How adult infantalisation can be seen in everything from Peter Pan trigger warnings to Donald Trump

The accepted thinking seems to be that the last day of October was a nice Scottish festival of reciting Rabbie Burns on doorsteps in exchange for tablet before America ruined everything with their trick-or-treat nonsense.

In reality, we only have ourselves to blame. Real responsibility for the current state of Halloween comes down to the increasing infantalisation of adults. Urging people to grow-up used to be about encouraging maturity, nowadays it’s seen as a toxic threat to someone’s mental well-being.

That’s why every street this weekend has homes covered in rubber skeletons, plastic spiders and fake cobwebs. The occupants might pretend to be doing it for the kids but in reality, they’re just hanging onto their childhoods and Halloween offers the perfect excuse.

Less able to deal with life’s challenges

It’s understandable. The world is a scary place at the moment and this regression to childhood is everywhere. One of the biggest movies last year was Barbie and films based around cartoon characters regularly fill cinemas. When Paddington in Peru is released next week, expect to see more adults than children in the audience.

The extension of this is some pretty dramatic social change. People are living with their parents for longer and getting married later, and that feeds through into a declining birth rate. But the infantilsation of society doesn’t make the world any less scary – it just leaves us less equipped to deal with the challenges.

When Aberdeen University last year pinned a trigger warning on JM Barrie’s Peter Pan on the basis that it might be “emotionally challenging”, they weren’t doing their students a favour. Instead they were assigning them a fragility way below the level of maturity you need to be to undertake a university degree.

If you can’t cope with what a fictional boy does to a fictional pirate, then a long commute to a difficult job when your relationship is in trouble and your elderly parents are unwell might be a bit of a test.

Trump: ‘I don’t want to be your friend’

Similarly, rugby, football and hockey can all be a bit rough and ready which is why hobbyhorsing has emerged in recent years. This involves adults competing in dressage and jumping events carrying the head of a horse on a stick. At one event over the summer, a competitor complained on TikTok (of course) that her whole body was “burning in pain” after the routine.

That may sound unlikely but it was her truth, another phrase that has emerged as we increasingly revert to childhood. Belief and personal experience are both valuable but they are no substitute for objective reality.

From adults doing the school run in a onesie to the people who constantly clutch a water bottle like some kind of toddler comfort blanket, the infantalisation of society seems to be here to stay.

And it may be about to take a big step. When Mike Pence refused to overrule the American election result in 2020, Donald Trump told him “I don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this” in a line straight out of the playground.

America goes to the polls again on Tuesday.