If you ask someone what to do with a pumpkin, they'll say carve it. Or possibly make a pie. But painting it is unlikely to be high on the list.
Since the 19th Century the Halloween pumpkin has always been about a scary face and a candle inside. But recently parents are being encouraged into a new health and safety trend of painting pumpkins, in order to protect (or mollycoddle?) their children from the dangers of a naked flames and knives.
Pumpkin painting has become popular since multiple charities like The Child Accident Prevention Trust have issued Halloween safety tips, advising, 'You could have fun painting your pumpkin instead, or create a design using marker pens and stick-on decorations!'
Celebrities are jumping on board too, with Reece Witherspoon sharing the below photo on her Twitter feed, with the caption, 'Not all pumpkins have to be carved.'
It's easy to write the idea off as health and safety gone mad, but Halloween can be a genuinely dangerous time. In 2015, the daughter of Strictly Come Dancing co-host, Claudia Winkleman, was hospitalised due to her halloween costume setting fire as she was trick-or-treating. Children dress up in costumes that are often highly flammable, but while one parent might decide to paint pumpkins with their children, most will follow tradition.
Slightly more worrying, has the attention around children painting pumpkins taken away from roadside safety this Halloween? Safe Kids Worldwide has published a horrifying statistic that, 'twice as many children are killed while walking on Halloween than any other day of the year'.
Of course we want children to enjoy the festivities of Halloween, but some parental precautions might be a good idea. If you decide to stick with tradition make sure your child is supervised at all times this Halloween, while creating their pumpkin, trick-or-treating and dressing up.
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