statement at this year’s costume parties, consider being the swine flu. That’s right, check out how to make the swine flu costume here.
Contributed by: Ashley Hollingsworth