"The Littlest Hitler" by Ryan Boudinot

When reading the short story "The Littlest Hitler" by Ryan Boudinot, the first think I noticed was how clueless the dad was.  Davy is only in fourth grade and what kind of parent let's his kid go to school dressed like Hitler?  The dad should have told Davy that it was a bad idea or at least prepared him for the reaction he would get at school.  But instead the dad encouraged Davy and helped him make his costume.  This got me wondering where the mom was?  I got the impression that Davy's mom recently passed away or left the family.  This is one thing that the author did not tell us and left me confused.  Even at the end of the story, I wasn't really sure what point the author was trying to make.  

Story from my childhood:  Just like Davy, my story has to do with Halloween.  When I was a little girl, I liked to change my mind a lot when it came to Halloween costumes. Each year, I would had several different costumes and kept returning them.  For the first time, when I was about six years old, I had a settled on a costume right away because my Grandma made me a beautiful princess costume.  Everyone loved it and I thought it was the prettiest thing I had ever seen.  Finally, Halloween day came and I was so excited to wear my princess costume.  Thirty minutes before we were going trick-or-treating, I took off my costume and declared that I was not going to be a princess.  My mom was surprised and said "What are you planning to wear?"  Out of the blue, I told her that I was going to be an Easter girl.  So I ran upstairs and put on my Easter dress and found my Easter basket to hold my candy.  It turned out to be a great decision because there were lots of princesses, but I was the only Easter girl.