A year’s worth of Junior Mints and miniature Milky Ways are coming my way, and I’m more absorbed by my sweet tooth than the latest public Halloween brouhaha: Is Halloween demeaning to women by showering them with a glut of provocative costume choices such as french maids, vampires, or sexy sisters?

As titillating as that discussion may be, most mothers I spoke to had far more mundane Halloween-related dilemmas, than whether to whip out the stethoscope to go with their naughty nurse outfit.

“I wish I was going to a Halloween party in some racy, rubber outfit,” an uptown mother of two ‘tweens told me. “But no such luck. In our house, Halloween raises safety issues, and that’s about it. I’ll be escorting my daughters to a few good brownstone–lined streets. They are thankfully dressing as green witches — warts and all.”

It’s not that Halloween doesn’t pique grown-up curiosity in New York City. It’s just that for most parents I know, witch hats or masks-in-hand as we chaperone our children around town, Halloween satisfies deep longings that are totally unrelated to sex.

“I just moved into my building a few months ago and I can’t wait to see the inside of all these apartments,” a mother of three told me. “Everyone is always raving about the apartment on the 10th floor. I hope they answer their door so I can sneak a look inside.”

New Yorkers are famously obsessed with real estate and Halloween provides parents an opportunity to safely satisfy their inner Peeping Tom. While children used to go door-to-door inside apartment buildings by themselves, more and more parents are accompanying their children on the trek.

“If my nine-year-old had an older sibling or friend, I guess I would let her go by herself,” one mother said. “But she’s trick-or-treating with a friend her age and I think it’s just safer if I go with her. We live in a great family building and I love getting different ideas on how I’d like to redecorate our elevator landing. So I’m actually looking forward to it.”

In most buildings in the city, the apartment a flight above or below yours has an identical layout. So if you’re considering doing work, often you can get the best ideas from your neighbors who have already gone through the process.

“When the board of our building interviewed us, the meeting took place in the treasurer’s apartment, which was the same line as the apartment we were buying,” a father of two said. “My wife and I loved the way they had done it and our apartment needed a ton of work. We ended up using their designer and architect. The work was so much easier because they already knew the space. And we avoided all the little mistakes they had made the first go around.”

Last year, while doing the rounds with my children, I learned that our neighbors had combined two apartments, giving them one of the largest apartments in our building. Who knew that was possible?

“Right after we moved in, our neighbors across the hall told us that they wanted to sell their apartment,” the neighbor said. “It turned out that our kitchen adjoined their kitchen and our living room adjoined their living room. Those are exactly the rooms we would have chosen to make larger, so it made perfect sense.” I have been dreaming of various apartment combinations ever since.

Many parents I spoke to said that Halloween was an unusual time in the city, when neighbors in the building came together for lobby parties, and owners of brownstones on house-lined streets banded together to make the evening safe and fun for their children. “I lived in my building for a long time before I knew the names of my neighbors,” one mother said. “Many of them I first met on Halloween.”

Some New Yorkers who live in buildings where there are several apartments on a floor complain that the treat-or-treat trek from apartment to apartment takes too long.

“It used to take forever. After an hour, I’m done,” a mother of three told me. “But last year our superintendent gave the children a list of participating neighbors. My kids’ favorite is when the neighbors place a big bowl of candy outside their door with a sign that says, ‘Take one, please.’ I’m disappointed that I don’t get to see inside their apartment. But they’re thrilled as they dig into the bowl.”

sarasberman@aol.com