Do you ever get the feeling the world has gone mad? On Saturday night I watched a group of about 30 children do something so innocently heart warming and fun it made me long to be a child again.

Yet I know there are hundreds of people in this country who would call for pretty much everything they were doing to be banned...

At the weekend, despite my decrepit old age, I was lucky enough to be invited to a children’s fancy dress party for Halloween. So under the threat of a fine if we didn’t get into the spirit of things, my friends and I dolled ourselves up in an assortment of scream masks, grim reaper scythes and devil horns and headed off to the party.

Unsure of what to expect in these politically correct times, we were most pleased to be greeted at the front door by a gaggle of three foot-tall ghouls, goblins, witches, devils and a Buzz Light Year.

After being firmly told by a four year-old not to touch any sweets by the door, we were escorted inside, where we were quickly relieved of our grim reaper scythe by the host’s five-year-old son.

Unfortunately, a few moments after that another child came running inside crying about being hit by someone with it. Cue innocent looks all round.

Mind you, during the evening we witnessed several of the young guests trail inside at one time or another in tears because someone had either accidentally or intentionally whacked them with a plastic prop. But invariably a few comforting words from mum or dad and a handful of horror themed sweets made everything better.

Then came the games. Now, if you are one of those health and safety conscious zealots who agrees with the recent trend in banning apple bobbing because it might spread germs, you should turn away, because let me introduce you to 2010’s version of bobbing, ‘mini doughnut grabbing’!

If you’ve not witnessed it before, you tie mini doughnuts to a string and peg them to a rotary washing line. The children then have to eat as many as possible without using their hands.

Not happy with just encouraging binge eating, every few minutes you rotate the line causing half-eaten doughnut to fly out of one mouth into another.

I’ll admit on several occasions I did cringe, but as anyone who has witnessed a children’s party knows, dropping then reclaiming random half-eaten food from the floor is commonplace.

However, if the thought of this game truly does horrify you, let me leave you with some wise words from our host that evening, who, when he noticed my friend wrinkling her nose with distaste at the saliva swapping, said “Come one, are you telling me this is any worse than what you did in darkened corners at parties as a teenager?”.

Good point, well made.