So the question is—do we encourage our progeny to pillage and plunder, or do we condemn piracy?

I know it’s a funny question. Pirates are, by most media accounts, adorable heathens in funny outfits that never cause much real harm. With their gold teeth, dirty braids and scallywag talk, they’re more fun than dangerous. After all, if Johnny Depp is a pirate, something’s got to be good about them.

That said, we’re not oblivious to real pirates today who kidnap, murder, rape and steal. They’ve existed since the seas were able to be sailed. Real pirates are fearsome criminals who may not be much different than serial killers—and as cute as it might be to have your kid say, while sporting an expanded kool-aid grin, “Why so serious?” do we really want to help our children idolize dangerous, destructive people?

I think the answer is in a gray area. Naturally we want to help teach values and ethics to our kids, and we definitely don’t want them to go out murdering people. That said, we let our kids dress up as some pretty scary characters for Halloween—from ghouls and goblins to Jack the Ripper and Hannibal Lecter—for a little bit of fun. Are they really going to go out and start eating people? We sure hope not! Odds are they’ll have fun scaring people and getting scared because, let’s face it, we wouldn’t have scary movies or haunted houses—or even fairy tales—if we didn’t enjoy being scared.

So is Talk Like a Pirate Day something worth celebrating? I think so. We can still have some fun “arggh”-ing each other while not succumbing to actual piracy.

The key is to have some perspective; keep it fun and childlike—but as your child ages into the tween and teen years, you may want to take a little time out to explain the difference between “real” pirates and Jack Sparrow. Your little ones may even report hearing about what real pirates do—we’re always surprised about what they overhear or garner from other people—and you may even want to give a gentle explanation there. “We’re pretending to be funny pirates, but you’re right. There are some bad pirates out there that hurt people, and we aren’t pretending to be them.”

What do you think? Is it an appropriate holiday for children? Chime in and share your thoughts.

If you are planning on celebrating, you may want to visit the Talk Like a Pirate Day website to get some good tips on dialogue, monikers and pirate stories.