Eli Manning Shares a Strategy From His Parenting Playbook For Kids & Halloween Costumes

Getting kids to decide on a Halloween costume can be a painful process, and persuading them to commit to their choice can be even more challenging. It’s an annual struggle even former NFL player Eli Manning is familiar with — but the dad of four has a strategy in his parenting playbook for avoiding any last-minute changes.

When it comes to his kids — daughters Ava, 12, Lucy, 10, and Caroline, 7, and son Charlie, 4, whom he shares with wife Abby McGrew — the two-time Super Bowl winner jokingly lamented during a conversation with People, “The costume idea is a constant revolving door of ideas. Each week, I feel like it changes.”

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Now that he’s been around the block for trick-or-treating a time or two over 10 years, the retired quarterback has caught on to the annual pattern that can occur when making the very big decision of who to dress up as for Halloween.

“I’ve learned if you get the costume too early, if it’s like two weeks from Halloween that you get the costume, they can’t help but put it on and wear it every day when they get home from school,” Manning shared. He added, “So by the time Halloween comes, they’re like ‘Well, I’m bored with that one. I need a new one.'” A classic case of costume burn-out — can’t let those kiddos put on that highly-coveted outfit ’til the day of, otherwise they start experiencing FOMO about all the other super cool things they could have chosen instead.

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Manning might be in the clear this year, though — he said his kids have yet to land on any one idea, but they are brainstorming quite a few. “So it’s multiple ideas, everything from a Ninja Turtle to a Hulk,” the athlete explained. He continued, “Barbie’s big with the girls this year, different versions of that, so there’s a lot of ideas floating around. I don’t think anyone’s quite settled down on their exact costume that they’re going with this year.” We’re very pro-Barbie — how cute would it be for all three of his girls to dress up as different Barbies á la Greta Gerwig’s record-breaking movie?

The Manning kids have a month to make their final decisions, and for their dad’s sake, we hope he can convince them to hold out for another two weeks so he doesn’t end up with a closet full of costumes. It may be a strategy in his playbook, but the former quarterback knows the plays don’t always go as planned.

Before you go, check out these celebrity kiddos who love cheering on their NFL dads.

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