Q My kids are gearing up for Halloween, and this is my six-year-old daughter's first time trick-or-treating. She doesn't really know what she wants, and the shops are stuffed with distinctly non-scary princesses and fairies, while the boys get to be pirates and skeletons. Any suggestions? Tricia, Westmeath

A We must first give thanks for the apparent ambivalence your child feels towards a holiday that is geared towards eating too many sweets. You should also be thankful that you have at least a decade to drum some sense into her before her only costume choices are sexy cop, sexy nurse and sexy Spongebob Squarepants. By the time she reaches adolescence, every costume will be sexy. Sexy Super Mario. Sexy Maud Gonne. Sexy amoeba. The possibilities are depressingly endless.

When it comes to Halloween costumes, girls generally get the short end of the stick. My own mother didn't really care about Halloween, so my sisters and I wore bin liners and Count Duckula masks. They were sweaty and uncomfortable; we resent her still. Please do not follow her example by popping a bin liner on your child. No good will come of it. Plonk a witchy hairband from Tiger Stores on her head instead.

Take your daughter Halloween costume shopping and explain to her that, even though a costume may have a picture of a boy on the front, girls can wear those costumes too. Dunnes has a nice range of affordable costumes for kids, with a few girl gems nestling in between the frou-frou and frills. These pirate costumes will be suitably swashbuckling no matter which one she chooses. And don't forget: bats and unspeakably horrible monsters can be girls too.

Email your wardrobe woes to wardrobing@irishtimes.com

(R-L Bat skeleton and Frankenstein, €15 each from Dunnes Stores, Witch hairband, €3 from Tiger Stores)