It’s almost Halloween, my favorite holiday. I love everything about it – the costumes, the candy, the parties. Halloween costume ideas have been working their way into many of my daily conversations, and in almost every publication I pick up, including the Spartan Daily, I see sales ads for costumes.

But something about most of the ads I see has been troubling me.

The words “sexy,” “adult,” “lingerie” and “Playboy” seem to be plastered all over them. It is almost impossible to find a woman’s costume that doesn’t fit that theme.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am a woman who desires to be sexy and attractive to my special someone. But I don’t see the need to take my sexy butt and parade it around town for every strange pair of ogling eyes to see.

I was discussing Halloween costumes with a single father who told me he was distraught that he had searched several local stores but could not find a nonsexual costume for his pre-teen daughter.

He said he found only short skirts and bare midriffs.

“I don’t want to send my daughter out looking like that,” he said.

I finally understand why my mother insisted on sewing all of my Halloween costumes.

And I thought my parents were just being cheap.

I don’t believe sexuality is something that should be put on the bottom shelf in a brown paper bag, but what happens when we as a society put our sexuality so far out in the front that we cannot ever get away from it?

Pole dancing classes and “My First Stripper Pole” kits for children.

No, it’s not a joke.

“The Daily Telegraph,” an Australian newspaper, published a story on Oct. 8 about “pole fitness classes” held in Sydney, Australia for children as young as 7.

In October 2006, the No. 1 chain store in Britain, Tesco, was forced to remove a pole-dancing kit called “Peekaboo” from the toys and games section of its Web site after a family with young children began a campaign against the sale, according to an article published in London’s “The Daily Mail.”

There is a school of thought among modern feminists to reclaim words and things that have been used to objectify women.

The word bitch, for example, which women have begun to use in a positive light to counteract the more traditional negative connotation.

Or the stripper-pole classes sensationalized on “Oprah” by none other than “Desperate Housewife” Teri Hatcher.

But when we’re talking about children, we are not talking about stripping as an “art form” or as a way to stay in shape.

If a parent is concerned with their children’s levels of fitness, they should take them outside and play or run with them. They should sign them up for sports teams or martial arts, ballet or gymnastics classes.

They should not pack their children in the car and bring them along to the S Factor studio where Sheila Kelley will teach them the latest in stripaerobics.

When we allow children to be sexualized, we take away their ability to be carefree, happy children and begin to turn them into sexy schoolgirls.

Whether shopping for Halloween costumes or taking pole-dancing classes, women should think about the example we are setting for the girls of the younger generation.