\u201cThe shops aren\u2019t a safe place for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that many of the Halloween decorations, such as cobwebs and spiders, aren\u2019t the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch of it depicts violence, horror, and supernatural themes that would earn an MA15+ rating in film,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren cannot avoid these images, and parents lose the ability to control what their kids are exposed to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Halloween items. Photo \/ Rachael Hallett, Mums Who, Facebook<\/p>\n
Doecke said he wanted it to be treated like cigarettes, alcohol and MA15+ films \u2013 put in a certain section of a store so parents know where to steer clear of.<\/p>\n
Another reason for his call to action was his own \u201cpersonal\u201d experience of still being haunted by a scary book that depicted ancient torture techniques 33 years after he was shown it as a child.<\/p>\n
He stressed that he realises not all children are negatively affected by the festivities, but it doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not an issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother of our boys saw a row of witches at the checkout last week. He had a different response,\u201d Doecke shared.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe ran down the whole row turning them all on until there was a cackling cacophony in Kmart.<\/p>\n
\u201cKind of funny in one sense. But in another, our kids shouldn\u2019t be desensitised to graphic content.<\/p>\n
\u201cGraphic images stay with you for life. Kids should feel safe at the shops. Kids shouldn\u2019t be desensitised to graphic content.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that everyday errands for families were made stressful with this kind of graphic horror present.<\/p>\n
Tim Doecke said his son was terrified during a recent visit to Kmart. Photo \/ LinkedIn<\/p>\n
It seems Doecke isn\u2019t the only one to have this point of view, with close to 1500 people signing his petition.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy children aged 12, 9, 7 and 4 are constantly scared by the images and sights they see and experience in most shops in the lead up to Halloween,\u201d one person said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNightmares, big questions about their safety. And we do celebrate Halloween and go trick or treating together as a family and with friends, we dress up as nice things, not scary things, visit our neighbours and have a good time. But they should not be exposed to such images and concepts when they are going grocery shopping or present shopping for a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another petition signer said that every year her children are terrified, having to cover their eyes while they \u201cscream down the whole store\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t let our children be expired to horror films at a young age, but by placing them at the front of a store you are taking away the choice of exposure and the opportunity to protect our children from such scary images,\u201d the parent said.<\/p>\n
He has created a petition urging Australian shopping centres to stop turning the hallways and storefronts into Halloween displays. Photo \/ Facebook, Oh So Busy Mum<\/p>\n
Another said: \u201cI agree! It should not be allowed. One of my sons still remembers being terrified of someone in a bloody costume, had nightmares for a long time!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI work in early years and the number of families who are avoiding the shops because of Halloween displays is astounding,\u201d one added.<\/p>\n
It comes as Inner West and Willoughby councils in Sydney have asked residents not to use certain decorations, warning that fake spiderwebs and fishing lines could be ingested by wildlife.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnimals can get tangled in them or mistake the plastic for food, which can cause serious harm \u2026 choose or create decorations that are safe for nature and use less single-use plastic,\u201d Willoughby Council said, according to the Daily Telegraph.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe shops aren\u2019t a safe place for him.\u201d He said that many of the Halloween decorations, such as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[74,85,15117,138,1559,115,34518,1061,15245,63703,63702,63701,17515,2209,2082,37151,47129,78,29540,101,111,139,69,1243,51212,653,61,43272,63704,102],"class_list":["post-83141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-after","tag-australia","tag-boy","tag-business","tag-called","tag-calls","tag-centres","tag-children","tag-concerned","tag-decorations","tag-displays","tag-ditch","tag-experience","tag-father","tag-for","tag-graphic","tag-halloween","tag-in","tag-kmart","tag-left","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-shopping","tag-shops","tag-stores","tag-to","tag-traumatised","tag-traumatising","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}