Halloween is a bit confusing...

Conflict #1
This was my first year taking my children trick or treating.  I told my 4 year old what was about to take place, and she had a dumbfounded look on her face as if to say, "are you kidding me?  I'm about to receive a bucket of candy and you are OK with it?"  This is contrary to ever other day in our life, when I explain how bad candy is for her and how it only leads to a belly ache.
Conflict #2
Halloween is a day where many people take joy in dressing up like killers.  On Halloween it is consider fun to become the likeness of something terrible.  It's a day where one gets to act like something that would otherwise in real life be unacceptable.  So on Halloween night when we pass someone on the street wearing a hockey mask,  I am allowed to say to my children, "no, no, honey, don't be scared that person is just pretending to be a serial killer.  It's OK."
Conflict #3
In an effort to reduce the amount of candy that my children would eat, and because I love to bake,  I chopped up all of the peanut butter cups and snickers bars and made a 9x13 pan of cookies.  Now who do you think is going to eat that?