I realize I’m totally looking at this from a parent’s perspective, but I feel like Halloween used to be more FUN! This is probably because then I was a kid and now I’m the mom paying absurd amounts for costumes my kids will wear once, but honestly I believe we’ve jacked up the pressure for an Instagram-worthy, Pinterest-perfect Halloween so high that even our kids are feeling the pinch.

I do not recall the prices of the cheap plastic masks of the 70s – you know, the ones with the eye holes not quite aligned correctly, the rubber bands that hurt, and that were impossible to breathe in – but I’m fairly sure they weren’t $129.81. That’s the price of the costume my kid wants this year, which he can totally forget. Lots of us were wearing sheets with holes to see through or vampire teeth and a homemade cape. On the only Halloween my mom-brain can recall, my parents painted my face into a ferocious tiger – sort of. I teased my hair and used copious amounts of Aqua Net to keep it in line because this tiger had a lion’s mane. Why not? Nobody was Instagramming my photo and if you didn’t see me at your door on that particular night, you didn’t see me! Costumes were all about creativity and fun. Today it feels more like a competition.

We’d go door to door because we actually knew the people in our neighborhood, and we didn’t have to check the candy because, again, we knew the people in our neighborhood! We didn’t drive to the community that gave the biggest candy bars or best treat bags. My parents weren’t about to waste the gas in the station wagon. We just hoped Harold from 4 doors down didn’t give us apples again. When we got home, we dumped out our loot and ate until we felt a little sick. We listened to Thriller and watched Beetlejuice and stayed up way past our bedtime.

It seems we’ve traded in creativity and simplicity for yet another hyped up holiday extravaganza that we can’t wait to show off to our 1,273 Facebook friends! Maybe it’s time to take it down a notch and give our kids a good old-fashioned 1980s Halloween. Here’s how.

Let them create their own costume and make up their own characters.

Hey kids, seriously, we don’t need another Avenger roaming the streets. Be original! Be creative. This is the one day of the year you get to become anyone or anything you want. How about a zombie mermaid? Or a cowboy vampire riding a unicorn? You can’t buy that in stores! Letting kids get creative is so good for them! Skip the costume aisle and unleash those imaginations.

Give them a bit of freedom.