Halloween and brief fear. Why children need to be frightened occasionally.

My son came home from Halloween last year with more sweets than he could eat in a week and a story about the man at number twelve who opened the door wearing a full werewolf mask that lit up and growled. He was frightened. He rang the bell anyway. He came back to me and said, with considerable satisfaction: that one was actually scary.

The satisfaction is the point. The scare was manageable — it was a werewolf mask, a lit doorway, his father three metres behind him — but it was real. His nervous system registered a genuine threat signal and then received the all-clear. That cycle — threat signal, response, resolution, all-clear — is exactly what the developing threat-assessment system needs to practise.

My son came home from Halloween last year with more sweets than he could eat in a week and a story about the man at number twelve who opened the door wearing a full werewolf mask that lit up and growled. He was frightened. He rang the bell anyway. He came back to me and said, with considerable satisfaction: that one was actually scary. The satisfaction is the point. The scare was manageable — but it was real.