It takes a village to witch-hunt a child.

[taste_is_sweet]

Tell me, my dear ones, what would you do if, on Halloween, your child came home with this note in her treat bag?

All that yummy fat shaming!

Oh yes, that is real. It's also everywhere on the internet, though to check its legitimcacy I found it here at USA Today and here at Global News in Canada.

The woman, who probably regrets sending the letter to her local radio station, apparently sees it as her duty to solve the problem of childhood obesity by refusing to give the lil' chunky monkeys candy one night a year. Not only that, but by informing the obviously ignorant parents that their child is too fat to deserve candy. On Halloween.

You can probably tell what I think about this, but the first thing I thought when I saw this wasn't 'that's mean', but 'that's stupid'. How can this woman purport to know which child is 'moderately obese'? And what, exactly, is her criteria? Unlike adults, determining the BMI range for children is far more complicated. Worse, it's not even terribly accurate. If you can't tell if a child is at a healthy weight by measuring, how can you tell just by looking? And who or what gave her the right anyway?

I'm not sure how she thinks this is going to help. First of all, it's pretty damn likely that the parents already know. Second, telling a kid that they're too fat for candy isn't motivating, it's humiliating. And--which I'm sure comes as a big surprise to absolutely no one--fat shaming doesn't work. And it certainly won't work if some person the child likely doesn't even know shoves a note into their treat bag.

As other people said in comments on the sites carrying this story: if you don't want to contribute to childhood obesity, then don't give candy. Give stickers, or raisins, or pencils. Or turn off the porch light and don't give anything at all.

Personally, I'd much rather be known as the stingy neighbor who's never home on Halloween than the bitch who humiliated someone else's child. Though she might end up known as the house everybody toiletpapers or eggs. After all, it takes a village to do some serious pranking.

Comments

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

I saw this, and my first reaction was how horrible to humiliate small children on what is supposed to be a fun holiday. It will serve no purpose but to scar some kid for life. I also strongly suspect her home will be in for some of the worst 'tricks' this year.

If she wanted to be so sanctimonious about it--don't celebrate Halloween at ALL. Many people don't for a variety of reasons.

Oh, and I have a fat shaming mother. Three out of four of her children have serious eating disorders.

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, those fat-shaming parents. Nothing like your mother literally saying, 'for shame!' when you get a slice of cake, or your dad patting your stomach and asking you if you really need to eat something...

::sigh:: You have my sympathy, my friend. Even if you're (hopefully) not one of the children with an eating disorder, it still sucks.

I really do wonder what the hell this woman thinks gave her the right to comment on the appearance of someone else's children? I'm curious as to whether she actually did it in the end, after all the mostly negative publicity.

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

Holy shit, that is HORRIBLE! I'd love to see pediatricians writing op eds for papers across the country about No, do not do this.

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

It is horrible. And perplexing, honestly. How could anyone think this could help? So strange.

There have been many people who've written op-eds about it, at least. I'm not sure how many work with children medically, but it was reassuring to see.

(Edited because I can't spell 'reassuring'.)

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

I hate, hate, hate people who think they are so much better and wiser than everyone else. Does she actually think a child would be grateful to receive that note in their bag. "Wow, I never really thought about it before, but she's right. I'm going to eat a salad right now." Yeah. No.

There are a myriad of reasons for children to be overweight that have nothing to do with overeating. I wouldn't even begin to judge someone based on weight for just that reason. ::shakes head::

There's always someone out there ready to ruin a kid's holiday. That's why we go trick-or-treating as a group - no-one who sees my big, scary hubby is going to pull something like that. LOL! And even the church people give a treat along with their little pamphlets!

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

It must be cool to have a scary husband having your back like that. :) I'm just glad that I can't imagine anyone in my sub-division behaving that way.

And yeah, that's another good point--how dare she assume that she knows the exact reason for the kid not being svelte? A lot of kids get wide before they have growth spurts, just as one example.

Crazy, mean woman.

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

Just disgusting. :(

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

Absolutely!

[ride-4ever.livejournal.com]

Gah! This was news to me! I cannot EVEN!

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

Very much my feelings too. A total WTF moment.

Great icon. :D

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

How horrible! Somebody always has to act like they're "better" than everyone else, don't they? And this idiot decided to ruin some poor kid's holiday in the process.

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

I completely agree. I just hope that in the end this person either decided not to actually do it, or that she wasn't able to actually hurt anyone with her thoughtless cruelty.

I'd really love to know what she thinks gives her the right.

(I love all your new doggie icons, btw!)

[calcitrix.livejournal.com]

That's terrible. And mean! "Let me judge you as a parent and make your kid feel bad." Yeah. That works.

Our local dentist in town has a sign asking parents to give him their kids' Halloween candy, and that it will be donated to the food pantry. I can't figure out what he's trying to accomplish, because it's not like the kids who would get it won't also be Trick-or-Treating.

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

At least the dentist isn't leaving notes in the kids' treat bags!

I guess his reasoning is that kids with families without the money for luxuries like sweets can at least have them more often this way? That makes sense to me, at least...

[iadorespike]

Yeah, I was fairly disgusted when I saw this online. She really, truly has a lot of nerve. (And is probably a self-righteous bitch.) Eh. And, even if she is *right* (for whatever definitions of *right*), it's actually none of her business. However, I do like your thoughts on pranking. ;)

People. I never cease to be amazed (in fairly negative ways). :(

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's sad that anyone would feel that this was in any way justified.

I can understand the general concern for all children to grow up healthy, but unless you actually are in a position to be able to give the parent truly authoritative information (like their doctor--even a friend or family member would be pushing it!), it really isn't your business. It's really hurting kids for nothing.

I've never pranked anyone, but she is one person who might have changed my mind. ;)

[reedfem.livejournal.com]

The fact that she felt the need to contact the media with her little "plan" told me all I needed to know about her.

And I hope she gets flaming bags of poo in return.

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

Very good point! I was thinking about that myself. Why did she feel she needed the publicity?

I would love to know what the upshot of this was. Did she actually give out those notes in the end?