Let’s get the kids back in school before we crush their Halloween

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In California, most kids are still reveling in summer vacation, lolling around -- mouth agape and possibly drooling -- in front of the TV, computer or pool. And those poor young souls (mostly in the less-blessed Eastern states) who have had to return to the classroom are still in pupil-dilating shock.

So please (and you know who you are), could you hold off on pitches that refer to Halloween?

Seeing this in the subject line ‘Tips for Protecting Your Kids Teeth this Halloween from Dr. Mitchell, DDS’ just predisposes me to be cranky about what will follow. And what inevitably follows is what all parents have read many many times before. (Avoid sticky candy, don’t have fun, buy this particular brand of something or other, etc.)

If you must, absolutely must, send an annual pitch with ‘tips’ (and you know you are), stay focused on the current season. And please, I beg of you, consider including at least one ‘tip’ that we couldn’t anticipate after simply reading the subject line.

And don’t even think about sending holiday gift-guide ideas yet. I don’t care for them much in November or December. In August, they set my teeth on edge.

-- Tami Dennis

Top photo: Back-to-school shopping (as done here by Amanda Griffin and daughter Haven in Little Rock, Ark., recently) comes first.

Credits: Top, Associated Press; bottom, Los Angeles Times