With all the ghosts, jack o’lanterns and witches filling the store shelves, I’ve been pretty surprised how unfazed my daughters seems by the “scarier” side of Halloween. We usually stick to smiling pumpkins, happy costumes and silly ghosts in our house.

But I am starting to realize that the Halloween season has hit my daughter more than I thought. Last night, we had a special dinner-and-a-movie family night. We ran into Target, where my daughter picked out a new movie to watch (“Diego’s Halloween”), and then we swung by Moe’s to pick up some burritos. My daughter thought eating in front of the TV was the best part of the night by far.

My daughter loved seeing Diego dressed up as a bat and thought the monkeys covered in white sheets were super silly. But then came bedtime.

We did the normal routine –  PJs, teeth and bed – but after I tucked Aubrey in, she emerged from her room minutes later, almost in tears.

“I can’t sleep,” she said. “I hear scary noises.”

My heart just sank for her. I can’t stand seeing my daughter scared or upset.

“What scary noises did you near?” I asked her.

“I heard ghost noises,” she said, her bottom lip turned down. “There were people outside my window making scary ghost noises.”

I explained to her, as I’ve done before, that scary ghosts are not real, and that there is nothing outside her window. I tucked her back into bed, and upon her request, took the happy, glowing pumpkin decoration out of her room.

I will admit, I felt a bit of guilt last night. I have always gone out of my way to shield Aubrey from the scarier parts of Halloween. In our family, Halloween is about dressing up as fun characters and getting candy, not about scary goblins. But this year, I have been a bit more relaxed, like not quickly turning my cart the other way when we passed the talking skeleton display in Target.

But now, my guard is back up. Our babies have enough things to figure out in this world. I don’t want my little girl worrying about ghosts outside her bedroom wall.