A couple weeks ago, I was with my 12-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son at a public park pool in our community. It's generally a great place to connect with friends from school. But not all children are friendly -- or at least they say some pretty unfriendly things. One group of 14ish-year-olds made my son particularly upset when he tried to interact with them. Seeing his anguish, a couple of them initiated personal apologies to him on their own.

Whether your neighborhood hosted trick-or-treaters already, or is gearing up for the swarm of costumed kiddos later this week, this is a time when many of us celebrate our children pretending to be other than who (or what) they are. Sometimes the costumes are so elaborate or concealing, we cannot recognize our pals. And some characters even assume their costumed persona while at the party or collecting candy. There is, of course, no expectation that such charades will continue past Halloween.