Pumpkins are rotting, dentists’ schedules are over-booked and three-pound candy bags are now on sale. All those add up to one thing — Halloween has just passed us by.

Every year my husband and I set up a mini haunted house at our home. Parental high-fives, emergency bathroom runs and crying children are the goals we have for that one night each year.

This last Halloween has given us a checkmark of accomplishment on those goals, but there is still a slight feeling of disappointment — a little like the feeling one gets after getting to eat only one piece of candy before the entire spare bag goes to trick or treaters.

Sadly, Halloween just doesn’t feel the same as it once did. Kids are starting to get out earlier and go home sooner. The lack of candy stashing and stealing spawns are dwindling each year.

The Halloween spirit-stealing vampire seems to be eating past its capacity — leaving the only-one-piece-of-candy houses, haunted-house-only individuals, and helicopter parents who only allow kids to go a few houses down the street. That all sucks when you live at the dark end of the street like I do.

In my trick-or-treat days, the streets were flowing with ghouls, skeletons, princesses and superheros. We needed body bags for the amount of candy we had — and that was after a dump or two in the spare bag back at the car. What happened to giving Christmas a run for its money when it comes to decorations?

Giving my son the same experience as I had when it came to the spirit of Halloween seems like a dying dream. People have lost their sense of scare and spirit.

But fear not, my Halloween loving groupies! Next year is a new year, another chance at bringing back the traditional and old-fashioned frights of joy.

Let us come together and show this new generation just how awesome that one day is because these last few Halloweens will just not do. Prepare yourself toddler parents, for your diaper and pull-up expenses are not zeroed out just yet.