At what age do kids stop trick or treating with their parents?

Is it around age ten or eleven?

Please say it isn't so.

Please reassure this helicopter mama's heart that I have more than a few more years left alongside a child (I guess I should call her a tween) who still wants something (occasionally semi-reluctantly) to do with my husband and me.

You see, my daughter is ten, and last night, on Halloween night, she made her way house to house with her father and I and her younger siblings, and, full credit to her, she did it sans a complaint even though she knew like-aged kids traveling the blocks without their life-giving guardians.

Was she jealous as they passed and yelled out to her? Perhaps.

Did she wish Halloween night was a one on which she was allowed a little more freedom? Maybe.

But does she trust her parents know what is best for her (and only her) and that what that is won't always match what her friends are doing? I sure hope so.

We only get a few of these precious years where our kids are

1) old enough to not wanna be around us

2) but young enough that they still do,

and I'm grateful that mine still does.

I'm proud to walk alongside her today, tomorrow, and every day,

and if I do my job right,

or even just the best I can,

hopefully she'll forever feel the same way about her father and me.

I can pray, at least.