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

[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. ;)